Lil Nas X Talks Coming Out, New Relationship on 'Ellen'

After a history-making summer, Lil Nas X made his first appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Monday.

The 20-year-old rapper, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, discussed his journey from sleeping on his sister’s floor last year to topping the Billboard charts for 19 weeks with his breakout hit “Old Town Road.”

In July, he revealed that he was gay. Ellen applauded him for coming out at the height of his career. “I can’t tell you how much I admire you ’cause most people are fearful of that ’cause they think it’s gonna affect their career,” she said.

He told his father and sister prior to announcing it on social media. “Just knowing it was something that I should have been done, but I was not in a position where I had to worry about like family and friends, like how they would react,” said Nas. “But in the past year, I’m on a new level so it doesn’t really matter, I guess.”

He also wanted to serve as a positive example for his young fans. “And also how it would be good for the young’ns who are listening to me where right now who are gonna have to go through stuff like this in the future. Just to know it’s alright, I guess.”

Nas also revealed that he’s “somewhat” in a relationship right now. Ellen told him that he’s “very good looking,” and he returned the compliment. “And yet we’re not right for each other,” she laughed.

He then took the stage to perform his latest hit “Panini.” Dressed in a space-like white-and-black outfit with knee pads, he showed off his robotic moves during the futuristic set, capping it off with some crowd participation.