You’ve heard it. Those guitar strums. That insanely catchy beat. If you’ve not heard Old Town Road, then you must have not heard any radio station, or watched any TV, or listened to any playlist – at all.
It’s the longest-standing hip-hop record to stay at #1 on the Billboard Top 100, having just gone diamond in the past day and surpassing even Eminem.
Now that’s a record to be proud of.
Lil Nas X, born Montero Lamar Hill, hails from Atlanta, and wasn’t really well-known before this. But Old Town Road has set his creativity free, and his recent EP release is a testament to it. With a whole load of mixed inspiration, Lil Nas X has brought to our ears something new – for a new generation of music-lovers.
Remember the yodelling boy of internet memes past? Well, as America’s darling, Mason Ramsey has teamed up with Lil Nas X and Young Thug to create a remix for the ages. The sheer meme energy from that one remix alone is astounding.
Lil Nas X’s remixes have become a meme in themselves, and ever the internet kid, Lil Nas X himself has jumped on the bandwagon. It’s highly likely that you’ll see more remixes coming your way – maybe even Mariah Carey might feature on one of them!
So, you know, Old Town Road will probably be around forever.
In a tweet, he encouraged listeners to really take in the lyrics of his song C7osure and figure out what he might be saying.
Of course, everyone knew that June was pride month, so the mystery was unravelled pretty quickly. In his own words – referencing the rainbow illustration on his EP cover – he ‘deadass thought [he] made it obvious’.
In a culture where performance and status are everything, making the decision to come out can be seen as a big mistake. There are a few prominent rappers who are vocal about their sexuality, but only a few – they’re fighting a culture that leans on homophobic stereotypes and insults as an easy way to get one up from their musical opponents.
The best mouthpiece for this issue, of course, are black people themselves. Lena Waithe won an Emmy writing an episode of the TV series Master of None. In it, she wrote a coming out scene, where the character explains the difficulties surrounding her expression of identity.
For a lot of people – particularly young people – music is a way to connect and understand the world. Whether they aim to be or not, musicians are icons: they have an influence that only fame can bring, and this brings responsibility.
Lil Nas X may not have asked to become a gay icon, but he undoubtedly is one. However, he’s not just a gay icon for the LGBTQ+ community – he’s a gay icon for all of his listeners. In Trump’s America, he’s giving people a positive representation of what it means to be black and gay – and gives confirmation that people like him can be successful too.
The inevitable link between ‘riding horses’ and being gay were made, by quite a lot of people, as a joke. While it may have been funny to some people, at first, it got old very quickly, especially because, as part of discriminatory practices, minorities tend to become overly sexualised – and black gay men are some of the most vulnerable to this kind of targeting. And, really, Old Town Road is genuinely about horses.
But most of the responses have been overwhelmingly positive!
It seems Lil Nas X’s stardom just keeps on getting brighter and brighter. And, frankly, it’s all well-deserved.
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