In a follow-up tweet later that day, he wrote, “deadass thought i made it obvious” with an attachment of his EP’s cover art depicting a building broadcasting the colors of the pride flag. The ambiguity of the rapper’s word choice seemed to have been intentional. The word “gay” did not appear anywhere in Lil Nas X’s initial tweets, which prompted varying headlines that read the star “ seemingly” came out while others straight-up questioned whether he’d actually done the thing. He then instructed fans to listen to “C7osure (You Like),” a track from his debut EP 7, with a special emphasis that his legion of loyal supporters do it before “this month ends.” He signed off that tweet with three emojis, including one of the rainbow, a symbol famously synonymous with queerness. “Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone no more,” the “Old Town Road” rapper announced to his growing following of 2 million people on Twitter on June 30. Or, at least, that’s what it seemed like.
This June, which marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, 20-year-old Lil Nas X, one of hip-hop’s most interesting new artists, came out. But in a lot of ways, this story may well have been written about Lil Nas X now in 2019.
This was a blind item about Frank Ocean, then a quickly rising R&B star who would later address rumors about his sexuality on social media. “After keeping folks guessing in 2011, this soul singer will answer any questions about which team he’s swinging for with his upcoming musical release.” “There’s been plenty of speculation about this hot young r&b star’s sexuality, but most of it has been drowned out by the adoration by fans and famous alike,” wrote the gossip site Bossip in 2012.