The sneaker drama culminated in a lawsuit filed by Nike against MSCHF that set the stage for Nas’ next blockbuster video, “Industry Baby,” in late July. He offered a droll pseudo-apology for riling up the 38-year-old rapper in September, and in a Breakfast Club interview the day before Monteros release this week, said simply that he’d recently heard Boosie’s music in a club, and even though he didn’t want to collaborate, he didn’t necessarily harbor ill will: “If somebody got beef with me, that doesn't mean I got beef with them." Nas has consistently parried Boosie’s offensive, derogatory, and even threatening comments. A year later, it’s clear why he didn’t want to rush things. it’s almost not fair to myself,” he wrote.
“Sorry guys, I honestly wanted to just drop the album, but then it’s like drop album, singles off it, then album era over? For something I've been working on for 2 years. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.įans were dismayed when Nas suggested a 2021 album release instead of late 2020, but on October 15 he got on Twitter and explained why he really wanted to take his time. He shared “Call Me By Your Name” in July, and dropped a portion of “Industry Baby” in October, both earning millions of plays and hundreds of thousands of likes. Let’s look back at the long road to Montero.Īfter beginning work on the album in April 2020 with Take a Daytrip, Nas stirred up tremendous interest online by previewing snippets of some of his new songs. No matter what is thrown Lil Nas X’s way, he’s always in on the joke, and he dictates the cultural conversation in a way most celebrities could never. His debut album Montero is out today, and it’s a triumphant moment for Nas as an artist who has proven not only that he’s no one-hit wonder, but also that he’s a true mastermind of the modern art of attention.
But it’s hard to make a case that either of the long-time superstars presided over a more masterful rollout than the 22-year-old Lil Nas X. Kanye had his troika of gaudy stadium shows, including a literal homecoming in Chicago. We live in an age of baroque album rollouts.