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Lil Nas X has officially confirmed that he is dating and it’s serious. The rapper is one of three stars to grace Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood issue (the other two are Olivia Rodrigo and Thomas Doherty).

In the issue, Lil Nas X (real name Montero Lamar Hill) talks about his stellar career, including his success in the music charts and potential forays into acting. The gay performer also talks about his personal life.

He says before his success with ‘Old Town Road’, his dating experience had been limited.

“I didn’t really have a sexual life besides one person or two,” he said of his experiences pre-fame. “It’s definitely made things a lot more interesting, to say the least.”

“I’ve had some good boyfriends and some bad ones. A lot of them were emotionally unavailable or had a lot of insecurity and whatnot.”

He confirmed he’s now in a serious relationship.

“[But] I’ve found someone special now. I think this is the one. I can’t explain it — it’s just a feeling.”

He stops short of giving any more details or revealing who his boyfriend is. There has been speculation that he may be dating Yai Ariza, the dancer with whom he shared an on-stage kiss at the BET Awards.

That kiss, and Lil Nas X’s music videos, have led to plenty of backlash from more conservative voices within the rap industry. He says he tries not to get drawn into responding.

“The honest truth is, I don’t want to speak on a lot of the homophobia within rap because I feel like this is a very dangerous playing field. It’s more for my own safety rather than anything else.”

He then went on to say he had sometimes felt unsafe because of the reaction his music and videos had provoked.

“Yeah, a lot of times, absolutely. Especially after [Montero]. There was literally someone who chased my car a few days after that video came out, yelling, ‘F*** you!’ or something. And that’s when I actually started getting security.”

In terms of acting, he revealed he had turned down a role on the hit show Euphoria.

“I was actually going to do Euphoria, but I didn’t want to take time away from finishing my album.

“I definitely want to get into acting, but I feel I have to give it my all, and I want to focus on music for right now. I want my first movie to be amazing.”

He later took to Twitter to say that he loved the show and didn’t mean to imply he was too good for it.

Lil Nas X currently has two singles in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100: ‘Industry Baby’ at number seven and ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ at number eight. He told Variety his debut album, entitled Montero, will be out before the end of the summer.

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