As happy as Lil Nas X was with the success of Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” in country earlier in 2024, he couldn’t help but admit that he wished it also happened to him.
In 2019, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” went on to break the joint record 16-week run held by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day” from 1995-96 and Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” featuring Justin Bieber in 2017 on the Billboard Hot 100, reigning for a total of 19 weeks.
So, how did Lil Nas X get famous? The two-time Grammy winner first released his country-trap song “Old Town Road” on the audio-sharing platform Soundcloud. It then made its way to the short-form video app TikTok, exploded in popularity, and became a cultural phenomenon, with users creating videos of them ditching their everyday outfits for cowboy gear.
However, its success in the country genre was stopped dead on its track when it was removed from the Hot Country chart shortly after debuting at number 19. According to Vulture, Billboard explained that the song, with its Nine Inch Nails banjo sample and cowboy theme, “didn’t embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.” Critics responded that the decision to do so just reinforced the conservative perception of the genre wherein artists of color and LGBTQ+ musicians – both categories ticked by Lil Nas X – are slow to be included.
And then, in February 2024, fans saw Beyoncé triumphantly conquer country with her track “Texas Hold ‘Em,” becoming the first song performed by a Black female artist to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs. Ten weeks later, another Black artist named Shaboozey dethroned it with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” In a BBC interview, when the singer was asked about it, he said that he was happy for both his fellow singers, but he did admit that he wished the same success had happened to him.
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“I wasn’t even able to experience this,” he shared.
But it’s worth noting that Queen Bey’s success didn’t come easy and was met with a lot of resistance from the genre. Country radio actually only added her song after her fans spoke up about her exclusion from the genre.
Nevertheless, Lil Nas X isn’t closing his doors to the genre. “I want to feel connected to it and not force it,” he said. He also added that he has been trying out some country sounds over the last couple of years.
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