Today, as the genre-busting music star Lil Nas X releases his new album, Montero, he’s asking fans to donate to HIV and LGBTQ advocacy groups. Relationship Unleashed (RUNL) from Memphis, TN, is among those included on Lil Nas X’s “baby registry,” connected to the song “Scoop” (featuring Doja Cat).
Relationship Unleashed is one of 13 organizations to be included on the registry, all affiliated with the Gilead Commitment to Partnership in Addressing HIV/AIDS in Southern States (COMPASS) Initiative. The full list of songs and groups is here. Lil Nas X also featured Mardrequs Harris of the Southern AIDS Coalition, a COMPASS Coordinating Center, during his performance at the MTV Video Music Awards last Sunday night. Mardrequs wore the number 433,816, representing the number of people living with HIV in the U.S. South as of 2015, which has increased substantially over the years.
Gwendolyn D. Clemons, who founded RUNL in 2014 with her son, Dr. Davin D. Clemons, told me a bit more about their organization’s recognition by the performer who rode “Old Town Road” to stardom.
Memphis Flyer: How did this remarkable show of support from Lil Nas X come about?
Gwendolyn D. Clemons: We are a grantee of Gilead’s COMPASS Initiative, where they committed to spend $100 million over the next ten years in the South. They’ve identified twelve states in the South where there’s a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, and it’s largely in the Black community. So Lil Nas X is trying to raise awareness about this epidemic, and he’s using his platform to increase revenue for grassroots organizations like ours.
In his marketing campaign, when he appeared pregnant, which got everybody in an uproar, the pregnancy didn’t have anything to do with the physical conception of a person. It was about his new album. He was birthing his album, and adopting these organizations, and putting us on a “baby registry.” Like a person would do if they were having a child. So each organization was placed with a song on his album.
We are placed with the song called “Scoop,” which features the phenomenal singer Doja Cat. I was excited about that. We were recommended when he reached out to Gilead COMPASS Initiative, and a couple of other sustaining centers that govern the grants. I got the call from the University of Houston. We were a grantee of theirs last year. This year, we’re a grantee of Wake Forest University. We were funded to provide a faith-based, HIV in the Black Church project that we’re getting ready to launch.
So part of his “baby registry” idea is that people will personally donate, in addition to any grants you may receive?
Absolutely. He’s promoting his project to all of his fans, and even people who are not his fans. His Instagram account alone has over 10 million followers. You can click on the link, you can research the organizations, and if you feel compelled, he’s asking you to provide donations.
Have you seen a spike in donations?
Actually, the announcement was leaked out last Friday, and we did see donations coming in, in increments as small as five dollars, and as much as $100. And they’re coming in today from all over the world. Some of them are visiting our website, and I’m able to track where the traffic is coming from.
The work we do is very personal to us. That’s the reason for us founding the nonprofit, because a lot of friends and family were affected and infected, and have died and passed. We felt like there was a need that was not being met. And we wanted to raise awareness by putting a face with it, or having somebody out front of it. We’ve been doing this since 2014, so we feel like it’s our time. We’ve been out here, trying to raise money, trying to secure funding, paying out of our own pockets, because we’re passionate about the work that we do. I just believe that if you do it long enough and you’re consistent, you’ll finally have a breakthrough. So we’re looking forward to riding this wave.
Chris Paul Thompson 