Out of the mouth of babes
You can always rely on kids to tell it like it is, and unashamedly ask the most probing questions. And we adore them for it.
Rapper Lil Nas X appeared on Arts & Raps, a YouTube series where two such kids, Zaria and Dilan interview celebrities as they paint.
The topic of the day was the rappers recent coming out, and the two mini-presenters had the sweetest perspectives.
Explaining what it means to ‘come out of the closet’, Lil Nas X said: “It means you’re like, ‘Hey everybody, I’m this thing, and you guys didn’t even know that, but now you know.”
Zaria, quite rightly inquired as to why a person might be in a closet in the first place and he went on to explain: “When someone says they’re this thing, the other person’s mind shifts completely despite how close you are to them or whatever.”
Dilan had a good understanding of the situation, having some experience around closets himself. He said: “Me and my older cousin, he keeps pushing my brother into the closet. And we close the door and blink the lights on and off, and then say ‘666’ or ‘Bloody Mary’. And then he swore he saw something.”
Lil Nas X assured Dilan, “that’s exactly what happened to me. That’s exactly what I meant when I said I was coming out of the closet.”
Zaria then asked what it means to be “unapologetically you”, which is Lil Nas X’s musical message. He responded: “It means just doing yourself at all costs, no matter who’s watching. It gets really hard, because everybody in the world, we always think about what everybody else is thinking about us,” Lil Nas X said.
“Sometimes, we forget to think about what we think about ourselves, you know?”
In a gorgeous moment, Zaria admits to Lil Nas X: “You really inspire me because you’re not afraid to be you.”
We couldn’t agree more, Zaria.
