Lil Nas X Blasts Back With Data Dump of Cryptic Images, Snippets of Songs Featuring Lil Jon, Young Kio

Lil Nas X went on a song spree earlier this year when he surprise-dropped the eight-track Days Before Dreamboy EP, a mini album that collected a clutch of singles he’d released in late 2024 and early 2025. And then… well, things got quiet.

The rapper revealed that he was hospitalized in April with what he said was partial facial paralysis, the cause of which was never disclosed, and then popped in to the Jennifer Hudson Show in May to once again tease his follow-up to his 2021 debut full-length LP, Montero. Things went dark again for a few months until this week when Lil Nas wiped his Instagram and re-populated it with song snippets of a number of new tracks featuring A-list collaborators.

The spree started on Tuesday morning (Aug. 19) with a mysterious image of Nas in white cowboy boots and a golden dress holding a pair of lanterns in a room piled high with different colored material on the floor. That was followed by a shot of what appeared to be a desk surrounded by paintings, sculptures, light fixtures and other marginalia, again offered with no context or commentary, as well as a shot of a furry white chair bookended with a dramatic, regal painting of the MC and a white sheet hanging askew behind the tableau.

And then things got really interesting with a playful selfie in which Nas rocked a fur coat and light brown cowboy hat — topped with a crown — and bright red lipstick with the caption, ‘OH NO sHES GONE MAD! CRAZY I TELL U!, followed by a snap of him throwing up a peace sign in front of a computer screen, the floor littered with stereo equipment and a dirty propane tank with the cryptic caption, “the god of music dare i say? me not jay z, no shade.”

A few more images came next, including one of Nas in the gold dress and boots in a lit-up full-length mirror with the tease, “and just like that she’s back. We’ve all waited so long. When dreamworld needed her the most,” which paved the way for an untitled, slow-rolling song produced by Young Kio with a woozy guitar and a throwback to his breakthrough “Old Town Road” cowboy vibe.

“Turn on the cable, Nassy’s out the stable/ B–ch I’m back around, let them n–gas know it’s fatal/

And I ain’t finna take s–t, n–gas better watch it/ You know I love the sound of them rounds when the Glock hit,” he raps on a song whose title appears to be “Black Horse.”

He also dropped a snippet of “Kimbo” featuring Lil Jon, a big beat banger on which he solemnly sings the chorus, “I know you feel pressure/ When nobody’s around/ You Kimbo/ And I know you feel tempted/ When nobody’s around,” before dropping into a greasy verse on which he raps, “I want like three hoes on some Xans/ I’m with YTO and some friends/ I’m a five-star b–ch with a six pack/ Seven n–gas on me whenI walk into that G spot.”

And though he’d earlier shared a snippet of one of his most legendary unreleased songs, “Down Souf Hoes,” featuring Sexyy Red and Saucy Santana, at press time that post had been deleted.

The final two clips, uploaded on Wednesday morning (Aug. 20) find Nas, in boots and a white robe, banging a tambourine and standing in front of the pile of gear pictured in the previous snaps and crooning a cappella, “I want to live/ I want to fight/ I want to live a wondrous life/ I want to go, I want to thrive/ I want to live a wondrous life/ Oh what a life, oh what a life.”

A final video spotlights a poppy, keyboard-heavy untitled song playing over an image of a colorful floor-to-ceiling mural as he sings, “strange things keep happening.” At press time a spokesperson for Lil Nas had not responded to Billboard‘s request for information on the album’s release date and the new song snippets.