Los Angeles, March 29 (IANS) Rapper Lil Nas X has spoken about what fame cost him. The rapper was recently spotted at the red carpet of a Media Award in Los Angeles where he spoke about his brush with fame.

The ‘Industry Baby’ performer opened up about his new era, and why he no longer feels the need to please the masses, reports ‘People’ magazine.

He said, "I wanna be myself more than ever in this era. I want to be completely free out there, only doing the things that I wanna do. If I do not want to do it, I'm not doing it. If I don't want to be there, I'm not gonna be there. I think it's more important than ever to really stand in myself and my power and recognize where I'm taking my energy and where I don't want to take it”.

As per ‘People’, when he was asked what was holding back before, the rapper recalled feeling like he needed "everybody to like me before”.

"When I started to let go of it more, I would still hold onto it. And now I'm here and I'm just... I'm showing up as me. I'm existing”, he shared.

On Friday, March 28, Lil Nas X released his latest project, ‘Days Before Dreamboy’. The EP follows his 2021 release Montero.

Since then, the singer-songwriter kept a relatively low profile and paused on releasing music, with the exception of his feature on Camila Cabello's ‘He Knows’ in May of last year, ‘Here We Go’ in June and a series of singles that began in November. "I had to experience a mundane life”, the ‘Panini’ singer says of his time away from the spotlight.

“I jumped straight into adulthood with extreme fame around me. So it was really nice to be just outside walking and meeting people in the streets and eating at restaurants, just even alone, spending a lot of alone time in solitude”, he added.