Georgia rapper, Lil Nas X, took the world by storm with his album, Montero, which released last year. The album is heavily linked to Nas X’s own life and personal experiences. It is also notable for its very visible gay imagery. This is a deliberate statement from Nas X to his listeners, and to the world. It is his goal to one day “normalize” the use of such imagery in mainstream music. Rather than take on the whole album as a whole, this article is going to focus on examining the meaning of Montero’s title track, “Montero,” or “Call Me By Your Name.”
When it comes to analyzing language, the meaning of song lyrics can vary greatly from person to person. This is not solely because people think in different ways, but can also be affected by personal experiences. One person may interpret a love song to be wistful while in the midst of a relationship, but once that relationship ends they may view the song as sad. The possibilities are nearly endless. Two people may never fully agree on what a poem, a song, or even a single lyric definitively means. In the face of such a variable set of circumstances, it helps to to cheat. Thankfully, Nas X gave an interview on the meaning of “Montero,” explaining his thought process and what his lyrics meant to him. Spoilers, in his own worlds, “It’s really very much a lust song.”
What is the meaning of Montero?
“Montero” is a word that comes up quite a bit in, well Montero. It is the name of the album, the name of the song, and it is the fictional world the story of the song takes place in. What you may not know, is that Montero is the given first name of Lil Nas X. This meaning of Montero adds an awful lot of context to the song and the album; it is deeply connected to Nas X as a person. It was after all his debut album. In a way it was like putting himself on display for the world to see, something he was only comfortable doing after trying shrooms. The fact that the world of the title track is also named after himself, sets the stage for this intimacy. It indicates that what we are hearing is what happened inside Nas X himself.
Can I make it any more obvious?
On one level, the meaning of “Montero” is exactly what it seems to be: a song about gay love and lust. Nas X explains that the inspiration for the song was an actual relationship he was having at the time, “I’m like oh, I like this guy. And then the next day I started writing the song.” “Montero” is actually about Montero pining after a guy he’s just met, which in itself isn’t an uncommon genre of music. Plenty of the sexually explicitly lines of the song fall into this category. The first verse in particular, Nas X says is, “like so, super literal.”
Double Entendre
But not every part of the song is meant to be taken literally. For example,
Cocaine and drinking with your friends
You live in the dark, boy, I cannot pretend
I’m not fazed, only here to sin
If Eve ain’t in your garden, you know that you can
is full of allusion and literary devices. Nas X himself calls “you live in the dark” a double entendre. It refers both to his lovers habits having a negative impact on his own life, as well as being “in the dark” about his sexuality.
This verse also takes a biblical turn. Clearly, the last line is a reference to the second chapter of Genesis and the ‘Garden of Eden.’ This is a story about evil, about an innocent man being tempted to sin and losing everything because of it. In his lyrics, Nas X is actively calling on and using this imagery. Nas X here is being portrayed as the snake, the one tempting Adam to sin. In the original, Adam is tempted by an apple, while here he is tempted by gay sex. Yet, in the same verse, this “sinful” behavior is contrasted with choices that, actually have negative effects, using cocaine and drinking alcohol (which are equated here). Moreover, this interaction is started by an invitation from the supposedly innocent lover.
Clearly, Lil Nas X is calling into question the way we ought to interpret his story, while we are still listening to it…
by Chris Colasurdo
@cfcolasurdo on Twitter