YMMV / Lil Nas X

• Broken Base: Possibly one of the biggest of the 2010's: Is "Old Town Road" a country song? This debate kicked off when the song was booted off Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, which gave the track the controversy that made it a massive hit. The people that came in to rally around the song praised it for being a genre-bending phenomenon that shook up a stale country scene, accusing country's rejection of him as being one of frustration that a total outsider could make the biggest country hit in decades. On the other side, you had country fans who felt that the song owes far more to hip-hop and pop in its sound and structure, arguing that "country" means ascribing to a certain style and ethos that the song lacks: Having a twangy guitar and lyrics about being a cowboy shouldn't make something a country song, just as it is agreed that drum machines and lyrics about girls, cars and backyard parties doesn't make something hip-hop. Inevitably, you also have the racial and cultural debate enter the arena as well. Lil Nas X's fans feel that his rejection by the country world is one of racist gatekeeping, while country fans feel that argument is one that ignores the rich history of Black country musicians and reinforces harmful stereotypes about country music and its fans.
• Cliché Storm: "Old Town Road" invokes this, just going all-in on the cowboy lifestyle. Many argue that this, as well as the inspired mixture with Trap Music, is what makes the song so charming.
  • Interestingly, on the Billy Ray Cyrus remix, it seems like Billy Ray tried to contrast this by taking up some stereotypical hip hop subject matter: You have a newbie rapper talking about cowboys, horses, and tractors and a veteran country singer bragging about his Conspicuous Consumption and dropping various brand names, where one might expect it to be the other way around.
• Critical Dissonance: The 7 EP got extremely mixed reviews from critics, most notably a particularly harsh one from Pitchfork. Much of Lil Nas X's fanbase strongly disagreed.
• Eclipsed by the Remix: The original version of "Old Town Road" didn't have Billy Ray Cyrus on it.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • With Billie Eilish after her song "Bad Guy" kicked "Old Town Road" from No. 1 in the Billboard chart, plus with the slow growth of Eilish's Hype Backlash. Downplayed in that the artists are friendly, the fights were not very prominent, and most fans agree that "Bad Guy" was the only song that really could knock it off it's spot while still carrying the "New Generation" torch that "Old Town Road" lit.
  • With Justin Bieber after the release of "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)". Lil Nas X's single stole the thunder of Bieber's then-recently released "Peaches". Not helped by a Take That! joke aimed at Bieber by Lil Nas X parodying Bieber's pleading of fans to commit streaming fraud.
  • With, surprisingly, Nicki Minaj. Before becoming a star, Lil Nas X was a prominent member of Nicki Minaj's fandom^note His old '@NasMaraj' twitter handle was partially named after Minaj. It angered Minaj's fandom when her rival Cardi B was featured on his 7 EP. Later, her fans flooded his social media with hate comments when he gave Minaj a Shout-Out on his single "Sun Goes Down", claiming that he was attempting to use her name for fame. Lil Nas X tweeted explaining that the fandom and Minaj's music were important to him growing up, but that due to all the hate comments, he would no longer reference her in his music.
    • The album, Montero, ultimately did feature another reference to Nicki Minaj, but it was overshadowed at the time by Nicki Minaj's feud with her home country of Trinidad and Tobago over her cousin's friend's testicles and her fandom's doxxing of multiple Trinidadian reporters on the same evening.
  • NBA Youngboy fans were in the habit of spamming the replies of Nas' tweets until Lil Nas X and Youngboy recorded "Late to da party"
• Friendly Fandoms: With Orville Peck, as they're both gay cowboys.
• Funny Moments: In the “Montero” video, Lil Nas gets killed after getting hit in the head with a chrome buttplug.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Lil Nas X uses memes frequently as a marketing tool, even well into his mainstream label career.
  • "YEE-HAW RAP", all due to how borderline good, catchy, and weird "Old Town Road" is.
  • Jokes about rainbows on the 7 cover became this when Lil Nas X came out as gay.
  • TikTok videos with people in either heaven or hell minding their own business and pausing as they see Lil Nas X sliding down the stripper pole from "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)".
  • "One girl for Jack" ^noteIn the "Industry Baby" video, there's a scene where rapper Jack Harlow is seen with a female prison guard, post-coitus. Fans were amused that in a video filled with gay fanservice, there was one scene with straight fanservice and commented that Nas had asked/or was asked to include a girl for Jack.
  • In the same vein as with “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, there are TikToks of someone going to the locker room on the “Thats What I Want” video to check on Lil Nas' injury... only to find him having sex in the showers.
  • A sped-up version of "Industry Baby" is often used in "slander compilation" memes, which use various memetic stock footage to poke fun at groups (national stereotypes, fandoms, etc.).
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • After Lil Nas X came out of the closet, it became common to interpret all the talk about "riding" in "Old Town Road" as references to gay sex. An uncharacteristically deadpan Lil Nas X set it straight that "old town road is literally about horses." This became especially evident with the music he record after coming out, where he makes no attempt to hide behind lyrical metaphors.
  • After TikTok users began to play "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" over Satanic rituals, Lil Nas X himself said this was a bit too far.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • "Old Town Road" dethroning both "One Sweet Day" and "Despacito" for most weeks spent on the Billboard charts at number 1. The fact he came out of nowhere and did this is the most impressive thing.
  • “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, ends with him pole dancing to Hell (quite good, by the way), giving Satan a lap dance, then afterwards, snapping his neck and taking over Hell. It's also an ironic Take That! at anyone who claims that homosexuals will go to hell. If he's going to hell, then he's giving Satan a lapdance and stealing his crown.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity:
  • Part of what made "Old Town Road" such a sudden smash hit could be attributed to this, given the infamous Billboard snafu of what counted as belonging on the country charts. In any case, the remix/collaboration with Billy Ray Cyrus and other established music stars made in response to the controversy helped elevate it from being a mere curiosity to a genuine worldwide phenomenon.
  • "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" was made to be unabashedly queer and Satanic-themed in an effort to both make a point about pride against widespread conservative homophobia, and to piss off the homophobes themselves. The inevitable moral panic from right-wingers (from internet pundits to Fox News to even state governors) just-as-inevitably bolstered the publicity and voices of support for the song and its video. Inevitably, it won Video of the Year at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.
  • He used Nike's suing for the pre-release of “Industry Baby” and released a video where he is taken to court and condemned to "Montero State Prison", where the “Industry Baby” video takes place.
• Retroactive Recognition: Many people are a bit shocked to learn that some funny tweets that went viral in the past were from him.
• Sampled Up: The banjo ditty throughout "Old Town Road" is more thoroughly associated in the public eye with that song than the one it was sampled from, "34 Ghosts IV" by Nine Inch Nails. NIN's frontman Trent Reznor didn't mind, giving his approval and even declining the opportunity to cameo in the "Old Town Road" music video to ensure that the latter would remain associated with Lil Nas X first and foremost.
• Signature Song: "Old Town Road" is an easy answer, as it's what propelled Lil Nas X from obscurity to superstardom overnight, but "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" and "Industry Baby" are likely his definitive songs following his coming out and incorporating his sexuality into his music.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: 7 is somewhat controversial from the perspective of critics who felt that it was stuck in the shadow of "Old Town Road", failing to give Lil Nas X's persona further depth. MONTERO by contrast is near universally loved for doing just that with a greater showcase of his musical range and a much deeper exploration of his own personal life.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • The chorus of "Panini" sounds as if it is based on that of Nirvana's "In Bloom". However, he wrote the song before getting into Nirvana's music, and upon the similarity being pointed out to him, gave Cobain a writing credit on the song. He even posted a mashup of the songs on his Twitter account.
  • "SUN GOES DOWN" bears enough similarity to iann dior's "Holding On" that he too recieved a writing credit, though in this instance Blake Slatkin and Omer Fedi produced both songs.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "Sun Goes Down", where Lil Nas X reflects on his younger self dealing with loneliness, bullying, and coming to terms with his homosexuality, with the chorus hinting at contemplating suicide.
    I wanna run away
    Don't wanna lie, I don't want a life
    Send me a gun and I'll see the sun
    I'd rather run away
    Don't wanna lie, I don't want a life
    Send me a gun and I'll see the sun
  • The music video for "That's What I Want": Lil Nas X falls in love with one of his football teammates and has an passionate love affair with him, only to get his heart broken after finding out that the man is already married and has a child. He then proceeds to drink alone until he passes out. A tragic reminder of how hard it can be for a gay black man to find true love.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?:
  • Although "Old Town Road" was a smash success and very popular amongst children, it makes blatant references to lean^note better known as "purple drank", a recreational drug that is prepared by mixing cough syrup containing codeine and promethazine with a soft drink and adultery, and it includes the lyric "bull riding and boobies".
  • The rest of Lil Nas X's catalogue also isn't very clean, and following "Old Town Road", he's repeatedly had to remind everyone that he doesn't consider children to be his intended audience. Especially after he came out and began more exploring homoerotic imagery (from promo artwork for "Holiday" and the entirety of the "Montero" video), Moral Guardians have been up in arms about him "corrupting children," to which he dismisses because they're not his responsibility.
    "I made the decision to create the ["Montero (Call Me By Your Name)"] music video. I am an adult. I am not gonna spend my entire career trying to cater to your children. That is your job."

---