Mike Wass A musical trailblazer with a sixth sense of marketing and memes, Lil Nas X helped create the soundtrack of 2021 with the ubiquitous “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and “Industry Baby.” When it comes to courting virality, the internet-savvy hitmaker is peerless — particularly in the visual medium.
By gleefully pushing buttons in the name of social change and self-expression, the 22-year-old has almost single-handedly revived the event video.
His ability to harness and build on the resulting publicity makes him Variety’s Innovator of the Year.“Montero” will be forever linked with its groundbreaking visual, which finds Nas sliding into hell on a stripper pole and proceeding to give Satan a lap dance.
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