Lil Nas X facts for kids

Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known by his stage name Lil Nas X (/nɑːz/ nahz), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from Austell, Georgia. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single "Old Town Road," which spent 19 weeks atop the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart—becoming the longest-running number-one song since the chart's debut in 1958. During the course of this, Lil Nas X came out as gay, becoming the only artist to do so while having a number-one record.

Following the success of "Old Town Road", Lil Nas X signed with Columbia Records to release his debut extended play (EP) 7 (2019), which spawned two follow-up singles⁠: "Panini" and "Rodeo" (featuring Cardi B or Nas); the former peaked at number five while the latter peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut studio album, Montero (2021) was supported by the chart-topping singles "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and "Industry Baby" (featuring Jack Harlow), along with the top-ten single "Thats What I Want", also receiving a nomination for Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

Known for his queer visuals and social media presence, Lil Nas X has received numerous accolades, including two Grammy Awards, five Billboard Music Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, two BET Hip Hop Awards, two iHeartRadio Music Awards and two American Music Awards. He has also been awarded by Songwriters Hall of Fame as the youngest honoree of the Hal David Starlight Award. "Old Town Road" ranks as the second highest-certified song in the United States—with 17 platinum certifications. He ranked on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2020 and Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.

Early life and education

Montero Lamar Hill was born in Lithia Springs, Georgia, on April 9, 1999. He was named after the Mitsubishi Montero. His parents divorced when he was six, and he settled in the Bankhead Courts housing project in the Bankhead neighborhood of Atlanta with his mother and grandmother. Three years later, he moved in with his father, a gospel singer, north of the city in Austell. He started "using the Internet heavily right around the time when memes started to become their own form of entertainment"; about when he was 13.

He spent much of his teenage years alone, and turned to creating memes on the internet. His teenage years also saw him struggling with his coming out to himself as being gay; he prayed that it was just a phase, but around 16 or 17 he came to accept it. He began playing trumpet in the fourth grade and was first chair by his junior high years, but quit out of fear of looking uncool.

Hill attended Lithia Springs High School, from which he graduated in 2017. He then enrolled at the University of West Georgia, where he majored in computer science, but later dropped out after one year to pursue a musical career. During this time, he stayed with his sister and supported himself with jobs at Zaxby's restaurants and the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park. In September 2019 he revisited his high school to perform a surprise concert.

Career

2015–2017: Internet personality

Hill spent large amounts of time online in hopes of building a following as an internet personality to promote his work, but was unsure what to focus on creatively. In a Rolling Stone interview he stated, "I was doing Facebook comedy videos, then I moved over to Instagram, and then I hopped on Twitter ... where I really was a master. That was the first place where I could go viral." He also posted short-format comedy videos on Facebook and Vine.

During this period, he reportedly created and ran Nicki Minaj fan accounts on Twitter, including one called "@NasMaraj", according to a New York Magazine investigation. After media reports linked Lil Nas X to the Minaj fan accounts, he called the reports a "misunderstanding", effectively denying having run the accounts. However, in May 2020, Lil Nas X admitted, in a tweet, to being a fan of Minaj.

Sometime in the year 2018, Hill landed on music as a path to success, and started writing and recording songs in his closet. He adopted the name Lil Nas X, which is a tribute to the rapper Nas. On July 24, 2018, Lil Nas released his first mixtape Nasarati on SoundCloud, though it was not received with immediate fame; Nasarati would be removed from streaming services soon after the release of Old Town Road due to a copyright conflict and therefore would never gain significant traction. In late October 2018, he happened to hear the beat that would become "Old Town Road".

2018–2019: Breakthrough with "Old Town Road" and 7

Lil Nas X in April 2019

On December 3, 2018, Lil Nas X released the country rap song "Old Town Road". He bought the beat for the song anonymously on beat-selling platform BeatStars from Dutch producer YoungKio for $30; it samples Nine Inch Nails' track "34 Ghosts IV" from their sixth studio album Ghosts I–IV (2008). He recorded at a "humble" Atlanta studio, CinCoYo, on their "$20 Tuesdays" taking less than an hour. Lil Nas X began creating memes to promote "Old Town Road" before it was picked up by short-form video social media TikTok users. TikTok encourages its 500 million global users to "endless imitation", with videos generating copies usually using the same music; the "app's frantic churn of content ...acts as a potent incubator for viral music hits." Lil Nas X estimated he made about 100 memes to promote it; the song went viral in early 2019 due to the #Yeehaw Challenge meme on TikTok. Millions of users posted videos of themselves dressed as a wrangler or cowgirl, with most #yeehaw videos using the song for their soundtrack; as of July 2019, they have been seen more than 67 million times. Another core audience tied to social media is children who are hidden in the statistics of adult listeners. Quartz.com says the song certainly owes part of its success to the demographic, and notes they are attracted to the song being repetitive, easy to sing along to, and using lyrics about riding horses and tractors, which children can relate to. It debuted at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, later climbing to number one. The track also debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart at number 19 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at number 36. After an "intense bidding war", Lil Nas X signed with Columbia Records in March 2019. Billboard controversially removed the song from the Hot Country songs chart in March 2019 telling Rolling Stone:

When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is a 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.

Lil Nas X at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards

In Robert Christgau's opinion, "Taking 'Old Town Road' off the country chart strikes me as racist pure and simple, because country radio remains racist regardless of the Darius Ruckers and Kane Browns it makes room for." Another Billboard spokesperson 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." Despite being removed from the main Country Songs chart, the song charted on Billboard's Country Airplay chart, debuting at 53, and peaking at 50. In response, Sony Music Nashville CEO Randy Goodman told Billboard that his team started testing the song in some country radio markets, adding "it would be negligent not to look at it". In May 2019, the issues of racism in country music culture came up again when Wrangler announced its Lil Nas X collection, and some consumers threatened a boycott. Media outlets also noted that the song brings attention to the historic cultural erasure of African-Americans from both country music and the American frontier era.

Country music star Billy Ray Cyrus featured in an April 2019 remix of "Old Town Road", the first of several. That same month, Lil Nas X broke Drake's record for the most U.S. streams from one song in one week with 143 million streams for the week ending April 11, surpassing Drake's "In My Feelings", which had 116.2 million streams in a week in July 2018; as of August 2019 it has streamed over a billion plays on Spotify alone. In May 2019, the video was released and as of August 2019, has over 370 million views. NBC News's Michael Arceneaux wrote, "In the social media age, Lil Nas X is arguably the first micro-platform crossover star."

"Panini" was released as Lil Nas X's second single through Columbia Records on June 20, 2019. It is named after the fictional cabbit bear of the same name in the animated television series Chowder, and does not refer to the sandwich of the same name. In mid-September 2019 "Panini" had its first remix released with rapper DaBaby. Lil Nas X released his debut extended play, titled 7, on June 21, 2019. The EP debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart. On June 23, 2019, Lil Nas X performed with Cyrus at the 2019 BET Awards. On June 30, Lil Nas X made his international debut at the largest greenfield festival in the world, the UK's annual Glastonbury Festival, when he and Billy Ray Cyrus made a surprise appearance and joined Miley Cyrus for the song, before performing "Panini" solo in a set seen nationally on BBC. On the same day, Lil Nas X became one of the most visible Black queer male singers when he came out as gay. This was especially significant for an artist in the country and hip hop genres, both of which emphasize machismo and "historically snubbed queer artists". Rolling Stone premiered the Rolling Stone Top 100 in early July with three Lil Nas X songs: "Rodeo" with Cardi B at number nine; "Panini" at four; and "Old Town Road" as the first-ever number-one song on the chart.

On August 19, 2019, Lil Nas X opened for Katy Perry at a concert Amazon held for its employees to celebrate its Prime Day sale.

2020–2021: Montero

On July 7, 2020, Lil Nas X revealed that his debut album was "almost finished". He also stated that he was working on a mixtape, and invited producers to submit their beats for his new music. On November 8, 2020, he announced a new single, "Holiday", which was released on November 13. On Roblox, a virtual concert was held to promote Lil Nas X's single, with Lil Nas X-related items in the game's avatar shop. The single debuted at 37 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the song's music video accumulated tens of millions of views within the first several weeks of release.

In January 2021, he released a children's book, C Is for Country. The following month, he previewed his new song, "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" in a Super Bowl LV commercial. The song was officially released on March 26, 2021, along with an accompanying music video. On the same day, Lil Nas X revealed that his debut album would be named Montero, and that it would be released in mid-2021. "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)", debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Lil Nas X's second chart-topping single and third top-ten single.

After that, Lil Nas X released the more introspective single "Sun Goes Down" on May 21, 2021, wherein he reflects on his struggles with bullying in his upbringing. He performed the song alongside "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" at Saturday Night Live a day later. On June 29, Lil Nas posted a promotional video of his debut album, ending it with Montero, the Album. He also posted a snippet of a previously teased track called "Industry Baby". The song was released as a single on July 23, featuring rapper Jack Harlow, with production by Kanye West and Take a Daytrip. The song debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the chart for the ending week of October 23, 2021, becoming Lil Nas X's fourth top-ten single and third number one.

On September 17, 2021, Montero was released, along with its fourth single, "Thats What I Want". On October 23, 2021, Lil Nas X made a surprise appearance at Diplo's set at Electronic Daisy Carnival Las Vegas. During the appearance he performed "Industry Baby", "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)", and "Old Town Road".

On April 26, 2022, he announced his first concert tour, the Long Live Montero Tour. The tour was in support of Montero, and began in September 2022 and ran through January 2023.

2022–present: Upcoming second studio album

On March 16, 2022, Lil Nas X returned from his hiatus, and teased a song from his "almost finished" new album, "Late to da Party" featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again. He also posted a preview of the track "Lean on My Body". "Late to da Party" was eventually released as a single on June 24, 2022. Lil Nas X said that the album would be "something fun, something for the summertime, something for the girls to get ready and party to".

On his Long Live Montero Tour, Lil Nas X performed his then-unreleased single "Star Walkin'". On September 15, 2022, Riot Games, the developers of the video game League of Legends, announced a collaboration with Lil Nas X for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship through a press release, where they also declared him to be "President of League of Legends", in what Kotaku journalist Isaiah Colbert called a publicity stunt. The anthem for the tournament, "Star Walkin'", was released on September 22 with an accompanying animated music video. He performed the song at the opening ceremony of the tournament on November 5. Additionally, a custom outfit for a playable character in the game co-designed by Lil Nas X was temporarily made available in November.

Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, a documentary film by Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

On January 3, 2024, Lil Nas X announced the single "J Christ", which was released on January 12.

Musical style and influences

Lil Nas X's musical style has been described as hip hop, pop rap, country rap, trap, pop rock, pop, and rock.

He credits LGBTQ artists Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator as inspirations and for "making it easier for me to be where I am, comfortably." Lil Nas X also cites Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Drake, Miley Cyrus and Doja Cat as some of his biggest influences. In 2019 he said, "I grew up off the Internet, so my influences come from all over musically." He grew up listening to hip hop artists such as Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Kid Cudi and Lil Uzi Vert.

Impact

Lil Nas X's success caused him to become the first person of color and the first openly gay performer to be listed by Forbes in its annual Highest-Paid Country Acts List.

Personal life

Coming out

In early June 2019, Lil Nas X came out to his sister and father and he felt "the universe was signalling him to do so", despite his uncertainty whether his fans would stick by him or not. On June 30, 2019, the last day of Pride Month, Lil Nas X came out publicly as gay.

The response to the news was mostly positive, but also garnered a large amount of homophobic backlash on social media, to which Lil Nas X also reacted. The backlash also came from the hip hop community, drawing attention to homophobia in hip hop culture.

Religion

Lil Nas X stated in September 2021 that he was an atheist "at one point," but is now "a very spiritual person in terms of the Universe, how everything works."

In December 2023, he announced that he had become Christian.

Achievements

Lil Nas X at the 2019 American Music Awards

Lil Nas X is the recipient of multiple awards including two Grammy Awards, five Billboard Music Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, two BET Hip Hop Awards, two iHeartRadio Music Awards and two American Music Awards. He has also been awarded by Songwriters Hall of Fame as the youngest honoree of the Hal David Starlight Award.

Lil Nas X was the most-nominated male artist at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, where he ultimately won awards for Best Music Video and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Lil Nas X is also the first openly LGBT Black artist to win a Country Music Association award and the first openly LGBTQ person to win an MTV Video Music Award for Song of the Year. In 2021, he became the third artist, following Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift, to win an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for a video he co-directed – "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)".

Lil Nas X scored three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In early July 2019, "Old Town Road" achieved its 13th week at the top spot on the Billboard 100, becoming the first hip hop song to do so. It is also the first song to sell 10 million copies while in the top spot. On its 15th week at the top, Lil Nas X became the first openly gay artist to have a song last as long, overtaking Elton John's 1997 Double A-Side—where both sides of the record are promoted as hits, "Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight". At 19 weeks at number one, Lil Nas X holds the record for the most weeks since the chart was first introduced in 1958. As of August 2019^[update], the song has also charted 19 weeks atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart; beating a three-way tie record. At 19 weeks at the top of the Hot Rap Songs chart the song has also beaten a three-way tie. By November 2019, the song was Diamond Certified, moving a combined sales and streaming 10 million units.

Time named him as one of the 25 most influential people on the Internet in 2019, for his "global impact on social media" and "overall ability to drive news". In 2020, he was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. In 2021, he appeared on the Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Discography

Studio albums

• Montero (2021)

Tours

• Long Live Montero Tour (2022–23)

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Lil Nas X para niños

• List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones
• List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100
• List of most-streamed artists on Spotify
• List of bestselling singles worldwide
• LGBT culture in New York City
• LGBTQ+ representations in hip hop music