Lil Nas X is paying homage to Nicki Minaj. On Wednesday (Oct. 27), the “Industry Baby” rapper took to his Twitter account and shared throwback images from Halloweens past. Of the images, Lil Nas posted his 2020 Halloween costume of himself dressed up as Minaj from her “Super Bass” music video.
In the image, Lil Nas is seen wearing a split blonde and pink wig, a neon pink giraffe-printed catsuit, and pink and yellow bangles — a direct copy of Minaj’s look in the video. To make the look appear truer to Minaj’s curvaceous form, Lil Nas photoshopped women’s breasts and wide hips to the set of photos to complete the look. “Halloween 2020,” the 22-year-old captioned the images. When Lil Nas first shared the images to his social media pages, he called the look “Nas Maraj,” a subtle nod to his alleged Nicki Stan account.
Lil Nas X is a well-documented fan of Minaj’s. The rapper talked about stanning Minaj in his Billboard Hot 100-charting song, “Sun Goes Down.” In the melancholy track, he sings, “I’d be by the phone/ Stanning Nicki mornin’ into dawn/ Only place I felt like I belonged/ Strangers make you feel so loved, you know?” Initially, Lil Nas didn’t share that he was a Barb because he didn’t want people to think he was gay prior to him publicly coming out.
“People will assume if you had an entire fan page dedicated to nicki u are gay. and the rap/music industry ain’t exactly built or accepting of gay men yet,” Lil Nas explained to a fan who told him that “being a Barb doesn’t make you gay.”
Minaj caught wind of Lil Nas’ tweet and openly supported him for feeling comfortable enough to be his true self. “It was a bit of a sting when you denied being a barb, but I understand. Congratulations on building up your confidence to speak your truth. @LilNasX,” she wrote on Twitter.
“The generous queen, i love u. and i’m sorry i did that in a time where u were already getting so much bandwagon hate,” the 22-year-old replied. “i felt so bad, hoping u wouldn’t see my denial. i was just so afraid of people finding out about me and losing everything before i even got a chance.”
See Lil Nas dressed as Minaj below.
halloween 2020 pic.twitter.com/rp9vPikXo0
— MONTERO (@LilNasX) October 27, 2021