Lil Nas X

Who is Lil Nas X?

Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known as Lil Nas X, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. He is best known for his country rap breakout single "Old Town Road", which achieved viral popularity as part of the "Yeehaw Challenge" on the video sharing app TikTok. "Old Town Road" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was controversially removed from the Hot Country Songs after debuting at number 19. His debut EP, 7, was released on June 21, 2019. His website is www.lilnasx.com.

On December 3, 2018, he released the country rap song "Old Town Road". The song went viral in early 2019 due to the "Yeehaw Challenge" meme on the social media app TikTok. "Old Town Road" debuted at #83 on the Billboard Hot 100, later climbing to #1. It also debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart at #19 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at #36. Billboard controversially removed the song from the Hot Country songs chart in March 2019. Of its decision, Billboard told Rolling Stone magazine:

Upon further review, it was determined that "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard's country charts. When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is a musical composition. While "Old Town Road" incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today's country music to chart in its current version.

Another Billboard spokesperson told Genius, "Billboard's decision to take the song off of the country chart had absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist."

Country music star Billy Ray Cyrus has since supported Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" in a tweet, and he is a featured vocalist in a remix of the song released in April 2019.

On April 16, 2019, it was announced that Lil Nas X had broken Drake's record for the most US streams in one week. "Old Town Road" had 143 million streams for the week ending April 11, surpassing Drake's "In My Feelings", which had 116.2 million streams in one week in July 2018.

Lil Nas X released his debut EP, 7, on June 21, 2019.

On June 23, 2019, Lil Nas X performed with Billy Ray Cyrus at the 2019 BET Awards.