Lil Nas X Unveils His New Song Title, Jokes He’s Releasing Gospel Music Independently
After a quiet 2023, Lil Nas X is kicking off 2024 with a brand new song — and he’s dedicating it to the one and only Jesus Christ.
On Monday (Jan. 8), the rapper announced that his new gospel song set for release on Friday (Jan. 12) is titled “J CHRIST.” The cover art for the new track sees the rapper taking Jesus’ place on a crucifix as five bystanders begin to raise him off the ground. A second video clip sees him nailed to a gold cross that suddenly transforms into a mechanical suit complete with a halo. “MY NEW SINGLE IS DEDICATED TO THE MAN WHO HAD THE GREATEST COMEBACK OF ALL TIME,” Lil Nas wrote in his announcement.
The news comes after the rapper spent the weekend trolling his fans. In a TikTok posted on Saturday (Jan. 6), the rapper said that his new song would be released independently rather than through his longtime label, Columbia Records. Over a clip of him lip-synching to a popular TikTok sound, Lil Nas said that his label “gave me the choice of going independent to release my gospel music or staying with them,” adding in the caption that he would be “releasing my first gospel song next week imdependently [sic].”
Billboard reached out to Lil Nas X’s representatives for further comment.
But the singer didn’t stop there. Through a series of increasingly ridiculous clips, Lil Nas claimed that he had been “blackballed” from releasing music in 2023 after “promoting God to the masses,” claimed that the music industry was “wicked” and threatened to “expose y’all favorite artists.” In his latest clip, the “That’s What I Want” singer is standing next to two officers in front of a police car flashing its lights. “me staying with the police department 24/7 for the next 5 days before i expose the music industry for what they did to me,” he wrote. “evil will not stop what god has planned.”
When Lil Nas X first teased his “Christian era,” he took a break from trolling to comment on those that always find reasons to criticize his music. “y’all see everything i do as a gimmick. when in reality im just an artist expressing myself in different ways,” he wrote at the time. “whether im a cowboy, gay, satanic, or now christian y’all find a problem! y’all don’t police nobody else art like mine. y’all hate me because im fun cute and petite.”
Lil Nas X’s new single “J CHRIST” drops on Friday (January 12). Check out his brief snippet on X, as well as his TikToks, below:
PRESAVE:https://t.co/LrFAtEUdzB pic.twitter.com/UGyNWbfUdG
— ✟ (@LilNasX) January 8, 2024
Stephen Daw
Billboard
