Country rapper Lil Nas X comes out as gay in Pride tweets

“Old Town Road� phenom Lil Nas X made some major allusions on Sunday, leading many to believe that he came out as gay.

It turns out he did, The Times has confirmed.

The country-music rapper closed out Pride Month all but saying so in a series of rainbow-hued tweets pointing fans to his song “C7osure (You Like)� and acknowledging that it might make them lose interest in him.

“Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure,� he wrote Sunday, adding a rainbow emoji that has become a symbol for the LGBTQ community.

“C7losure,� from last month’s Columbia Records EP “7,� begins with the lyrics: “True say, I want and I need to let go, use my time to be free.� He then continues: “Ain’t no more actin’, man that forecast say I should just let me grow/ No more red light for me baby, only green, I gotta go/ Pack my past up in the back, oh, let my future take ahold/ This is what I gotta do, can’t be regrettin’ when I’m old.�

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The 20-year-old then followed up that tweet with another saying, “thought i made it obvious,� including a photo of him as a cowboy riding toward buildings decked out with rainbow lighting for Pride Month. By Monday, he was joking about typo-inclined responses that he received, tweeting, yes, indeed, he had come out as “a guy.�

Reps for the artist declined to comment on the tweets and song.

The tweets landed on the same day that thousands of people across the country marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and celebrated LGBTQ pride. They also came just after his triumphant reception at England’s Glastonbury music festival, where he performed with Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus. (Billy Ray Cyrus was featured on the Atlanta rapper’s mega-hit “Old Town Road.�)

Lil Nas X was swiftly met with mixed reactions on Twitter, including applause for his bravery and speaking his truth, and homophobic reactions and criticism that he was now alienating his hetero-male fan base.

The artist rose to fame this year after going viral when he posted the down-home sounding “Old Town Road� to SoundCloud. The song climbed Billboard’s country charts before it was removed for being too hip-hop and not country enough. It then went to No. 1 on the Hot 100, where it enjoyed a comfortable reign and eventually was embraced by the Nashville establishment.

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