Lil Nas X is no stranger to Genius, and he’s back to break down his latest hit, “HOTBOX.” This Verified episode is serving something special though, with a custom pink background to match the vibe! Off his Days Before 'Dreamboy' EP, The Take a Daytrip, Omer Fedi, and Ojivolta produced banger holds a special place in the pop star’s heart, since he’s been teaming up with the hitmakers throughout his career. On today’s episode of Verified, the Dreamboy brings his iconic flair to chat about how the song came together, finding love, wild nights at the gay club, why everything had to be pink, and so much more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00Look Genius, y'all know I love the yellow and I love y'all, but can we squish this to
00:05pink?
00:06Yeah?
00:07Okay.
00:15I made the beginning portions of this song at the end of 2023.
00:18I think I was leaning too much into focusing on getting back at haters and lyrics about
00:23them and shit.
00:24I was like, you know what?
00:25I'm having fun.
00:26I want to make a song about a good night out.
00:29I started this song with Omer Fetty and then OG Volta walked into the room and then Daytrip
00:34walked into the room and it was like this big mesh of all these people who I've been working
00:39with the most the past three years coming together and making this contraption of a song.
00:59This song isn't really about love in a romantic
01:09way, but love in a more lustful, in the club, turnt up, drunk, let's get fucking naked kind
01:16of way.
01:25Jiggas themselves, it's a certain drug.
01:27I'm not going to get into that, but poppers, poppers is very much gay culture.
01:32You know, like you at the club and somebody's like, hey, you want some poppers?
01:36And it's like this bottle.
01:37You should not be taking it, okay?
01:39Anybody watching this?
01:40Don't try poppers, don't try Jiggas.
01:42I said it because it sounded cool.
01:55Let's cap.
01:55I don't cheat anymore.
01:57I'm a loyal man.
01:58I said that because it sounded fun, you know what I mean?
02:01I'm against cheaters and all cheaters need to be put in prison or stoned.
02:05I finally like fell in love for once and I'm just like, I don't ever want something
02:08like that to happen to me, so I'm not going to encourage it.
02:27Working with Tomas from Daft Punk is amazing.
02:31I've never seen somebody that's more just completely lost in the music.
02:36You know what I mean?
02:37We could be working on a song and then I'll look over and he's playing with the exact same
02:42synth sound, the exact same melody like an hour later trying to perfect it and he's still
02:47in the same groove.
02:48I'm usually like one like, okay, let's get this song done, but I'm just like, you know
02:51what?
02:52I'm going to let him do him.
02:53He's a legend.
02:54What can I say?
03:01Anna Wintour.
03:02Anna Wintour, she's exactly what you would expect her to be like.
03:05She's very, you know, upper echelon, like head looking up, like I own the world, I run
03:12the world and she does.
03:13It feels like very amazing to be in someone's presence who like completely is committed to
03:18the role that they've chosen in this world, you know what I mean?
03:31We can get it on, tonight I'm on a zen, tonight I'm in a zone.
03:35Some gay clubs are really wild.
03:37Let me start there.
03:38And I feel like this is more like the rave scene.
03:40They have these rooms where people are actually just in there just fucking and going buck wild.
03:46Complete hedonism.
03:47And that's what this line is about.
03:49It's like, we hit the back room, you be the carpet, I be the vacuum.
03:53We start cleaning it up because it's getting messy back there, basically.
03:57And that's what I meant by that line.
03:58We go back there and we take turns with the vacuum, cleaning it up so, you know, it doesn't
04:02get like very unsanitary back there.
04:22A lot of boys, a lot of times, they'll try to play like the, again, the nonchalant role.
04:26Like, um, I don't care about all the stuff you have and I don't care about all the fame
04:31and stuff.
04:32But you know, to a degree, everybody cares like a little bit, you know what I mean?
04:36So it's like, they start off kind of like, oh, I don't really care about that.
04:39And it's like, I feel for you bad and I'm going to do all these things for you.
04:43And a lot of boys, even though I'm rich, they, I guess, you know, I guess it's like a thing
04:47ingrained in men in general.
04:49Like you want to make sure you can be someone that can provide, you know what I mean?
04:54And so even though I can be at a club and I can be with somebody that works at Steak
04:58and Shake or something, they want to pay for the dinner.
05:01You know what I mean?
05:02First I'll be like, ah, don't worry about it.
05:04But now I'm just like, no, like go through with it.
05:06You want to, you want to pay for it?
05:08Like pay for it.
05:09You know what I mean?
05:10I put it in my ear like, oh God, you know I got something for you on us.
05:16A big heart, big love, big penis, all of that stuff.
05:31I really wanted to do like some really like shake that ass music randomly in this like
05:36super OD like pop 2000 song and I had to slap that in there.
05:41I just wanted this song to be like completely fun and void of having to like be like something
05:46like super meaningful or like full of depth or something like that.
05:49You know what I mean?
06:00Dream Boy, it originally started with me kind of like refining like my inner child and it
06:05was kind of like me coming to save myself and just like refine my fun in this shit and
06:10not having to like prove myself all the time.
06:13I just want to fucking have fun with this shit again.
06:15And that's kind of what Dream Boy initially started as.
06:18And then it became like this big thing where I'm doing like, I'm bringing all these different
06:21versions of me together.
06:23And I'm like tapping into so many different like areas of genres and different stuff.
06:28And you know, we've only seen like the very tip of the iceberg right now.
06:32But Dream Boy isn't even just an album.
06:34It's going to be a lengthy era of mine.
06:55I think for the most part, this song in general and a lot of this era is like a nod to my childhood,
07:00you know?
07:01I'm finding my inner child.
07:02These are a lot of the things that I grew up on and they brought like the biggest smiles
07:06to me as a kid.
07:07For this ending part, it was more so inspired by like, you know, like the Isley brothers,
07:12like Charlie Wilson's kind of like, you know, how they like had, they kind of like grews and
07:16it's like, you know, you like, you know how they do on like those songs?
07:22That's what this was.
07:22And I did want to say, I don't know, the top of 2024, it was a bit like scary for me.
07:30And I feel like I leaned out of my femininity a bit.
07:32That's what the pink was supposed to represent for me, like being able to sit comfortably
07:36in that and not really give a fuck again and just do me no matter what my outside world
07:42is looking like.