Taking the "Old Town Road" to the Top

“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X has taken the world by storm.  However, it wasn’t a hit as soon as it was released and had an interesting climb to the top.  In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the journey of both Lil Nas X and his hit song “Old Town Road.”

Lil Nas X

Montero Lamar Hill (Lil Nas X) was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1999.  Before he was a music artist, Lil Nas X actually ran a Nicki Minaj fan account on Twitter with the handle @NasMaraj.  His account was popular, not for music, but viral Tweets.  He was what became known as a “Tweetdecker,” who use the app TweetDeck to essentially generate mass amounts of fake retweets and favorites.  The account has since been suspended but has had multiple accounts and was encouraged to make music.

“Old Town Road” Beginning

“Old Town Road” was Lil Nas X’s debut song, released December 3, 2018.  The song originally gained popularity through TikTok, a social media app that lets users create music videos.  The song was used for a meme called the “Yee Haw Challenge” where the subject in the video drinks “yee haw juice” and turns into a country character, such as a cowboy, while “Old Town Road” plays in the background.

Billboard Controversy

“Old Town Road” debuted at 83 in the Billboard Hot 100, including number 19 for country and 36 for hip-hop/R&B.  However, as it started gaining traction, Billboard removed the song from the country section because they determined it was not a country song.  This immediately resulted in outrage on social media as many viewed it as race-related.  Billboard insisted that it had nothing to do with race and that even though the song talks about themes often present in country songs, the music composition did not have enough country elements.  I agree with Billboard that it is not a country song; however, there would’ve been much less of a controversy had they never put “Old Town Road” in the country section to begin with.

Remix

The Billboard controversy did not set “Old Town Road” and Lil Nas X back as he released the remix to the hit song shortly after.  The remix featured country star Billy Ray Cyrus but was still not placed on the Billboard country list.  Nonetheless, the remix reached even greater heights than the original as it set the record for most streams in the United States over a one-week period.  At the time of writing, the Old Town Road remix is number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has spent 3 weeks in the number 1 spot.  There is a rumor that another remix is in the works featuring Young Thug as well.


“Old Town Road” has had an interesting route to the top of the charts and it’ll be fun to see what Lil Nas X will bring us next.