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Lil Nas X
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Lil Nas X's real name is Montero Lamar Hill and he was born in 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia. As a teenager he mostly kept to himself, and much of his time went on the internet. He made comedy clips and memes and learned how to make something go viral on Twitter. After a year of computer science at university he dropped out to make music. He worked in a fast-food restaurant and an amusement park, wrote and recorded songs in his closet and chose his name as a tribute to the rapper Nas.
Music and breakthrough
In December 2018 he released Old Town Road, a blend of country and rap. He had bought the beat anonymously for thirty dollars on a website, from the Dutch producer YoungKio. That beat uses a sample from Nine Inch Nails. He recorded the song in less than an hour in a cheap studio in Atlanta. He then promoted it himself with memes, until it was picked up on TikTok, where thousands of users made their own clips to it. Old Town Road spent nineteen weeks at number 1 in the United States, a record at the time.
Influence
In the same period he announced that he is gay, the first artist with a number 1 hit to his name to do so. The EP 7 (2019) followed, and the album Montero (2021), with Montero (Call Me by Your Name) and Industry Baby. Lil Nas X is the example of a new route to the top: without a record company, with a laptop, social media and an audience that does the promotion itself.
Listening
Old Town Road · Lil Nas X, 2018Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 2021MONTERO
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 13: From Cassette to CloudNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Streaming pop Genre
In December 2018, Lil Nas X from Atlanta put Old Town Road online, on a beat he had bought for 30 dollars.
- TikTok Technology
Old Town Road by Lil Nas X became a worldwide hit in this way in 2019.