It’s a good Friday for Lil Nas X’s fans, because the singer is “back like J. Christ.”
The 24-year-old rapper kicked off his new era on Friday, January 12, with the release of “J Christ,” the new single from his upcoming new album. In the visual accompanying the new song, Lil Nas X (born Montero Lamar Hill) presides over a star-studded afterlife, as celebrity impersonators of Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Kanye West and Barack Obama ascend the stairway to heaven and meet the “Old Town Road” artist at the pearly gates.
“Last year was a quiet year / Now I’m on Mariah / I’m finna take it higher / Let ’em slide,” raps Lil Nas X while stomping down the heavenly runway, waving to a moonwalking Michael Jackson impersonator as he passes. The video’s action then moves on to hell, where the Lil Nas X of “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” reigns happily.
The hell moment was the first of several callbacks to the rapper’s prior controversies. In the next scene, the godly Lil Nas X goes one-on-one with a devil in a game of basketball. A quick shot of the demon’s feet reveals it’s wearing a pair of the MSCHF x Lil Nas X Satan Shoes, the modified Nike Max Air 97s that sported satanic imagery and a drop of blood in their soles. (Nike sued Lil Nas X and MSCHF over copyright infringement before the parties settled.)
Elsewhere in the video, Lil Nas X leads a cheerleading squad of dancers, and at his crucifixion, the gathered crowd parties like it’s Coachella. There’s also a fashion moment when Lil Nas X turns the lamb of God’s fleece into a Met Gala look. The video ends with the musician teasing “Day Zero,” a “new beginning,” and signing off with a quote from 2 Corinthians.
The “J Christ” video marks Lil Nas X’s solo directorial debut. According to a press release, the clip represents the artist “choosing to express his spirituality in his own way.”
Lil Nas X’s embrace of Christian imagery comes after the controversy following “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” the 2021 video that saw him cast out of heaven because of his sexuality. The clip’s message, however, was lost among the furor over the image of Lil Nas X riding a stripper pole down to hell, where he gave Satan a lap dance.
In the lead-up to the release of “J Christ,” Lil Nas X proclaimed he was entering a “Christian era.” He launched a website mocking those who called him a “devil-worshiping pop artist” and posted a fake acceptance letter to the Christian college Liberty University. (Representatives for the school, founded by the late Jerry Falwell, told Billboard that they had no record of LilNas X applying to the institution.)
Lil Nas X’s efforts are already drawing the ire of critics, but he remains unbothered. “The crazy thing is nowhere in the picture is a mockery of Jesus,” he tweeted on Monday, January 8, while discussing the “J Christ” single art. “Jesus’s image is used throughout history in people’s art all over the world. I’m not making fun of s–t. yall just gotta stop trying to gatekeep a religion that was here before any of us were even born.”
