His breakthrough single, Old Town Road, forced the industry to revisit old conversations about the limitations of genre, race, and who is kept out (or locked in) by the definitions we use to talk about music. 1, though he’d figured that between the rhinestones and rainbows and the general vibe, it would’ve been obvious.) “I didn’t know it was gonna do what it did,” he said of “Old Town Road” and its companion EP, 7. Lil Nas X is nothing if not a testament to the power of being true to yourself. (He later became the first artist to come out while his record was at No. Born Montero Lamar Hill in 1999, Nas grew up outside Atlanta but came of age on the internet, turning to social media and meme-making out of boredom and teenage loneliness-feelings compounded by his struggle to resolve his sexuality. It was, of course, all those things, and pity those who couldn’t live with the contradictions.
Was it country? Was it rap? Cowboy anthem or LGBTQ camp? TikTok novelty or legitimate pop song? So that’s what I did.” Not only did the “it” in question-“Old Town Road”-become a global phenomenon (and 2019 Apple Music Award winner for Song of the Year), it prompted surprisingly pertinent conversations about how we define and classify music. “I was just kinda bored,” he told Apple Music. The way Lil Nas X tells it, it sounds simple, almost mystical.
