MUSIC
Lil Nas X Is More Than “Old Town Road”
MARCH / APRIL 2020
The artist of last year’s most viral song is paving the way for LGBTQ+ performers in hip-hop
The one song everybody knew the words to in 2019 was “Old Town In just a few years, he would find his own music becoming popular Road” by new artist Lil Nas X. The song went viral, and exploded on the internet, thanks to the social media platform TikTok. on both radio and online platforms. It became so successful, multiple remixes were released with other recording artists spanning multiple “Old Town Road,” which was released at the end of 2018, started genres. North West even directed and produced her own music video to gain popularity during the first half of 2019 – and as it got even for the song starring her mom, Kim Kardashian West. It felt like more attention online, it started to steamroll through to mainstream the whole world was singing along to “Old Town Road,” but we music charts. The song was so popular, it was re-released a number didn’t know much about the person behind the viral hit. So, let’s roll. of times with various collaborators such as Diplo, Mason Ramsey (the Walmart yodelling kid), a member of the K-pop band BTS The 20-year-old performer of the song, Lil Nas X, was born Montero and, most famously, the version with Billy Ray Cyrus, which is Lamar Hill in a small city outside of Atlanta, Ga. Following his still played regularly on mainstream radio stations. As the song parents’ divorce, he headed to the place where most preteens in continued to reach new heights, it was clear that Lil Nas X had the 2010s found themselves: online. At a time when meme culture finally gotten the viral recognition he had always wanted. was beginning to boom, and there were actual people making actual money posting videos of their daily lives on YouTube, the Whether you’ve heard it a few times, or more times than you would possibilities to go viral were endless. like to admit, there is something undeniably special, and different, about “Old Town Road” compared to anything we’ve ever heard Hill’s original plan of succeeding was to become a popular internet before. Its mixture of hop-hop and country music has launched Lil personality, often appearing in various comedy videos on Facebook. Nas X into the mainstream music scene with a sound and aesthetic He told Rolling Stone he was regularly posting on various social that is purely his own. media platforms in the hope that something he made would go viral. Not reaching the level of hype he was hoping for, he then launched On the last day of June 2019 – after “Old Town Road” had gone a Nicki Minaj fan account on Twitter, which became wildly popular. platinum, and was the song stuck in everybody’s head whether they 22
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