Pop artist, Lil Nas X released his newest single “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” as well as his music video which breaks the glass ceiling being the first gay man of color to explicitly talk about sex in the music industry, however, without fail the song and the music video has brought many mixed reviews.

The song is monumental for many reasons, as a person who is gay I don’t hear a lot of songs that are explicit when it comes to sex like “WAP”, by Cardi B, but with two men. Usually in mainstream media it is coded so that everyone knows what it is about but so we can all smile and forget that we heard when an artist whispers “he” as they sing about a random person.

While there are many examples of this in the music industry, a clear coded song would be Troye Sivan’s song “Bloom” that came out in 2018. This song was simply a vibrant and flowy song perfect for the summer that implicitly was talking about losing your virginity, while these songs bring hidden meanings to their lyrics “Montero” does nothing of the sort.

We start the song with a simple guitar strum and as the words start to kick in the bass does as well. Lil Nas X uses blends of banjo, acoustic guitar and claps as well as a bassline that gets your attention. These carry through the song and compliment the range that Lil Nas X uses from low and brassy to light.

A common theme to the single is the artists explicit lyrics of sex, while using biblical imagery.

“If Eve ain’t in your garden than you know you can call me when you want,”

The music video is what is getting people the most riled up. The video uses imagery of the serpent from Adam and Eve as well as the Devil. This imagery has made many upset due to Lil Nas X twisting the thought that being gay is a sin.

In a TIME article he talks about why he brought religion into the music video.

“I grew up in a pretty religious kind of home—and for me, it was fear-based very much. Even as a little child, I was really scared of every single mistake I may or may not have made. I want kids growing up feeling these feelings, knowing they’re a part of the LGBTQ community, to feel like they’re okay and they don’t have to hate themselves,” Lil Nas X said.

Being a person who also grew up in a religious household I would here things about being gay was a sin and that you would have to fix yourself so I think that having the ability to twist those words that were thrown at you and say, “Fine then I guess I’m going to hell, but not without some knee high boots and a pole dance” Is powerful in itself.