"Old Town Road" is the debut mainstream single by the American rapper and singer Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. He also recorded a remix with American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, which was released on April 5, 2019. Both were included on Lil Nas X's second studio extended play (EP), 7 (2019). The song was recorded on December 2, 2018, at CinCoYo, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The song has been widely viewed as "country rap", a somewhat rare musical style not often heard in the mainstream prior to this song's release. Dutch record producer YoungKio composed the instrumental and made it available for purchase online in 2018. It features a sample of "34 Ghosts IV" by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The sample was placed behind trap-style Roland TR-808 drums and bass. Lil Nas X purchased the instrumental for US$30 and recorded "Old Town Road" in one day. At the time, he had been living with his sister after dropping out of college; his real-world struggles were an influence on some of the lyrics.
The song initially gained popularity on the video sharing app TikTok and eventually entered the Billboard charts in March 2019. The song also reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart before the magazine disqualified it from the chart on the grounds that it did not "fit" the genre, sparking a debate on what constitutes the "definition" of country music. Though "Old Town Road" did not re-enter any country charts, both versions of the song collectively peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the top for a record-breaking 19 consecutive weeks (later surpassed non-consecutively by Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You"); the remix peaked at no. 50 on Billboards Country Airplay chart. One or more versions of "Old Town Road" have topped the national singles charts in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and have charted in the top 10 in various other international markets.
The song was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in October 2019 for selling 10 million total units in the United States, the fastest song to be certified diamond. It was also certified Diamond in Canada, France, Poland, and Germany. At the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, the remix (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus) was nominated for Record of the Year and won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video. In October 2019, Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment won the Music & Sound Recordings Award from SAG-AFTRA for "work that exemplifies equal access" to LGBTQ individuals and "other misrepresented or underrepresented groups." In September 2021, the song set the record for the second-highest certified song in history by the RIAA (behind Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower"), at 16× platinum in the United States—meaning it accumulated 16 million equivalent song units.Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' Becomes the Highest Certified Song in RIAA History Ashley Iasimone, Billboard, 1/9/2021 The single has sold over 18 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Rolling Stone named it the 490th greatest song of all time in the 2021 edition of its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
Background and recording
Country rap, and its subgenre, country trap, emerged onto the mainstream following the American rapper Young Thug's experimental mixtape Beautiful Thugger Girls (2017). Lil Nas X has cited Young Thug as a pioneer of country trap. In May 2018, Lil Tracy and Lil Uzi Vert ignited the trend with their country rap single "Like a Farmer (Remix)".
In 2018, Lil Nas X dropped out of college to pursue a music career even though he was discouraged by his parents. He moved in with his sister, spending time promoting his music on the Internet while having just three hours of sleep each night. Lil Nas X found the beat for "Old Town Road" in October 2018 and began writing after his sister told him he had to move out soon. Lil Nas X felt like he was "out of options" and said that his sister's and parents' frustrations with him inspired the song's chorus, "can't nobody tell me nothing". Within a month of writing it, Lil Nas X chose to alter the song's meaning so that the "old town road" would be a symbol of success. Lil Nas X recorded the song on December 2, 2018, at the CinCoYo Recording Studio in Atlanta, and released it the same day on SoundCloud under the title "Old Town Road (I Got the Horses in the Back)".
The Dutch record producer YoungKio produced the beat a year before the song's release and uploaded it as Future Type Beat to his online store for selling beats. He sampled Nine Inch Nails' track "34 Ghosts IV" after finding it from his YouTube algorithm's suggested videos. YoungKio downloaded the song and imported the file to FL Studio, chopping up the Nine Inch Nails sample and filtering it so that it sounded like an old field recording, then reordering sections in an effort to make the austere original more catchy and adding drums underneath. He had never heard of Nine Inch Nails before stumbling upon "34 Ghosts IV". YoungKio did not have the intention of the beat being country related and did not see it as a country music instrumental. Lil Nas X bought the beat from YoungKio for $30, but since purchases on his online store were anonymous, YoungKio did not know the song was purchased by Lil Nas X until he saw it in an Instagram meme in December 2018. Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor later said that, shortly after the song began gaining traction, he received a call from Lil Nas X's manager about the sample, asking for clearance to use it, which he granted. He described the song as "undeniably hooky".
On December 4, 2018, a day after the original version's release, Lil Nas X tweeted that he wanted Billy Ray Cyrus on the song. Lil Nas X knew of Cyrus because of his role on the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana. The country singer Jake Owen was originally approached to co-write and record the first remix of "Old Town Road". The Columbia Records executive, Ron Perry, reached out to Cyrus' wife Tish Cyrus saying that he would love it if Cyrus were to hear "Old Town Road". Cyrus first heard the song over coffee on March 16, 2019, when Tish played it to him. Cyrus explained that he loved the original song the first time he heard it. Cyrus also mentioned that he related to the song the first time he heard it, connecting the "old town road" to the Old Town Bridge in Argillite, Kentucky, that he used to play on as a child. In response to Billboard removing "Old Town Road" from the Hot Country Songs chart, Cyrus tweeted his support for Lil Nas X and noted that the removal put him in the ranks of great outlaws.
Composition
"Old Town Road" has been variously described by publications as a country rap,- - trap,- - pop, country, rock Southern hip hop, or country trap song. Lil Nas X himself said that he regards it as the latter. Produced by YoungKio, "Old Town Road" samples Nine Inch Nails' track "34 Ghosts IV" from their sixth studio album Ghosts I–IV (2008). The song prominently features the playing of a banjo along with trap-style Roland TR-808 drums and bass throughout. It has been compared to Lil Tracy's 2018 single "Like a Farmer", which was later remixed by Lil Uzi Vert. The song is composed in the key of G minor with a chord progression of Gm-Badd9-F-Cm7. It has an approximate tempo of 68 beats per minute.
Release and promotion "Old Town Road" was released independently as a single on December 3, 2018; this was during the rise of the "Yeehaw Agenda" meme, a movement inspired by cowboy fashion and culture. Danny Kang, the manager of the viral country artist Mason Ramsey, suggested to Rolling Stone that Lil Nas X listed the song under the country music genre on SoundCloud and iTunes as a way to manipulate chart algorithms, as it would be easier to top the country charts than the dominant hip hop/rap charts. Lil Nas X began creating memes to promote "Old Town Road" before it was picked up by TikTok users. The song's first music video is composed entirely of footage and clips from the 2018 Western action-adventure game, Red Dead Redemption 2.
The song gained traction in late December 2018 after becoming the "Yeehaw Challenge" meme on TikTok, where users created short videos set to the song. The challenge is credited with launching the song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number 83, the chart on which the song has since peaked at number one. The song's popularity grew so quickly that radio stations had to download the audio from YouTube. On March 22, 2019, the success of the song allowed Lil Nas X to sign to Columbia Records, which now distributes the single.
The first official remix of "Old Town Road", featuring the American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, was released on April 5, 2019, by Columbia Records. The remix was recorded in support of "Old Town Road" being recognized as a country song. A limited edition 7-inch vinyl single was made available for purchase on May 1, 2019, with the remix on the A-side and the original on the B-side.- The remix was eventually included with the original on Lil Nas X's second EP, 7. The music video for the remix was released on May 17, 2019. It was directed by Calmatic, and has guest appearances by Chris Rock, HaHa Davis, Rico Nasty, Diplo, Jozzy, Young Kio and Vince Staples.
On March 29, 2019, Lil Nas X danced to "Old Town Road" with the Atlanta Hawks cheerleaders during a basketball game at State Farm Arena. On April 29, 2019, Lil Nas X and Cyrus performed the live debut of "Old Town Road" as part of Diplo's set at the Stagecoach Festival. On June 24, 2019, Lil Nas X and Cyrus performed the song together on a saloon-themed stage for the 2019 BET Awards. On January 26, 2020, Lil Nas X performed "Old Town Road" at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards with Diplo, BTS, Mason Ramsey and Billy Ray Cyrus, before finishing his performance with the remix of "Rodeo" along with Nas.
Commercial performance
In the United States, the original version of "Old Town Road" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week ending April 13, 2019; at one minute and 53 seconds in length, it became the shortest number-one single since "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" by Herman's Hermits in 1965 and the fifth-shortest in the history of the chart. In the following week, it and the newly released remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus received a combined 143 million streams, surpassing Drake's "In My Feelings", which in the previous year had amassed 116.2 million in the same period, as the song with the highest single-week streaming figure in the country. This song also became Cyrus's biggest hit in the U.S. since "Achy Breaky Heart" peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 27 years prior. "Old Town Road" continued to exceed 100 million streams in each of the eight following weeks, and in June 2019, was responsible for the three highest weekly U.S. streaming totals in the history of digital music, as well as nine of the eleven highest overall. In October 2019, "Old Town Road" became the fastest single in RIAA history to receive diamond certification in the United States. The certification, which is awarded to singles that attain national combined sales and streams of ten million units, was achieved by the song in its eleventh month of release. The single had sold 1.6 million digital copies in the United States by February 2020.