The rapper’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart following a dust-up on social media over the song’s video and a lawsuit from Nike.
This week, Lil Nas X, now 21, is back at No. 1 with a new song and a fresh online sensation. “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” with a video set partly in hell and a corporate brouhaha over online sales of “Satan Shoes” (modified Nike Air Max 97s, supposedly with a drop of blood in the soles — drawing a lawsuit from Nike), is in some sense a 21st-century re-creation of the controversy over Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video from 1989.
