“Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X

As noted later in the article “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, at this point in his young career Lil Nas X, a gay musician, has pretty much thrown all inhibition out the window. For this is in fact a graphic-homosexual love song. 

Moreover it has to feature one of the most-overt references to using hard drugs ever dropped by a major pop musician.  Indeed all of the mentions of gay sex, as vivid as they may be, are such that perhaps a child wouldn’t really pick up on what is being said. 

But when you’re calling out “cocaine” by name, it’s pretty obvious that the lyrics aren’t really about hiding behind metaphors. For instance, it also relies on other not-safe-for-work wording such as the use of the word “f–k”, in varying capacities, throughout.

But all of this is verily “a sign of the times”, as Lil Nas X puts it in the second verse. He knows he is one of the most-successful and influential musicians in history, attributing his massive accomplishments to favor from “God”. 

So now that he has the spotlight, he’s not going to shy away from being his true self.

Addressee is a Dude

And in this particular song, that entails Lil Nas getting raunchy in relaying his feelings for another dude. The fact that he is addressing another male is made apparent at the end of the first verse when he refers to this person as “ni–a”. 

Up until that moment, i.e. throughout the rest of the passage, there isn’t any specification of gender, and it reads more like a normal, albeit sex-oriented love song. Well that is up until the line prior to the “ni–a” statement, where the vocalist and his lover are in a setting with plenty of “weed and white”. 

And though it may be common for African-American hip-hop artists to reference marijuana, i.e. “weed”, even in love songs, such is not the case with “white”, aka cocaine.

And from the end of the first verse onward, it’s like the song gets increasingly graphic, or let’s say potentially offensive depending on who the listener is. 

For instance, the very next line, i.e. the first bar of the pre-chorus, features the above-noted blatant mention of “cocaine”.  Also it would appear that this person whom Nas X is kickin’ it to may be a closeted gay. But as also noted earlier, the vocalist isn’t on it like that. 

He’s open and wants his desired partner to embrace the gay side also. Or as Nas also states in the pre-chorus, he’s “only here to sin”. And if the addressee verily isn’t interested in women, then X wouldn’t mind hooking up with him.

Meaning of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

The chorus itself is where the track gets a bit more confusing. Well most of it is understandable, as the singer is entreating the addressee to call him whenever he needs some lovin’.  

But then comes the titular statement “call me out by your name”. The way the title of this song has been broken down is as actually being based on two origins. 

One would be Lil Nas X’s legal first name, which is in fact Montero. And the other would be a 2017 film entitled “Call Me by Your Man”, which is a movie based on what can be described as a closeted homosexual love. 

So with the titular statement, perhaps Nas is reiterating the same sentiment expressed in the pre-chorus. Basically he is letting this person know that so long as he is willing to embrace his sexuality, then the rapper too is more than willing to engage in a romance with him.

Then the second verse is based largely on a said romantic fantasy, i.e. what Nas envisions the two of them doing together. 

For instance they’ll be spending some time “in Hawaii”. And there will be lots and lots of sex.  In fact it is this passage which actually features the most-NSFW line of the entire song, though again one that perhaps a youngster would not pick up on. 

And that would be Nas X ‘shooting a child into the mouth’ of the addressee. And without beating around the bush, since we’re presumably all adults here, what that simply means is said individual performing an oral-oriented sensual activity on him, and then the vocalist finishing inside of his mouth.

In Conclusion

So conclusively regardless of how Lil Nas X may or may not have been perceived in the past, it’s pretty clear that he’s an adult artist now. 

And that isn’t necessarily because this song is gay in nature, since homosexuality is increasingly becoming a part of mainstream culture anyway.  Rather even this track was heterosexual, the types of shoutouts it has to drugs and uninhibited sex would raise eyebrows regardless.  So it’ll be interesting to see what type of song this A list artist comes out with next.

Release Date of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

This is a track which Lil Nas X first teased back in July of 2020, via a Twitter-based snippet. Then during Super Bowl LVI, which was held on 2 February 2021, it was used on a commercial he starred in on behalf of a company called Logitech.

The song went on to be officially released by Columbia Records on 26 March 2021. At this moment in history Lil Nas is a relative newbie on the music scene, having just begun his career in 2018. 

However, his breakout hit, “Old Town Road” (2018), set a Billboard Hot 100 record by remaining at number 1 for 19 weeks.  The following year he also scored another notable hit with his next single “Panini” (2019), which has been certified quintuple-platinum in the United States.

Music Video of “Montero”

With “Old Town Road”, Nas X apparently relied on the quality of the song itself in terms of making it sell. But with “Montero” it appears that he is relying on the power of imagery, as the music video to this song has garnered an exceptional amount of attention. 

Indeed it has been referred to “unabashingly queer”, the “gayest pop video of all time” and features plenty of religious (i.e. Bible-inspired) imagery. Actually one site even called it a “satanic gay lapdance”, i.e. Lil Nas X giving a lap dance to the devil, as some other reports have also described it.

The video has gone on to be more or less celebrated by the LGBT community, but of course it has experienced some backlash also.

What appears to concern many critics is the fact that up until this point, Nas X has sort of established himself as a “child-friendly” hip-hop artist. 

That was the basis of the criticism from which one prominent music video director, Robby Starbuck, approached the clip.  But Lil Nas X countered by stating that the country has more important things to worry about than him “sliding down a CGI pole” (as the clip also features him “pole dancing down to hell”), such as “mass shooting(s) every week”.

The clip also features some extra wording by Nas X which isn’t found in the track itself. 

During its intro, it implies that the setting of the video is akin to a place where people don’t have to ‘hide the parts of themselves they don’t want the world to see’. Moreover alongside the video, Lil Nas also dropped a somewhat lengthy Instagram post addressed to his “14-year-old” self, basically telling the younger him to grow up to be a strong gay person.

More Interesting Facts about “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

The producers of this track are also its co-writers. And they are Omer Fedi, Roy Lenzo and Take a Daytrip (David Biral and Denzel Baptiste). And the other co-writer, of course, is Lil Nas X himself.

At the time of the release of this track Lil Nas X, who hails from Georgia (Lithia Springs, an area near Atlanta), is 21 years old.

The eye-catching cover art to this single was put together by a multidisciplinary European artist named Filip Ćustić. And as of the issuance of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, the song is not associated with any larger project.

What Lil Nas X Has Said About “Montero”

On Twitter, Nas sent a message to a younger version of himself, aka “14 year old Montero”, concerning his current feelings on this song and all that it entails. 

And he says some things that can be interpreted in different ways, but here’s the gist of what he’s putting forth.  

“Montero” was written about “a guy (he) met last summer”, i.e. around the time he was 13 or 14 years old. Details on this guy are never given, but the implication would be that a young Nas X fell in love with him. 

And even more importantly, that experience apparently led to Nas realizing that he was gay, as in him knowing and accepting such even from that age. 

However, at the time he pledged “to never come out publicly” and “to die with the secret”. But as he matured – and we can also say totally blew up as a musician – he came to realize that coming out would in fact “open doors for many other people to simply exist”. 

Or put into more layman’s terms, considering his stature he feels that being openly-gay will further the cause of gay acceptance in general. 

So it’s like as time has progressed, he’s gone from being ashamed of his sexuality to sort of an outspoken gay rights’ activist.  But his primary goal isn’t to push the LGBT agenda per se but rather to encourage people to stay out of other’s business and controlling how others live their lives.

Lil Nas X / Nike “Satan Sneakers”. Is Nas X promoting Satanism with this song?

For those who are concerned that Lil Nas X may be promoting Satanism – via the music video for “Montero” for instance – well apparently such may in fact be the case. 

Or in the very least he may be adopting such a shtick in the name of marketing. For the day after the song was released, the internet became abuzz with reports that he is partnering with Nike and a company called MSCHF to create what are being referred to as “Satan Shoes”.

Nike is an entity we all know of, specializing in footwear and more specifically sneakers. And the “Satan Shoes” are indeed sneakers, actually the 1997 Nike Air Max according to one Twitter post.

But they differ from the originally, by and large adhering to a Luciferian motif. For instance there’s some sort of metallic or plastic upside-down pentagram, which may be removable, on top of the laces. 

Then it is said that only 666 (i.e. the Biblical ‘number of the Beast’) pairs will have been made. Moreover – and this is perhaps most-telling – there is seemingly red ink at the bottom of the sneaker (in a plastic see-through sole), and that ink will contain a drop of actual human blood.

The box which the shoes come in feature some freaky images, apparently focused on the idea of humans suffering at the hands of demons. And there are also a couple of inscriptions on the side. 

One, considering that only a limited edition are being made, is the actual number of the pair. So for instance if you bought say the 11^th pair, then the inscription will read “11/666”. 

Also there is a Biblical passage listed, “Luke 10:18”.  That is the part of the Bible where Jesus stated, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven”.

Outside of that, on the back of the right foot we have the phrase “LIL NAS X” and back of the left “MSCHF”. 

MSCHF, according to Business Insider, is sort of a jack-of-all-trades kind of company that doesn’t specialize in just one type of product. 

But before running off and claiming that they’re Satanists, keep in mind that they also came out with a pair of “Jesus” Nikes some time back.  And instead of red ink those apparently have water at the bottom, alluding to the famous ‘walking on water’ miracle.

Chart Performance

“Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” reached #1 in myriad countries listed here:

Topping the above success, the song was also placed in the Top-10 in these countries: