Billboard Removes Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” from Country Music Chart, Claims It’s Not Country Enough

Atlanta artist Lil Nas X quickly rose to prominence after his song “Old Town Road” went viral, landing him a deal with Columbia Records in recent weeks. The song, which features lyrics about horse-riding and cowboy hats, with banjo samples and hip-hop sub bass, reached Billboard’s Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts. However now, Billboard has removed the song from the country songs chart, according to Rolling Stone.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, Billboard said, “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 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.”

A Billboard spokesperson also 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.” ‘Old Town Road’ is classified as a “country” song on platforms such as SoundCloud and iTunes. The song topped the Apple Music Country chart and was described by Columbia as a “country-inspired rap track,” “a country song,” and “a country trap song.” 

Reacting to the news on #Twitter, Lil Nas X simply wrote, “?.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ho88VXJTBg