In the first trailer for his upcoming album, Dreamboy, Lil Nas X introduces his alter ego via a cheeky and borderline profane short story. In the trailer, Nas plays a castaway, floating in the middle of the ocean on a makeshift raft. A flash of light races across the sky, and Nas encounters the titular Dreamboy, a Power Rangers-esque being who introduces himself as a version of Lil Nas X who tells him, “I’m gonna help you save yourself. It’s time to remember who you are — who you really are.” However, Nas’ response is less than satisfactory, and Dreamboy shows himself a little tough love to get him started on the journey as the album’s first single, “Light Again,” kicks in.
Nas had previously teased the upcoming album on social media, writing, “I just want to release music, but expectations are just like… insane. Like, I can’t even have fun. I just want to f*ckin’ have fun with this sh*t. I don’t even give a f*ck about all the other sh*t. Of course, I want to, like, be No. 1 all the time, I want every song to go up, and I want you to go crazy. But it’s like, at the same time, I want to f*ckin’ have fun. I want to go and live life, I just want to make music.” Incidentally, he had already given glimpses of the Dreamboy uniform at the MTV VMAs.
As far as pressure goes, even he knows he has little to worry about; after queer culture’s resident megahater Azealia Banks said he “fell off,” he reminded her (and the world at large) “i could never make a hit song again and you would still never in ur bussy soap selling chicken sacrificing botched body hating ass miserable life reach a 10th of my success.”
Check out the first Dreamboy trailer above.