Top 10 Surprising Facts About Lil Nas X

In this modern age, it takes more than talent to get your music heard by the masses - you also need to have a certain appeal on social media. Lil Nas X’s breakout single, “Old Town Road” is not only catchy, but also distinct in the way it blends hip hop with an overtly country sound. And so it found an audience on TikTok, becoming the soundtrack to the viral meme known as the “yee yee juice” or “yeehaw” challenge. In these videos, TikTok users will suddenly go from their plain-clothed selves to over-the-top, stereotypical cowboys or cowgirls when the beat drops in the song. TikTok didn’t singlehandedly make “Old Town Road” a success, but it sure helped!

So… how does a young aspiring rapper from Atlanta come up with a song as unique as “Old Town Road”? Interesting story! Lil Nas X, or Montero Lamar Hill as his friends and family know him, dropped out of school at 19 to pursue music. Unfortunately, chasing his dreams caused him to leave his parents’ place and then be kicked out of his sister’s after she had taken him in. As any artist will tell you however, suffering can often serve as inspiration, and in Lil Nas X’s case, this sense of abandonment caused him to identify with the lone cowboy archetype. And channeling that inner cowboy... he was inspired to write a massive hit song.

For everything Lil Nas X has done right in his career, there are many people who would argue that he made one major mistake - his name. Nas is just about one of the most respected MCs to ever pick up a mic. For countless hip hop fans, X taking that name really rubbed them the wrong way. And you can’t blame them; imagine a rapper named Big Eminem or Yung Tupac Z. By X’s own admission, he started using the name long before he was taking himself seriously - no disrespect to Nas was ever intended. And then it just sort of stuck. Accepting the criticism he’s received, Lil Nas X has stated that he’s considering changing his name in the future.

Despite the naysayers, and his relatively young age, Lil Nas X has managed to win over legions of fans from all walks of life - including his peers in the entertainment industry. It’s no secret that country musician Billy Ray Cyrus likes what the young rapper is doing, even joining Lil Nas X for a remix of “Old Town Road”. X can also count Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line among his fans. Perhaps his biggest endorsement to date, however, is the Biebs! Pop superstar Justin Bieber included Old Town Road in one of his Instagram stories in March of 2019. Those are some seriously high profile fans.

As previously mentioned, social media played a role in helping Lil Nas X rise to fame. But before his music was going viral on TikTok, he apparently had a knack for producing viral content on Twitter. Or at least… people think it was him. Internet sleuths are convinced that he operated popular Nicki Minaj fan accounts @nasmaraj and @nasmarai, which specialized in producing viral Twitter threads, including choose-your-own adventure threads popular with YouTubers. Unfortunately, the accounts also used questionable tactics known as “tweetdecking”, and later faced accusations of having posted Islamophobic content. For his part, Lil Nas X has denied running the accounts, referring to the situation as “a big misunderstanding”.

Consider this: Nine Inch Nails has been active for over 30 years. The influential alternative/industrial rock band has written and recorded numerous memorable songs over their decades-long career, but the songwriters in the band didn’t have a Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping track to their names until Lil Nas X stepped onto the scene. So… how in the world does Nine Inch Nails fit into the success of “Old Town Road”? The song prominently features a sample from their instrumental song "34 Ghosts IV". For credited songwriters and Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, this translated into the first No. 1 single to involve the band’s music. “Old Town Road” might not technically be their song, but it wouldn’t exist without them.

Before becoming a chart-topping musician and the icon-in-the-making he is today, Lil Nas X was just your average 19 year old, attending college at the University of West Georgia. After just one year of studies however, he dropped out of school to pursue a career in music. As previously mentioned, his family was not thrilled. But can you really blame them? Countless young aspiring musicians have done the same and failed to make it. Thankfully, Lil Nas X proved to be one of the rare exceptions. Not only did he find success in the industry, but he also managed to do it in record time. Less than a year after X dropped out, “Old Town Road” had blown up.

In many ways, “Old Town Road” feels like a song without precedent. It’s by no means the first time an artist has blurred the lines between hip hop and country, but the approach is typically far more subtle - a word no one would use to describe “Old Town Road”. Despite its overt reverence for country tropes, the song was ultimately deemed to not be in keeping with the genre conventions of country, and so the single was unceremoniously booted from the Hot Country songs chart, where it had risen to #19. The fallout was substantial, with many fans (including some rather big name ones) making accusations that the decision was influenced by underlying racism. Either way, the decision certainly sparked debate.

Just before his 20th birthday, Lil Nas X’s hit single dethroned Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” to claim the number one spot. In July of 2019, after 13 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Old Town Road” officially broke the chart’s record for longest-running No. 1 hip-hop song in history. But that’s not all! In April, he topped Drake’s previous record (by a wide margin) for the highest streaming numbers in a single week. Jump forward to July and his other singles like "F9mily (You & Me)" and "Bring U Down" are cracking the Top 10 on the Rock Streaming charts, proving that Lil Nas X isn’t done making waves or smashing down genre barriers.

On the last day of Pride Month, June 30th, 2019, Lil Nas X came out in a tweet that read “some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure.” followed by a number of emojis, including a rainbow. He later followed this up by highlighting the rainbows in the artwork of his album. The musician has weathered a fair amount of homophobic responses since then, but there has also been a massive outpouring of praise and support from fans, the LGBTQ community and celebrities including the likes of Diplo, MNEK, Dwyane Wade and Miley Cyrus.