“Just stick to what you’re good at,” he advises a rival, witheringly, “I suggest you make another one like that”. It seems appropriate that the aforementioned Taco Bell ad shows him performing That’s What I Want accompanied by a band staffed by multiple versions of himself in a nod to the video for Outkast’s Hey Ya! – not just because That’s What I Want’s breezy rhythm and acoustic guitar riff is audibly influenced by it but because Lil Nas X himself recalls Outkast’s André 3000, both in his ballsy approach to matters sartorial and in his disinclination to be artistically hemmed in. Song for song, Montero has more hooks – and stickier ones – than any other big rap album thus far released in 2021: the indelible chorus of That’s What I Want, the luminous tune at odds with Tales of Dominica’s disconsolate lyrics Dead Right Now, which is rich and luscious enough to get listeners checking the credits to see what 70s soul track it samples, only to discover it’s original.
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The genre-hopping is unified by melodies.
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It hits an impressively eclectic sweet spot between hip-hop and pop, leaping confidently from trap beats and martial horns to grinding, distorted hard rock from music that recalls early 00s R&B to stadium ballads. What Montero proves is that he requires absolutely no special pleading.
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A cynic would say that Lil Nas X has been a beneficiary of the ongoing culture war that liberal voices would feel duty-bound to praise his work to the skies.