"J Christ" is a song by American rapper
Lil Nas X
Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his 2018 country rap single "Old Town Road," the longest-running nu ...
. It was released as a single on January 12, 2024, through
.
Background and promotion
On January 3, 2024, Lil Nas X announced the release of his next single slated for release on January 12. The rapper then started teasing towards a new era in early January 2024 by setting up a website containing religious and satanic imagery, prompting fans to "save him". He revealed the song title and its artwork on his social media on January 8. In another tweet, Hill shared a short clip promoting the track. "J Christ" precedes the release of his documentary ''
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero'' on
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
and
Max
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
on January 27.
Music video
The song's music video was written and directed by Lil Nas X, with filming taking place in
Mexico City
Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
. The music video premiered on January 12, 2024. It starts with a line of
look-alike
A look-alike, or double, is a person who bears a strong physical resemblance to another person, excluding cases like twins and other instances of Family resemblance (anthropology), family resemblance.
Some look-alikes have been notable individua ...
s resembling celebrities such as singers
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...
,
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...
,
Ed Sheeran
Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...
,
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...
,
Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...
, television personality
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
, and former
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
walking up a
stairway
A stairwell or stair room is a room in a building where a stair is located, and is used to connect walkways between floors so that one can move in height. Collectively, a set of stairs and a stairwell is referred to as a staircase or stairway. ...
to
Heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
. The next shot features Lil Nas X, walking in Heaven after the gates open and waving to a
moonwalking Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
lookalike.
The camera pans down to
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
, with a demonic Lil Nas X now boiling human body parts. Back in Heaven, Lil Nas X plays a basketball game against
Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
and scores a
slam dunk
A slam dunk, also simply known as a dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with on ...
. Then he performs a cheerleading sequence with other cheerleaders. The next shot features Lil Nas X being
crucified
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Carthaginians, ...
similar to
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
and being praised, before changing to a shot of Lil Nas X shearing a lamb, before panning again to him appearing in a fashion show; the show is watched by
Ts Madison
Madison Hinton, known professionally as Ts Madison, is an American entertainer and actress. With the reality show ''The Ts Madison Experience'', she became the first Black transgender woman to star in and act as executive producer of her own rea ...
, who ends up alarmed with the news of a global flood. The next shot features Lil Nas X, now dressed up like
Noah
Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...
, leading an army of animals to an
ark before the huge storm and flood hits; during the flood, Lil Nas X, sporting a golden
cross
A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...
, performs choreography on a rooftop, with a glowing red cross on the right side, which is a possible reference to "
Starboy" by
The Weeknd
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...
. The video ends with Lil Nas X, now on the ark, sailing across the global flood. As sunshine breaks through, text appears on the screen, reading "Day Zero - A New Beginning" and "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (
2 Corinthians
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author named Timothy, and is addressed to the church in Corinth and Christians in ...
5:17)"
Charts
Release history
References
{{Lil Nas X
2024 singles
2024 songs
Columbia Records singles
Lil Nas X songs
Music videos shot in Mexico
Songs written by Blake Slatkin
Songs written by Lil Nas X
Songs written by Omer Fedi
Song recordings produced by Gesaffelstein
Song recordings produced by Omer Fedi
Depictions of Jesus in music