“Old Town Road”, Lil Nas X‘s record-breaking hit with Billy Ray Cyrus, officially turned 1-years-old on Sunday, April 5.
The Georgia native born Montero Lamar Hill but known to friends as Nas, celebrated this anniversary on his Instagram the same day by posting a collage of memorable photos and videos that happened as the song continued to get bigger.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-mytyFFH_M/
“Happy birthday to the global phenomenon known as the old town road remix!!” he captioned. “This song birthed the most exciting times of my life!”
What a wild ride it was for the openly gay rapper and singer last year. “OTR” first dropped independently in December 2018 before it was re-released three months later thanks to its growing popularity. Billy Ray, whose debut album Some Gave All debuted almost seven years before Lil Nas was even born, lent his vocals to the remix that helped catapult it up the charts.
“OTR” spent 19 consecutive weeks at number one between April and August 2019. The track now holds the record for the longest running number one single in Billboard Hot 100 history after unseating the two previous titleholders Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men (“One Sweet Day”) and Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee & Justin Bieber (“Despacito” Remix) both of which spent 16 weeks in the pole position.
They also won several honors for “OTR” between 2019 and 2020. It took home Song of the Year and Best Direction at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards and won Best Pop/Duo Performance and Best Music Video at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Lil Nas also publicly came out as gay while “OTR” was still number one on the charts. He did so on the last day of Pride month, June 30th, tweeting, “some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure.” The tweet confirmed that his song “c7osure” talked about his sexuality.
some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure. 🌈🤩✨ pic.twitter.com/O9krBLllqQ
— nope (@LilNasX) June 30, 2019
Recently in an interview with the Guardian, he opened up about his coming out and what role he is now playing because of his stardom. The Grammy winner says he hid his sexuality, keeping his now-decadent wardrobe subdued and “acting really hard” on early rap tracks.
“The honest truth is, I planned to die with the secret,” says the rapper, but admits he has reservations about appearing to pressure young fans.
“I 100 percent want to represent the LGBT community. I don’t want to encourage them to do something they don’t 100 percent want to do. Especially in, like, middle school or high school. Because it’s just super-hard.” – (yahoo.com)
Through the Guardian interview, we also learn about his family life a little more. he currently does not speak to his mother, is out to his family, but there is no real conversation about his love/sex life. They know he is gay, but do not ask him any questions about who he is dating.
When it comes to politics, he keeps that semi hush hush, too. There was a request for him to publicly endorse Mayor Pete Buttigieg for president.
“I’m not too into politics,” he says. “I don’t know his political history or motives. The only thing I know … Wasn’t he from the Democratic Party? … All I know is he’s from the Democratic Party and he’s gay. So it’s like … I don’t want to base my support off, ‘Oh, you’re gay, I’m going to support you.’ – yahoo.com
How do you think Lil Nas X has been handling his stardom? Has he become an LGBT role model?
Sources: the Guardian , yahoo.com