Culture Lil Nas X Is Bloody Mad Tony Hawk's Blood Skateboards Sparked Less Outcry Than His 'Satan' Shoes

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/lil-nas-x-is-bloody-mad-tony-hawks-blood-skateboards-sparked-less-outcry-than-his-satan-shoes/ar-AANKj8a

Lil Nas X Is Bloody Mad Tony Hawk's Blood Skateboards Sparked Less Outcry Than His 'Satan' Shoes​

Alex Noble

Lil Nas X is speculating as to why Tony Hawk's new blood-infused skateboards aren't stirring up quite the same satanic panic his bloody sneakers did.

On Wednesday, the "Industry Baby" rapper tweeted about what he feels is a double standard in the public's relatively mild reception of Hawk's boards compared to the widespread condemnation of his similarly macabre sneakers earlier this year.

"Now that Tony Hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them, and there was no public outrage, are y'all ready to admit y'all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes?" he wrote. "And maybe u were mad for some other reason?"

Lil Nas is of course referring to his and the pro skater's differing identities and therefore privileges in society, the former being a queer Black man and the latter a straight white man.

Hawk's skateboards, a publicity stunt for water brand Liquid Death, sold out in minutes with little to no criticism on Tuesday. According to Insider, "Birdman" gave two vials of his own blood, which was then mixed into the paint used on the boards. The design features a drawing of a topless man whose head has been replaced by a can of water. He is also carrying a bloody ax and the skull of a hawk.

A promotional video for the boards also sees Hawk quipping that Liquid Death now "officially owns my soul."

All 666 of Lil Nas's "Satan Shoes" also sold out rapidly once they were announced in March but never hit shelves after being labeled as "disrespectful" (oh, and that Nike lawsuit). The shoes were a promotion for the rapper's upcoming "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" music video, which featured him giving Satan a lap dance before murdering him and taking over his throne in hell.

The Twitterverse is divided as to whether the difference in backlash was racially and homophobically motivated or whether it was Lil Nas X's (real name Montero Lamar Hill) enhanced anti-Christ imagery that rubbed people the wrong way.

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Both products are disgusting, but Lil Nas X's shoes are even more disgusting because the blood in it probably has HIV

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Tony doesn't have AID's.

 

[Screw Danlon]

Exactly this. If he hadn't made a big deal about the shoes being "Satanic" not one person would have gotten outraged.

Of course, if people hadn’t gotten outraged, literally no one would have heard about them, because otherwise who cares? Bad rappers release ugly novelty shoes all the time. Hell, even with the outrage, I didn’t hear about them then. I’m only hearing about them now because he can no longer remix his own music and has to remix his own outrage.

also, mixing blood into paint that will be under a layer of varnish is significantly safer than whatever he would do with it in his sneakers. Both are disgusting, but at least one probably won’t be a literal biohazard.

 

[Admin Dissipate Swordfish]

Call me homophobic but I'm not a big fan of gay person blood.

That's just having common sense and being wary of AIDS

 

[BerriesArnold]

Call me old-fashioned, but why is the blood thing a trend now?

 

[The Last Stand]

Okay, in what world was Lil Nas X in to market Satanic imagery and blood on a pair of sneakers? And think it's okay?

Call me old-fashioned, but why is the blood thing a trend now?

Celebrities nowadays are literally the devil. That's the only explanation I could think of.

 

[Niggernerd]

Probably because people won't get aids from his skateboards

 

[HondaRider271]

Rappist business plan:
-Make super crappy product, song or service based exclusively on how offensive they perceive it to be towards older white and conservative black people
-Use the media to promote how offensive and controversial it is, as to ensure the proper level of offense is achieved
-Collect money from young rebellious kids who buy it on the basis of how subversive and antisocial it is
-When it becomes less popular or it doesn't sell, blame institutional racism for a final attempt at publicity

I'm actually impressed he just sort of hinted at how it was racist that Tony Hawk's product didn't get negative press, instead of outright saying it. But otherwise it's literally the exact same tactic as has been used for decades now.

Also, another reason Tony Hawk's product didn't get negative press, aside from the obvious non-satanic branding, was that skateboarding culture is inherently a counterculture. Shoe culture is not, because everybody wears shoes, especially nike shoes. But the market of skateboarding is super saturated with anti-establishment consumers.

 

[PuffyGroundCloud]

Tony Hawk can get away with it because it's an actual collaboration with Liquid Death (a nice sparkling water, very edgy marketing)
Lil Nas X is assmad because Nike is not even onboard with the bloody shoes (ha!) and this nigger faggot collab with MSCHF not Nike.

 

[Mans Holeman]

Maybe I'm out of touch but does getting off on Satan (In this case literally) still count as edgy? It's been many moons since the big satanic panic days. It appears this nigger faggot is bitter that the bird man was able to take his gimmick and run with it while not fucking it up.

 

[Flaming Insignias]

Call me old-fashioned, but why is the blood thing a trend now?

Infusing blood into red ink/paint has actually been around for a while. Two notable examples prior to the Satan Shoes was KISS’ Marvel collab comic and Saddam’s Blood Qaran. This isn’t even getting into anthropodermic bibliopegy, better known as binding books with human skin, which bounces back and forth in regards to just how many actually existed; we have quite a few confirmed cases just in the 19th century though, mostly from the cadavers of executed criminals.

 

[Pixy]

Maybe because one was a skateboard and the other were blood infused Satanic jogger shoes?

Maybe the... um... SATANIC part?

It has nothing to do with the fact he's black and gay, it has to do with he's an edgelord faggot.

There was a similar moral outrage over the comics with some of Stan Lee's blood on the cover, though that was tied up in allegations of elder abuse and other zany antics.

 

[Red Hood]

Lil Nas X must not play Doom, walking around sporting bloody satanic imagery is a REALLY bad idea when Doomguy is among us. And presumably, since Tony Hawk is both a video game character that has merged with our reality and Doomguy appeared in THPS3, they're probably friends.

 

[StevieLasVegas]

Tony Hawk appropriated a Black person's idea of using blood to sell products.

I remember Joey Jordison (former Slipknot drummer and Murderdolls guitarist. RIP) did the same thing with some limited edition signature drumsticks, so Nas isn't even the first musician do pull this stunt. Mind you, Joey was far more humble about it in the promo video for it than Nas is with his gay ass shoes.

 

[round robin]

Lots of black people are religious, so of course they're going to get upset when an edgy black fag makes Satan Nikes. He's insufferable. Is Lil Nas X the rap version of Sonic Fox that constantly tells you he's black AND gay?

They may be closer than you think.

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

Because Tony Hawk didn't insult the religion most Americans belong to.

Complaining that Satanic imagery goes down badly in Christian countries is like being surprised Jews don't come and eat at a restaurant called the "Adolf Hitler Bacon Cheeseburger Emporium".

 

[Chan the Wizard]

Didn’t his shoes sell out and the only people upset were a very small minority of boomers who are still stuck on “satanic panic?”
I think Nike is the one who put an end to it, since he was using their branding to promote his faggy edge lord shoes.

 

[CharlesBarkley]

Gay faggot cries about attention levels. How shocking.

 

[Miller]

There's no controversy for Tony Hawk because there's no risk of him spreading AIDS.

 

[Fireman Sam]

maybe because no one actually gives a shit the first time round and it was all manufactured outrage because this isn't the 70s and doing le satan meme isn't even considered edgy now.

 

[murdered meat bag]

Call me old-fashioned, but why is the blood thing a trend now?

white broads have been doing blood shit for a while. like ballet, symphony, joining a union blacks are jusr late to the game.