“You’s a meme, you’s a joke, been a gimmick from the go,” Lil Nas X taunts himself on the tortured “One of Me,” embodying the voices of his most vicious critics with such gusto that they sound indistinguishable from the demons in his own head. On social media - his own personal amusement park - his deft retorts to purer-than-thou pearl-clutchers and homophobic haters seem so effortless, they prompt a modern philosophical question: What’s the sound of one hand clapping back?īut on his tuneful, introspective debut album, “Montero,” that glitzy public armor falls to reveal vulnerability and doubt. Red carpets and awards show stages have lately become international showcases for his impishly androgynous imagination. Lil Nas X, the gleefully queer 22-year-old pop star and savvy digital trickster, often cuts an impossibly confident figure in public.
