Lil Nas X just did something that no other human has ever done: “Old Town Road” has maintained the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 17 weeks, a feat that only this song has achieved in the history of the charts. Over the past few weeks, Lil Nas X has usually shared memes in reaction to the track staying on top for another week. This time, he decided to react to the historic news with a reflective post, in which he goes over how “Old Town Road” came to be and what the journey was like.
In the post, Lil Nas X describes what it was like to find the “Old Town Road” instrumental, and what motivated him to make the track great: “i remember clicking on so many generic sounding beats trying to find the right one for me. when suddenly i came across a country-trap sounding masterpiece. i immediately knew i would make something special out of it! my sister told me i had little time left before i had to leave her house after being there for months promoting my music online and not helping her out much. i was so upset! i used it as motivation for the song! i jokingly/seriously saw myself as a loner cowboy needing to run away from it all!”
Lil Nas X also said that he knew what the song needed to be in order for it to be successful: “it needed to be funny, it needed to be catchy, it needed to be hip hop, it needed to be country, & it needed to be short!!” The Instagram post also features screenshots and video clips from various points in the song’s journey to the top.
Read Lil Nas X’s full post below. Also read our interview with Lil Nas X here, and find our review of his 7 EP here.
“last year in october, as a struggling artist starting to lose faith in what i could be, i went looking for beats on youtube. i remember clicking on so many generic sounding beats trying to find the right one for me. when suddenly i came across a country-trap sounding masterpiece. i immediately knew i would make something special out of it! my sister told me i had little time left before i had to leave her house after being there for months promoting my music online and not helping her out much. i was so upset! i used it as motivation for the song! i jokingly/seriously saw myself as a loner cowboy needing to run away from it all! I went out on my sister’s back porch and listened to the beat OVER & OVER & OVER!! then it came to me!! in my best singing voice i sung ‘YEAHHH IM GONNA TAKE MY HORSE TO THE OLD TOWN ROAD. IM GONNA RIDEEEE TIL I CANT NO MORE’ I LOVED IT ALREADY! i started to work on it EVERY SINGLE DAY. it needed to be funny, it needed to be catchy, it needed to be hip hop, it needed to be country, & it needed to be short!! by the time i was finished setting it up i was out of my sister’s crib and at my brothers place. on december 2nd i went into the studio & recorded OLD TOWN ROAD & put it out the exact same day!! did i know it would become the longest running number 1 song of all time? NO! but i am so thankful that this blessing has been placed upon me. this song has changed my life and the way i see the world around me in less than a year. thank you to every single person who has been apart of this journey. as i said before, it’s just the beginning!”
— ☆ (@LilNasX) July 29, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0gsS24F_9r/
