Lil Nas X, need dat boy | Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈

In the 77^th edition of Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 (2024), we highlight the song, “need dat boy” performed by Lil Nas X.

Prepare to beam with P-R-I-D-E 🏳️‍🌈! Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 celebrates, embraces, and spotlights songs by LGBTQ musicians or allies.  Here, we provide background and insight into musician(s) and analyze + go gaga over the decadent bops served up.  When the music dictates deeper, more transcendent discussion, we ensure the point is fully articulated.  All styles of music are welcome while the songs can be classics or brand-spanking new. So, without further ado, in the 77^th edition of Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 (2024), we highlight “need dat boy” performed by Lil Nas X.

Lil Nas X (Montero Hill) is gay. ‘Maybe’ he’s bisexual.  It’s hard to tell with the pop artist who can be as polarizing as he is talented.  An experienced troll,  sometimes, the Gen-Z artist has found his trolling to yield flat results, such as his ‘Christian era’ with “J CHRIST”. He’s pivoted away from that era, following up “LIGHT AGAIN!”, the first single from his 2025 sophomore LP, DREAMBOY, with the gay, second single, “need dat boy”. Perhaps Montero is bi but judging by the lyrics of the song and the hot single cover art where he’s ‘having fun’ with a fine-ass boi in the car, he’s gay, gay, gay!

Well, some of it is gay.  The first verse encompasses his hiatus since his Grammy-nominated, 2021 album, MONTERO.  Sure, he asserts, “I been lookin’ for a muse, need a new persona,” but it seems related to his career and the direction of his music.  Still, by the chorus, he goes G-A-Y! “Oh-oh, yeah, I been down but I need that boy / Oh-oh, I’ll shut shit down for you, East Side Boy.” Word.  In the second verse, he’s also less concerned about ‘the boy’ than his career.  He bites, “Fuck all you niggas, y’all do not support nobody / Show up for y’all, but y’all don’t show up for Lil Nassy.” Shots fired, but, let’s get to the gay, shall we? That’s what you’ve all been waiting for! Post-chorus, Nassy embraces his sexuality full throttle: “I think I love that boy / I think I wanna get up on him, ride upon that boy.” Yeah, it’s giving power bottom.  And for good measure, in the bridge, we get “Bend over, that ass too fat.”  Self-explanatory. “Need dat boy” is an intriguing listen, as often songs by Lil Nas X are.  It features several writers including Hill, while Jahnei Clarke produced this gay, or, mostly gay little joint. The musical accompaniment is pleasant, gaining more steam during the bridge, where Montero is ‘true to self.’ The hyper-rhythmic beat seems to match Hill’s desire for “dat boy!”

Lil Nas X // “need dat boy” // Columbia // 11.22.24

Lil Nas X, need dat boy: Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 No. 77 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner/ The Musical Hype; Columbia; Elias Souza, Los Muertos Crew from Pexels; CatsWithGlasses, David, Maicon Fonseca Zanco, Square Frog, Sudo from Pixabay]