Like one critic who took issue with the Black men in the video "sexually engaging with one another" when guest rapper Jack Harlow, "the lone white man. Lil Nas X also used logic and basic common sense to engage directly and shut down some of the more ridiculous arguments against "Industry Baby" that have popped up. He didn't just shout into the void, though. That's why he partnered with The Bail Project ahead of the video's launch, kicking off a campaign to help generate funds for paying people's bails. Tweet may have been deletedĪs the video made the rounds on Saturday, Lil Nas X also acknowledged that while the video treats prison and incarceration with a light, positive touch, it's often anything but for the communities impacted by the U.S.
"I need you to realize that you have the opportunity to be the person that you needed growing up," he said to his age 20 self. He's been getting ready for the video drop all week, and even wrote an encouraging letter to his younger, post-"Old Town Road" self. And Twitter being what it is, the critical squawking - which in lots of cases is just thinly veiled racism and/or homophobia - kicked up almost immediately. It's exactly the kind of material that inspires outrage among America's puritanical right. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.The video, like the one for "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)," is provocative and overtly sexual. You can watch the full, NSFW video for "Industry Baby," directed by Christian Breslauer and produced by Andrew Lerios, here. "THE INDUSTRY BABY VIDEO IS NOT FOR YOUR KIDS!" "aying this in advance so y'all won't blame me," he tweeted earlier this week. " literally went to hell and twerked on satan but gay prison is where you draw the line ?!" he responded to someone who argued that "lil nas x is definitely doing too much now." Per usual, Lil Nas X has spent the hours leading up to and following the premiere of "Industry Baby" amplifying his funniest fans and expertly shutting down his haters on social media. The highly anticipated release of "Industry Baby" comes shortly after the Grammy winner put out "Montero" and "Sun Goes Down" - the first two singles off his forthcoming debut studio album, which is due "soon" according to its Marvel-inspired trailer. Let’s bring people home & let’s fight for freedom and equality." And I know the disproportionate impact that cash bail has on Black Americans. I know the pain that incarceration brings to a family.
"But I also know that true freedom requires real change in how the criminal justice system works. It’s my act of resistance," Lil Nas X said in a statement shared on the Bail Project website. "Music is the way I fight for liberation.
A donation link for the nonprofit is listed in the YouTube description of the video. Keeping with the liberating theme of the video, "Industry Baby" was released in partnership with the Bail Project, a community bail fund fighting mass incarceration across the country.
"My track record so clean, they couldn't wait to just bash me / I must be gettin' too flashy, y'all shouldn't have let the world gas me," Harlow raps on the track. The video also includes a brief cameo from "Teen Wolf" actor Colton Haynes, who plays a prison guard caught on the job watching the music video for "Montero" on his phone. Set in the fictional cells of "Montero State Prison" after a judge (played by Lil Nas X) sentences Lil Nas X (also played by Lil Nas X) to five years, "Industry Baby" sees the musician and his fellow prisoners bulking up in the courtyard, strutting through the halls and dancing nude in the showers.ĭressed in matching hot-pink jumpsuits, Lil Nas X and Harlow eventually conspire to break out of prison "Shawshank Redemption" style, freeing the rest of the jail with them.