Lil Nas X, review: pop’s Trojan horse proves he’s no one-trick pony – msnNOW
© Dafydd Owen/Avalon Lil Nas X Hammersmith Apollo – Dafydd Owen/Avalon
Lil Nas X is 21st-century pop’s Trojan horse. With a $30 beat and a nonchalant whistle, his 2019 single Old Town Road became the longest-running No 1 in US chart history, a two minute country-rap ditty that exposed industry racism. It made him a star — and then he came out as gay. He put his sexuality at the forefront of both his persona and 2021 debut album Montero, and became that impossible thing: a Black queer man being himself at the top of the charts.
Old Town Road, accompanied by a silver pantomime horse and a cover of Ginuwine’s Pony, concluded the first act of Long Live Montero: Lil Nas X’s autobiographical, theatrical pop show, which rode up to London’s Hammersmith Apollo on Saturday night. The hit followed an opening trio of songs chronicling the 23-year-old Atlanta rapper’s youth, taken mostly from Montero (also his birth name), an album that places hip-hop braggadocio alongside bleaker musings on the shame and loneliness of growing up gay in a Christian household. On a stage that was styled as his childhood bedroom, Lil Nas X emerged from the chrysalis of childhood anguish as a bright, modern pop star.
The show’s skimpy setlist was fleshed out to an hour with high-budget theatrical tricks: elaborate sets, costumes, dancers, Disneyland-style digital backdrops, and a Broadway-style programme. There was almost too much to look at, but it felt akin to Lil Nas X’s dizzying presence on internet platforms such as Tik Tok and Twitter which he commands with a knowing wit.
Acts II and III didn’t let up. One minute Lil Nas X was a Regency prince pacing his gilded palace, the next voguing to Beyonce, kissing a dancer behind the curtain, growing butterfly wings, or whipping up locker room energy during underdog victory tune Industry Baby. For all the novelty turns, though, the music itself sidestepped gimmickry. So nimble is he at mixing genres, his songs have wide, lasting appeal: incorporating trap beats, guitar riffs, horns and hallelujahs on Dead Right Now, saluting Outkast’s Hey Ya on That’s What I Want, or making a devilish splash with flamenco rhythm and a middle-eastern twang on 2021 hit Montero (Call Me By Your Name).
Still, it’s what Lil Nas X does with his music that counts: inviting controversy while also capturing the imagination. The show’s reliance on stunts and backing tracks in lieu of a live band might swing uncomfortably close to artifice, but he embraced the camp vision wholeheartedly – this is an artist whose every move feels like a complete metamorphosis.
On Lil Nas X’s road, there appear to be no one-trick ponies in sight.
No further UK dates, touring Europe next week. Tickets longlivemontero.com