Lil Nas X Talks The Inspiration Behind “Old Town Road”, Being A Hater And More In First Cover Story With Teen Vogue

For some folks, the success of Lil Nas X was imminent from his Vine and meme days. And for others, the 19-year-old “black kid with the country song” came out of nowhere. As his massive debut single “Old Town Road” sits at No. 1 for the 8th consecutive week, Lil Nas X reflected on his humble beginnings, what inspired his first hit single and how it felt to be hated on by Billboard.

The path his life has taken him thus far was the inspiration behind “Old Town Road.” Lil Nas X, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, escaped the complaints about his life choices and over-bearing questioning of his productivity from his parents and spent time living with his sister.

“Around this time, my sister was like, ‘It’s time to go.’ She has kids, too. It made sense,” he said. “’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. 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.”

Something Lil Nas X reminisced about was how often his parent complained of his cell phone use. “You’re always on that phone,” he said, mocking them. But being on his phone paid off in a major way for the Atlanta rapper. He was already known online for creating memes, and his sudden urge to create music only made sense. He fully believed in ”Old Town Road” when he first released it and spent days on Twitter trying to promote it. “If I’m sleeping, somebody else is up there doing what I’m finna do,” he said.

However, in the midst of mainstream success for the single, Billboard removed the song from their Country music list and caused widespread backlash in the music industry over discriminatory acts of power. Lil Nas X didn’t understand the thought process behind the decision any more than the rest of us, but he gave the benefit of a doubt. 

He said, “I had this idea in mind at first, but then as I went on to think about it, I was like, Maybe because [the] country [music industry] is guarded,” he says. “You can have your country song with trap elements, but if it’s by known country artists, then it’s allowed. A black guy who raps comes along, and he’s on top of the country chart, it’s like, ‘What the f*ck?’”

Now, Lil Nas X is staying super focused on creating new music, and he doesn’t want his fans to expect his forthcoming projects to all sound like “Old Town Road.” He said, “There’s a separation between my fan base and people who like this song. Just because you like one song from an artist, that doesn’t make you a fan. You’re a fan of that song. So I’m not losing any fans if they don’t like what I’m putting out because you wouldn’t necessarily be my fan if you were a fan of the song.”

Not to say country-rap is off limits because he says it’s highly possible he’ll make another similar sounding song, but he doesn’t want the assumption he is in a particular lane. “Nothing is off limits,” he stated.

Teen VogueNo one-hit wonder here. Lil Nas X has mastered the art of internet culture and knows exactly which direction his career will go in thanks to it. “I’ve watched this happen over and over and over and over again. I’ve been the hater before. I’ve hated for no reason, so I’m seeing out [of] their eyes. They’re hoping that this doesn’t happen,” he says. “They don’t know sh*t.”