Photo Credit: OMGAdrian
Rapper Lil Nas X released a new music video at midnight, Industry Baby that was his reaction to all of the negative reactions he received about coming out of the closet. It started with a skit of him mocking his court case involving copyright issues pertaining to that Satanic shoe he was going to sell and turned it into what many saw it for.. If this didn’t involve an artist coming out of the closet, would it really be going on?The video playfully took what would have otherwise been a painful 5 year prison sentence he was given and turned it into him and the rest of the gays taking over the prison. And it was all done in pink, of course.
As an artist, Lil Nas X represents a cultural phenomenon we’ve not seen since Lady Gaga. She was an iconic figure to the gay community and as it pertains to rap, there has never been that for the gay community at least within the mainstream. Sure some rappers have come out of the closet lately, but none have embraced it the same way that he is. And of course it’s a bit much for many to take in but they also have remotes where they can change the channel.
And the good part about this music video is that there is some an educational part to it. In the caption on Youtube he posted a link to The Bail Project that he’s partnered with calling for bail reform. At the point where the video had 6 million views he had raised over $21,000 for the effort.
“Music is the way I fight for liberation. But true freedom requires change in how the criminal justice system works, starting with cash bail,” Lil Nas X says in the donation box. “I know the pain that incarceration brings to a family, and I know the disproportionate impact that cash bail has on Black Americans. There are so many stories that call on us to take action, and I invite you to join me in this important civil right issue.” The Bail Project says ending cash bail is “one of the key drivers of mass incarceration and structural racism in the U.S. criminal legal system.”
Putting this all into perspective, CBS News reports that “According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 74% of people held in jails have not been convicted of a crime. In a March 2020 report, this amounted to 470,000 people. The initiative says that the reason for the high number of people jailed without conviction is because they are awaiting trial, but can’t afford to pay for bail.
The amount of people held in jail pretrial has roughly quadrupled since the 1980s, according to the initiative. As of 2021, the media bail bond for a felony is $10,000 — an amount that is nearly an entire’s year worth of income for the people who can’t afford it. The average yearly income for a man unable to pay this bail is $16,000, while for women, it’s $11,000. More than 40% of the pretrial population is Black, according to the initiative.”
