Old Town Road

Lil Nas X Celebrates Beating ‘The Horse Boy Allegations’ As ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Passes ‘Old Town Road’ On Spotify

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Lil Nas X proved he wasn’t just a one-hit-wonder long ago — multiple times, no less — but he still seemed pretty amped to learn that one of his Montero singles finally surpassed his breakout hit on DSPs. Now that he’s returned to Twitter, he had the perfect joke for the occasion, too. “Just found out call me by your name passed old town road in streams,” he announced. “We beat the horse boy allegations.”

He’s joking — sort of, and also always — but there was a time the TikTok-trend sparking “Old Town Road” was Nas’ signature hit. He performed in full cowboy regalia for nearly a solid year and even admits that by the end of the song’s monstrous, historical run, he was growing a little tired of it. And while he was able to produce bangers like “Panini,” “Rodeo,” and “Holiday” in the aftermath of “OTR’s” dominance, it almost looked like he would be known solely by his first hit.

Then “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” dropped as the first single to his debut album Montero, and rather than being the horse boy, he’d become the devil man, with the video for his second No. 1 hit setting off seismic waves of speculation and disconcerted, sputtering backlash from conservative commentators. That would have been enough to wipe away the “one-hit-wonder” tag, but then he dropped “Industry Baby” to garner his third No. 1, just for good measure.

Lil Nas X Thinks He Would Never Have Come Out If ‘Old Town Road’ Wasn’t So Successful

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In a new interview with XXL, Lil Nas X recounts coming out in the wake of the success of his hit song “Old Town Road,” calling it a “duty” to represent other queer people within hip-hop. He previously called the making of his song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” therapeutic for him after coming out, which he tells XXL is something he would not have done had “Old Town Road” not been so popular and successful.

“I don’t think I would have ever came out,” he says. “I honestly felt like it was kind of my duty. Especially if I wanted to move forward. And what I was doing, because authenticity is very real, and I feel like people can see right through that. And that’s a part of me.”

His reluctance is understandable. While his announcement was greeted with plenty of acceptance, there were also those who rejected him — as he rightly predicted they would when he refused to admit to being a Nicki Minaj stan. Almost immediately, he faced backlash from other famous figures. He was forced to check Kevin Hart on The Shop over Hart’s old homophobic bits, while in the wake of his success, he’s had to field knee-jerk reactions from other rappers like Dave East, Joyner Lucas, and Boosie Badazz, while shutting down Twitter commenters who claim he’s “being gay for success.”

Nas also had a hard time recruiting other rappers to feature on his debut album Montero, telling a fan on Twitter, “maybe they didn’t want to work with me.” Fortunately, he’s got others on his side such as Kid Cudi, who believes Nas will “break down” the “cloud of homophobia” stifling hip-hop simply by being an example to the youth who might feel left out right now.

Lil Nas X Admits He Thought Billie Eilish Winning A Grammy Over Him Wasn’t ‘Fair’

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At the 2020 Grammy Awards, Lil Nas X was nominated for six awards and he ended up winning a couple, taking home the prizes for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video (both for “Old Town Road”). Of the four losses, the one that hurt him the most was Record Of The Year, which went to “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish (who notably won all four major Grammys that year) instead of his own “Old Town Road.” In a new cover story for British GQ Style, the rapper admits that initially, he was jealous of Eilish for her win and thought it wasn’t “fair” that his record-breaking single didn’t get the award.

He said that as Eilish accepted the award, he thought, “Damn, but how? I have the biggest song. That isn’t fair.” Months later while in lockdown, though, he reflected on that evening and found a different point of view. He said, “I put all that energy I was feeling onto her. It became jealousy that wasn’t warranted. You have the longest-running number one song, why the f*ck are you jealous about this award? We are already so blessed. Even if you don’t have these things, you’re here. You’re still alive. You exist. You shouldn’t have any reason to be jealous.”

Read the full feature here.

Lil Nas X Claps Back At Joyner Lucas’ ‘Montero’ Criticism: There’s ‘Lean And Adultery In ‘Old Town Road”

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Lil Nas X’s new “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video has become a moment since its release last week, partially because reactions have been mixed. Some admire the clip’s creativity and execution (like Big Sean) while others pushed back against the imagery of Hell and the devil. It turns out Joyner Lucas has a foot in both camps and Nas has shared his thoughts on the criticism from his fellow rapper.

In a pair of tweets, Lucas (who became a trending topic on Twitter after posting about the video) started by praising the clip before noting the video’s potential impact on children: “That @LilNasX video is wild but as a artist he doing everything he supposed to do. Creating viral moments, making people talk, & creating content he already knew you was going to react to. It’s a formula guaranteed to work. I doubt he actually worships the devil. I think the biggest problem for me is the fact he dont understand ‘old town road’ is every kids anthem. Children love him for that record. They tuned in and subscribed to his channels. So with no disclaimer he just dropped some left field ish & all our kids seen it. Smh”

Nas had a response ready, tweeting, “i literally sing about lean & adultery in old town road. u decided to let your child listen. blame yourself.”

Nas has a point. Despite how popular his global hit became with fans of all ages, the song features lyrics that probably won’t be repeated on Sesame Street any time soon. Specifically, Nas was referring to the song’s second verse: “Ridin’ on a tractor / Lean all in my bladder / Cheated on my baby / You can go and ask her / My life is a movie / Bull ridin’ and boobies / Cowboy hat from Gucci / Wrangler on my booty.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.