How Old Town Road singer Lil Nas X went from sleeping on floors to being one of the biggest pop stars in the world
THERE’S no doubt which song has been the sound of the summer.
With a record-breaking 19 weeks at the top of the charts in America, two weeks at number one here and more than a billion streams, everyone has been singing about “the horses in the back”.
Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road was named Song of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards this week and was recommended by former US President Barack Obama on his annual summer playlist.
Put simply, Old Town Road is everywhere.
But it’s far more than a simple catchy hit — and Lil Nas X is not your run-of-the-mill pop star.
The story behind the 20-year-old American’s success is a very millennial tale of racial politics, social media and LGBT issues.
White country music traditionalists were outraged about a black singer’s mash up of banjo and hip hop crashing into their charts.
And Lil Nas X, real name Montero Lamar Hill, suffered homophobic abuse when he publicly came out as gay in June.
Less than a year ago the youngster was a total unknown, raised on a crime-ridden housing project in Georgia.
Now he’s been on the cover of Time magazine — a spot normally reserved for world leaders or Nobel Prize winners — and reportedly rejected a $1million-plus record deal with Amuse before signing with Columbia Records in March.
He’s been rubbing shoulders with some of the industry’s biggest hitters including Rihanna, Katy Perry and Janet Jackson, and even the world’s richest man, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
As he messaged his 2.7million followers on Twitter in July: “Wow man last year I was sleeping on my sisters floor, had no money, struggling to get plays on my music, suffering from daily headaches, now i’m gay. (sic)”.
Born in the city of Lithia Springs, Georgia, Montero moved a short distance to the notorious Bankhead Courts housing complex in downtown Atlanta at the age of six when his parents divorced.
The now demolished estate, built on a former landfill site, was so dangerous that even the postmen requested police escorts.
At the age of nine his gospel singer dad became the main carer, taking Montero to live in small town Austell in the Southern state.
While Montero was a gifted vocalist, like many 21st century teens he saw social media as a more obvious route to fame.
Online he took on the Lil Nas persona, regularly creating fun memes in the hope of one going viral.
The smartphone addict also ran a fan account devoted to the singer Nicki Minaj.
Lil Nas says: “I was doing Facebook comedy videos, then I moved over to Instagram, and then I hopped on Twitter.
“That is where I really was a master. That was the first place where I could go viral.”
Having only started making music in May 2018, he stumbled across the infectious beat that forms the basis of Old Town Road.
Lil Nas found the sample, which uses a banjo line from American rock band obscure Nine Inch Nails’ obscure album track 34 Ghosts IV, on a website called BeatStars.
For just £25 he was able to buy the musical basis of the track from a 19-year-old Dutch producer called Kiowa Roukema, who operates under the name YoungKio.
These collaborators didn’t even meet, with the record producer not knowing Lil Nas had turned it into a song until it went viral.
It’s the lyrics that people find really catchy, though, and their melancholic edge.
Lil Nas recalled: “My parents were disappointed in me for leaving school to do music, so it was like a loner cowboy song.
“ ‘I’m gonna ride ’til I can’t no more’ — meaning, just keep riding, don’t stop. I felt like that cowboy lifestyle would definitely fit that song the best.”
After writing it, though, Lil Nas felt more positive and saw the horse as representing the means by which someone could get to where they wanted to go.
Turning Old Town Road into a hit was less simple than writing it.
He didn’t know anyone in the music business, had no manager, no money and no record label.
Instead Lil Nas plugged the track relentlessly on social media making more than 100 short videos so as many people heard it as possible.
Users of the mobile video site TikTok really caught on to the song’s foot-stomping potential, creating a Yee-Haw meme challenge that saw them switch from regular garb into cowboy gear mid-track.
Lil Nas said: “This is no accident. I’ve been pushing this hard.”
The profanity-free, child-friendly lyrics about “Ridin’ on a tractor” meant it found a wide audience with five-year-olds gleefully singing along.
By March it had been streamed enough to reach number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country chart in the United States.
Traditionalists complained about a “rapper” being classified as “country” and within a few days it was removed from the list.
Billboard was blasted for being racist and Miley Cyrus’s father Billy Ray defended Lil Nas.
The country legend, who had a massive hit with Achy Breaky Heart, said: “It was so obvious to me after hearing the song just one time.
“I was thinking, what’s not country about it? What’s the rudimentary element of a country and western song?
“It’s honest, humble, and has an infectious hook, and a banjo. What the hell more do ya need?”
Billy Ray agreed to appear on a remix of the song, sending Old Town Road to the top of the charts.
The mash-up between country and hip hop, which has been dubbed “country trap” or “hick hock”, was number one for 19 weeks in the US, trumping Mariah Carey’s 1995 One Sweet Day, by two weeks.
At Glastonbury this summer Lil Nas performed Old Town Road with Billy Ray and Miley and now has a deal with Wrangler, the denim brand name checked in the song, which launched a collection of clothing with either his name or the song title on.
Since then, Lil Nas had released an EP called 7 and a second single Panini, as well as picking up his VMA gong — when he brought humour to the night by unfurling a massive scroll of people to thank in his acceptance speech.
Not content with challenging the old white world of country music, the musician is also confronting the machismo of rap.
Rap music has a reputation for homophobia due to the derogatory words found in early songs and only a few black musicians have dared to come out as gay.
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When Lil Nas revealed he was gay he faced a barrage of trolls, insulting him on social media.
But he’s happy to have stood up for what he believes, saying: “I feel like I’m opening the doors for more people.
“That they feel more comfortable being out. Especially in the hip-hop community. It’s still not accepted.”
This outsider has ridden into town and is shaking up the music industry.
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