Lil Nas X continues to make history with his recent inclusion on the Forbes "Highest Paid Country Acts" list. The "Old Town Road" rapper exploded this year with the country-trap hybrid track amid controversy that the song was not a "real" country song, which lead to its removal from the Billboard country charts. However, Nas came storming back with country singer, Billy Ray Cyrus, on the remix to produce a song "country" enough for the genre gatekeepers. The original and the remix blew up and broke records, and turned LIl Nas X into a bonafide superstar. However, his monstrous hit song and surrounding controversy were not the only reasons Nas made headlines this year. The 20-year-old officially came out as gay this summer on Twitter, citing his song "C7osure" and the accompanying video as hints he gave to fans regarding his sexuality. While his coming out received some backlash, something many queer artists have dealt with in the spotlight, 2019 was still his year, and now he's made history in a new way as the first black, gay man to be featured in the aforementioned Forbes list.
Forbes wrote in the article that "Lil Nas X is both the first openly gay act and the first person of color to make it." While feats like these should definitely be celebrated, it seems absurd that neither a gay person nor a person of color have ever succeeded in country to such a degree that they would be eligible for this list. Now, though, Lil Nas X's success and accomplishments have hopefully opened more doors for gay artists and artists of colour to feel encouraged to venture into the country scene. Here's to making more history in the future for the trailblazer.
