Most visible was this tweet from South Dakota Gov. In context, the terse dismissal carries the terrified tone of a jock shouting, “No homo” - an impression bolstered by Nike’s subsequent reported lawsuit against MSCHF.įor what it’s worth, the Church of Satan also distanced itself from the stunt - but not before the shoes prompted intense alarm among prominent Christians. Nike did not design or release these shoes, and we do not endorse them.” “We do not have a relationship with Little Nas X or MSCHF.
Nike, for its part, was quick to issue a statement to the Times emphasizing that the shoes were not sanctioned by Nike: The launch of the website led to this official description of the process by which the shoes - purchased by MSCHF and altered after the fact - were injected with the ink-and-blood mix, which MSCHF co-founder Daniel Greenberg provided to the New York Times, and which the New York Times, paper of record, subsequently quoted: “Uhhhhhh yeah hahah not medical professionals we did it ourselves lol.” The satan.shoes website that promoter MSCHF built features a photo of one of the blood-infused shoes rotating against a backdrop of orgiastic demons depicted as a ’90s collage-style website wallpaper, along with quotes from Paradise Lost and the Bible: Get thee behind me.
LIL NAS X GAY SERIES
The resultant controversy has spawned a series of endlessly entertaining moments - cascading dominos of devilish diversion, starting with the enjoyably campy video that began all of this hysteria:Ĭontains 60cc ink and 1 drop of human blood
LIL NAS X GAY PLUS
But if the video drew a wave of backlash, the video plus the Satan shoes drew a veritable tsunami. The “Montero” music video, with its decadent queer eroticism, spurred an initial homophobic backlash as conservative viewers chided Lil Nas X for supposedly corrupting children. According to many outraged conservatives, in fact, these boots were made for pied-piping children directly into the fiery pit of eternal damnation. After all, how much trouble could a few hundred pairs of shoes possibly cause? Yet in the three days since they were announced, all hell has broken loose. Outside of sneaker culture, you wouldn’t typically expect a limited number of shoes being sold at a very high price to set the world on fire. soul’d out?) - although Nike has reportedly moved to sue MSCHF and block sales of the shoes, citing infringement. Together, Lil Nas X and MSCHF designed “Satan Shoes”: a limited edition of 666 pairs of custom Nike Airs in which the air bubble in the sole has been filled with a mixture of red ink and “one drop of human blood.” The shoes, which cost $1,018 per pair and went on sale at 11 am Monday, reportedly sold out in less than a minute (or should we say. In 2019, MSCHF released a viral pair of sneakers called “Jesus Shoes,” which claimed to contain a drop of holy water in every pair. So he partnered with a creative agency named MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based promoter with serious Zardulu energy that’s become known for a string of viral stunt promotions. So you can see how the music video might be a little bit shocking - especially from the portion of the public that loves a good moral panic and believes queerness is a sin.īut Lil Nas X apparently wanted to ratchet up the potential for outrage just a bit further. “I’m not fazed, only here to sin.” The song’s subtitle, “Call Me by Your Name,” also doubles as a refrain, in which he sings, “Call me by your name / tell me you love me in private” - another reference to the closet, as well as a reference to the acclaimed 2017 film about an illicit gay affair. “You live in the dark, boy, I cannot pretend,” he sings. Oh, and he does all of this while singing with a mix of joy and wryness about gay sex, the frustration of living a closeted life, the pain of loving someone who’s still in the closet - Lil Nas himself is openly gay - and the jealousy he feels toward straight people who get to live their lives without facing bigotry and oppression due to their sexuality. Sebastian) into a stripper pole, and then slides all the way down the pole into hell before giving Satan a lap dance as an excuse to seduce him, murder him, and steal the crown of hell for himself in a win for bottoms everywhere.
It all started with the March 26 release of his latest music video, “ Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” in which he cavorts erotically with various iterations of Satan, is stoned by a crowd throwing buttplugs, transforms a spear that’s been homoerotically aimed at him (à la St. Not content to merely spur controversy and debate within the country music industry, Lil Nas X has jump-started the 21st century’s first foray into Satanic Panic by selling blood-infused Nikes.