Rapper Lil Nas X, also known as Montero Lamar Hill, rolled out a limited edition pair of Nike sneakers featuring satanic imagery and a drop of human blood to coincide with his new music video that depicts him giving Satan a lap dance.
The so-called “Satan Shoes,” which are 666 individually numbered pairs of Nike Air Max 97s that were modified by the company MSCHF, will be going for $1,018 beginning March 29.
MSCHF x Lil Nas X "Satan Shoes" 🏹
👟Nike Air Max '97
🩸Contains 60cc ink and 1 drop of human blood
🗡️666 Pairs, individually numbered
💰$1,018
🗓️March 29th, 2021 pic.twitter.com/XUMA9TKGSX— SAINT (@saint) March 26, 2021
As HOLR Magazine reported:
[Hill] is putting out a limited release of Nike sneakers that are all about the Prince of Darkness and his kingdom … right down to the box artwork and even the shoe design itself, which features a pentagram emblem sitting on the laces.
There’s also a 666 reference toward the back of the shoe … with another number in front of it, alluding to which limited unit it is. Word is, MSCHF/Nike are only dishing out 666 of these puppies to the public … so if you have 6/666, that seems to mean you got the 6th model.
Here’s the kicker … apparently, these shoes will contain one drop of human blood somewhere along the soles. And no, not the metaphorical blood, sweat and tears of the factory workers who will presumably put these together … like, actual plasma-filled red stuff.
Although the shoes are Nike brand, the “Satan shoes” project is not affiliated with Nike. A spokesperson for the company told Snopes: “Nike did not release nor design these shoes.”
The 21-year-old Hill, a gay hip-hop artist who became famous for his hit song “Old Town Road” in 2019, told NPR in January that his core audience is children. Before releasing his Satan Shoes, Hill appeared with Elmo on “Sesame Street” and wrote a children’s book called “C Is For Country.”
Hill’s infernal footwear coincides with the release of the graphic new music video for his new song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” which trended at the top of YouTube with more than 25 million views as of Sunday afternoon. Replete with biblical and occult imagery, the video depicts Hill being sexually seduced in the Garden of Eden by Satan in serpentine form, after which the camera cuts to the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, made famous for its role in the Book of Genesis and the fall of man.
Etched into the tree’s bark is an ancient Greek quote from Plato’s “Symposium” that translates: “Now when our first form had been cut in two, each half in longing for its fellow would come to it again.” The passage is a reference to ancient pagan views of dualism and sexuality that taught humans were originally male, female, and androgynous, and that homosexuality is an attempt to recover one’s primal nature.
After being stoned to death by judgmental figures ostensibly condemning him for his sexuality, Hill then ascends toward an angelic being in heaven before sliding down to hell on a stripper pole. He discovers the devil sitting on his throne encircled with Latin that translates: “They condemn what they don’t understand.” After giving a lap dance to Satan, who happens to be wearing the expensive Nike shoes he is selling, Hill snaps his neck and assumes his horned crown.
Hill said dethroning Satan is symbolic of “dismantling the throne of judgment and punishment that has kept many of us from embracing our true selves out of fear,” according to Rolling Stone.
David Harris, magister for the Church of Satan, praised Hill for the video, telling Rolling Stone: “He obviously did his homework. Whether he consulted with us directly or did his own research, he clearly put a lot of effort into this video.”
The Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey in 1966, claims not to worship Satan as a deity but rather elevates the self and one’s own will as supreme. “Basically we worship ourselves. We refer to ourselves as I-theists,” Harris told Rolling Stone. “We see ourselves as our own god.”
Harris especially applauded the final scene of Hill’s video as particularly reflective of satanic principles. As Rolling Stone reported:
Indeed, the ending of the video, in which Lil Nas X snaps Satan’s neck and puts the horns on his own head to crown himself as a god, is what struck Harris as “the most Satanic part of the video.” “We view ourselves as the most powerful beings in the world. The fact that he crowned himself as Satan — now, that’s Satanic,” he says, noting it’s especially empowering in the context of Lil Nas X making a statement about his own journey as a black gay artist who has faced bigotry.
As for the infamous intratheistic lap dance, far from being sacareligious [sic], Satanists believe in all forms of consensual sexuality, so “someone giving a lap dance to anyone who wants one is obviously more than welcome within the confines of Satanism,” he says.
The Bible verse emblazoned along the side of Hill’s satanic sneakers is “Luke 10:18,” a verse in which Jesus Christ said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” The statement, which Jesus said in response to his disciples informing him they were able to perform exorcisms in his name, is considered by some scholars to be a reference to Satan’s original fall from heaven. Others, however, interpret it to be a description of Satan’s kingdom crumbling with the spread of the gospel.
As 18th-century biblical commentator Matthew Henry wrote of the passage:
Satan and his kingdom fell before the preaching of the gospel. “I see how it is,’’ saith Christ, “as you get ground the devil loseth ground.’’ He falls as lightning falls from heaven, so suddenly, so irrecoverably, so visibly, that all may perceive it, and say, “See how Satan’s kingdom totters, see how it tumbles.’’ They triumphed in casting devils out of the bodies of people; but Christ sees and rejoices in the fall of the devil from the interest he has in the souls of men, which is called his power in high places, Eph. 6:12.
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