Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road still holds the number one spot on the charts. It now officially holds the longest stay at number one, beating out Mariah Carey, who graciously handed over her crown on Twitter. In June, at the close of Pride Month, Lil Nas X announced he was gay on Twitter, which he later said was not something he knew he was going to do, but felt like he had to. In an interview with GQ Hype, Lil Nas X spoke about what it meant to him to come out and what others have told him it means to them.

“It’s crazy how far it’s travelled,” says the 20-year-old behind the smash single, a handsome maypole of a man with a moustache, loud sense of style and self-described “goofy sense of humour”. He might make music under the name Lil Nas X, but there’s not much that’s little about him: not his height (he towers over the room at 6ft 3in) and certainly not his numbers.

“Live your life to its fullest potential and don’t really care too much about what other people think of you. I used to say that cliché, but I never really lived by it, until now,” he says about coming out. He’s still a little overwhelmed at “having to be a voice”, he says, but it’s all worth it when he’s reminded of the power of his visibility as a gay man in a hip hop community that’s historically been entrenched in homophobia. “Since I came out, people have been coming up to me saying, ‘You’re making a way for us,’” he says proudly. Our interview happens to take place on the day of London Pride. The sound of celebration drifts in through the window as he sits on that thought for a moment, smiling.

There’s a lyric on 7’s final track, “C7osure”, that feels fitting. “This is what I gotta do / Can’t be regretting when I’m old,” he sings over dance euphoria. “That’s my philosophy right now,” Hill tells me before we part ways. “Do everything you can because [snap!]…” he clicks his fingers “…it could all go in a second.”

[From GQ Hype via Towelrod]

Is it weird that the first thing I got from this interview is that Lil Nas X is 6’ 3”? Somehow, I never registered he was so tall. As for the much more important discussion, I can imagine many people were helped by his coming out. Neither the rap nor country music communities are known for being progressive about embracing their LGBTQ members. To have a 20-year-old man who straddles both proudly genres come out and for both communities to continue to support him – that’s a huge statement.

I’m still really enjoying Lil Nas X and how much fun he’s having with his meteoric rise. I love OTR but I think F9mily might be my favorite of his songs off his EP 7, with C7osure a close second (and because I like him as much as I do, I won’t complain about having to type the numbers in his track titles). I hope he sticks around for a while. I also *really* hope the alleged comments he is accused of tweeting are in fact “alleged”.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photo credit:Elliott Morgan/GQ Hype, WENN Photos and Getty Images