Nicki Minaj has responded to “Old Town Road” hitmaker Lil Nas X after he admitted to running an anonymous fan account for the Trinidadian-born rapper before he came out as gay. The 21-year-old — born Montero Lamar Hill — reached out to Nicki on Twitter on June 16, revealing he wanted to collab with her on a new track. “i have this song i want u on and was wondering….” he wrote, accompanied by a meme of the eye emoji and an engagement ring, which read: “I am proposing.”
When one of his fans asked why he never admitted to running the now-shuttered account @nasmaraj, he said, “i didn’t want people to know i was gay tbh.” As fans would recall, Lil Nas came out at the end of Pride Month in 2019, however he hid that part of his life while running the fan account for the “Anaconda” singer. When another follower argued that being a fan of Nicki doesn’t make him gay, he wrote back, “it don’t but people will assume if you had an entire fan page dedicated to nicki u are gay. and the rap/music industry ain’t exactly built or accepting of gay men yet.”
It was a bit of a sting when you denied being a barb, but I understand. 🎀 Congratulations on building up your confidence to speak your truth. @LilNasX
— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) June 17, 2020
Nicki took to Twitter on June 17 in response to his comments, saying, “It was a bit of a sting when you denied being a barb, but I understand. Congratulations on building up your confidence to speak your truth,” she shared with her 20 million followers. Lil Nas was quick to respond with a heartfelt message, accompanied by an image of Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants. “the generous queen, i love u. and i’m sorry i did that in a time where u were already getting so much bandwagon hate. i felt so bad, hoping u wouldn’t see my denial. i was just so afraid of people finding out about me and losing everything before i even got a chance,” he said.
Lil Nas opened up about his sexual orientation on June 30 last year, tweeting, “Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone [f*ck with me] no more. But before this month ends I want y’all to listen closely to ‘c7osure,’ ” he wrote, including a video of his song and a rainbow emoji. The lyrics of the song speak about being true to one’s self. “Ain’t no more actin’, man that forecast say I should just let me grow / No more red light for me baby, only green, I gotta go / Pack my past up in the back, oh, let my future take ahold / This is what I gotta do, can’t be regrettin’ when I’m old.”