Do we like Lil Nas X?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Years of visible LGBTQ+ advocacy and fundraising, with one unresolved court case from 2025 that sits outside the harm test.
Lil Nas X, born Montero Hill, did his most important work in public before his music got big. In March 2021 he published a letter to his 14-year-old self, saying they had promised to die with the secret but that coming out would open doors for other queer people. That's a big thing to say out loud as a young Black rapper working in country and hip-hop.
The messy chapter came in August 2025. Police said he charged at officers who responded to calls about a man walking the streets in his underwear, and prosecutors filed four felony counts: three of battery with injury on a police officer and one of resisting. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $75,000 bail. His lawyer told the court that, if the allegations were true, it was “an absolute aberration” in his life.
The case hasn't ended in a conviction. On 6 April 2026 Judge Alan Schneider admitted him to a two-year diversion program, and the charges will be cleared if he follows the conditions and obeys the law. The judge will decide in April 2028. Outside court Hill said, “I'm thankful. Just very thankful.”
On the harm check, we found nothing nasty. He has used his platform for LGBTQ+ people, and in 2021 he said discrimination around sexuality and gender identity “is still very real”. We found nothing on his views on climate or public health, and no sign of him working with people who push harm, so the record on those is thin rather than bad.
So where does that leave us? Nothing new has surfaced since the April ruling that we could source. The case is a real stain, but it's alleged, unresolved and out of character according to his own lawyer, and it doesn't touch the harm test. We'd happily keep him on the playlist.