Tony Hawk and Lil Nas X drama. Who knew?
A comment by singer Lil Nas X “nah he tweakin” has amassed over 500,000 likes under an Instagram post promoting skateboarding icon Tony Hawk’s newest merchandise—a limited-edition, $500 skateboard infused with Hawk’s blood in collaboration with beverage brand Liquid Death. Millions across social media have quoted those three words, whether they knew what it meant or not. Nevertheless, one thing they do know is that it marks discourse between the two most unlikely celebrities. But is this really drama or an instance of drama-baiting?
Despite how much drama frogs would like to believe, it is just another case of the internet inflating a situation to unreal proportions when there was no problem in the first place.
For starters, the entire debacle stems from a misunderstanding between the two.
In March, Lil Nas X’s merch—a pair of modified Nike Air Max 97s featuring a pentagram and blood in the soles—hit the market. They were a reference to the music video of Lil Nas X’s song Montero (Call Me By Your Name), during which Lil Nas X seduces the devil.
The shoes were not well received by multiple people across the internet, notably Christian groups, upset with the Satanic imagery. Even the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, scorned the shoes on Twitter while remarking upon the exclusivity of a “God-given eternal soul.”
The lack of backlash towards Hawk’s matching skateboards, however, has Lil Nas X wondering why people are so up in arms about the Satan Shoes.
For one, Tony Hawk’s “blood board” faced no such criticism. In fact, all 100 sold out within 20 minutes. Why was the response to such similar products so different? Some think it has to do with the reason behind the Satan Shoes being recalled by Nike. The actual reason? Nothing to do with Lil Nas X, it seems.
Before their affiliation with Lil Nas X, MSCHF, the brand Lil Nas X collaborated with to make the Satan Shoes, had redesigned and released a different pair of Nike Air Max 97s called the Jesus Shoes. Nike filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against MSCHF and won—the judge thus ordered that all Satan and Jesus Shoes were to be recalled, with Nike denying any relation to Lil Nas X or MSCHF.
Lil Nas X himself inferred the real cause for all the hate was his sexuality. The singer came out as gay in 2019 and is not afraid to show it. He questioned the double standard between his Satan Shoes and Tony Hawk’s “blood board” on Twitter, Aug. 25.
Since then, Lil Nas X has been under fire. Many believe people are mad about the Satan Shoes because of the Satanic imagery itself and have left angry comments under the post about the call-out to Tony Hawk.
And yet, that does not seem to translate to Lil Nas X or Tony Hawk themselves. The celebs have since met up to skate in a social media post on Aug. 30 accompanied by the caption, “nah WE tweakin.”
In addition to the birth of a full-fledged meme, it looks like there is no bad blood between either of them after all.
