Lil Nas X started making memes, then music.
It’s a Generation Z success story if there ever was one. The 20-year-old rapper, whose social media presence catapulted his fame, released “Old Town Road” in December. The song then gained traction after he uploaded it to TikTok, a social media platform known for turning musical videos into viral clips.
Now “Old Town Road” has reigned atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the longest record since the chart was founded in 1958. He beat out the last record, 17 weeks, after breaking it himself the week before.
“I was always making memes,” he told Teen Vogue, “and now I have music.”
“Old Town Road” is something of a meme itself. The country-trap song, which Billboard controversially pulled from its country charts because it “does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music,” includes genre-bending wisecracks such as “Cowboy hat from Gucci/ Wrangler on my booty.”
The song’s autotune and plodding beat echo elements of both country and hip hop, and its lyrics are just generic enough with lines such as “can’t nobody tell me nothing”, to become the perfect Instagram caption or tweet.
“‘Take my horse to the old town road and ride till I can’t no more’ basically means just running away, and everything is just gone,” Lil Nas X, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, said. “The horse is metaphorical for not having anything or just the little things that you do have, and it’s with you. The ‘old town road,’ that’s what I’m on now. It’s never-ending until you’re gone — till you can’t no more.”
A self-proclaimed “Internet baby,” Lil Nas X is the quintessential success story for his generation: A college dropout, he was living with his sister while looking for a passion until last year. Then, his viral hit, which he has now remixed with everyone from Billy Ray Cyrus to viral yodeler Mason Ramsey, established his fame.
Like fellow Gen Z superstar Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X doesn’t need to be perceived as fitting into a standard mold. In June, he came out as gay, and although he admits he’s received some backlash from fans, he’s continued to come off as sassy and unphased. “Just got news that i’m gay and i will no longer be streaming my music,” he jokingly tweeted last month.
The Internet is his friend, insofar as he can use it to craft his own narrative and turn his music into a cultural phenomenon it otherwise would not have become. We can expect more of this from Gen Z: As members of this new generation enter the music industry, their success will not depend just on their lyrics or their melodies. It will hinge on their ability to market themselves online, and thanks to their familiarity with the Internet, the next viral hit might stick around longer than you’d think.
