Every day brings us one step closer to Lil Nas X‘s debut album, Montero, due out September 17.
On Tuesday, the “Industry Baby” artist debuted the album’s official artwork, a psychedelic piece that depicts a nude Lil Nas X floating over a waterfall while surrounded by rainbows, butterflies and droplets of water. The cover also features buildings reminiscent of Greco-Roman architecture, lush green grass and a twisted tree, underneath which a smaller Lil Nas X is reclining while playing with bubbles and butterflies.
As fans furiously attempted to decode the hidden messages and meanings in Montero‘s cover art, Lil Nas X revealed that a certain yellow sponge inspired his pose.
Taking to Twitter after the reveal, he shared a SpongeBob SquarePants meme, which features the titular character rising up to the rainbow sky while an iPod, connected by a pair of headphones, dangles beneath him.
Lil Nas X then featured the meme side-by-side with his new album artwork and captioned it, “inspiration.”
“The album art is a continuous loop, to represent the circle of life,” he added in another tweet before revealing that he was inspired by another external source for the colorful album cover.
Lil Nas X revealed in a follow up that the concept was inspired by a Bible verse found in Genesis 2:1-2, “Thus the heavens and the Earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” He also revealed the album’s backdrop was a tribute to a painting by artist John Stephens and shared a side-by-side comparison, as well.
Lil Nas X also promised on Twitter that he will reveal Montero‘s track list today.
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