The Truth Behind “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X
Country trap and the Yeehaw agenda. These are two concepts that most might not be familiar with. However, they have taken the world by storm, and are now bolstering the idea of blurring genre lines within music, and introducing hybridity. Lil Nas X knows exactly what it means to contribute to this undertaking.
The story of Old Town Road is a story about bending the reality of what it means for music to be country or hip hop. For Lil Nas X, the song went from symbolizing success, to becoming a meme — and he was all for it.
Dutch producer YoungKio sampled a song by the Industrial Rock Artist Nine Inch Nails called Ghosts IV-34. With the addition of claps, drums, snares, random hi-hats, open hats, and a producer tag, YoungKio created his beat and posted it for sale on his site. Lil Nas X then purchased the beat for $30, and created his song Old Town Road. In December of 2018, he posted it to SoundCloud under the country tag.
The song quickly took off on Tik Tok, and then broke records by becoming No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 17 weeks. Despite such success, the journey to the top was not smooth for Old Town Road. Lil Nas X calls the song a “country trap” song, which blurs the line between the orthodox genres of country and hip-hop music. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Hot Country Songs chart, and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart all at once. However, its triumph on the country chart was short-lived, as the song was expelled from the list after it was deemed as not possessive of the musical composition that merits inclusion on the country charts. This caused an uproar and invitation to explore the way that musical genres are constructed, and how corporations forcibly categorize music into genres with a history of racial categorization. Many suspected that the reason for Lil Nas X’s removal from the country charts was rooted in him being an African American artist. This argument is plausible, because other hip-hop and country music songs produced by white artists were allowed to maintain their status on the country charts. Songs such as “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line, and the country-pop song “Meant To Be,” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line have proven successful on the charts, with no unexplained expulsion from the charts.
Yet this is not the first time Black artists have been discouraged or considered under different expectations. Beyonce’s song “Daddy Lessons,” was rejected for consideration in the country field by the Recording Academy of the Grammys. Many country artists, including Blake Shelton and Dierks Bentley, defended the song’s country identity. Despite the song’s country guitar riffs and other intangible country elements, the song was not accepted as a country song. Such treatment warrants the music industry to confront its relationship with music and race.
Even before the release of Old Town Road, the existing blend between the two genres had boosted the idea that genre is a state of mind and not a sound. In 2013, Nashville became a hip-hop town. At a concert, the Florida Georgia Line brought out country rapper Colt Ford and songwriter Russell Dickerson to play a medley of songs. The set they played consisted of famous hip hop and R&B songs, to which the entire crowd rapped along. And even before this, Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, and Jason Aldean had been rapping frequently. Hip hop had always been blending and integrating with country music, and the fans were welcoming and enthusiastic about this new music. Such crossovers proved that fans weren’t attracted to a certain sound of music, it is rather that they were attracted to the state of mind brought by that sound.
In April of 2019, Lil Nas X released another version of the song featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. Being that Cyrus was an esteemed western figure and country musician — not to mention the father of Miley Cyrus, a pop star who was shaped by her country roots — his presence on the song exhibits a significant and thundering retort to the music industry. In the words of Billy Ray Cyrus, what’s not country about Old Town Road? The introductory banjo hook that is sampled from Nine Inch Nails is resonant and melodious, while the bright plucks add a polyphonic texture to the song. Such qualities are exhibited in many country songs. The song is short in nature, which means that by the time a listener becomes accustomed to the tune and rhythm of the song, it’s over. The fleeting nature of the song emboldens the listener to play it on repeat and dance with energy. This captivation may be what has contributed to the song’s success. In addition, the thick drums and random hi-hats invite an unbounded and flowing sense, which helps the listener to really focus on Lil Nas X and Cyrus’ clear and lively voices. The layers of plucked banjo underneath the piercing and sharp hi-hat and trap track above provide imagery of the exact lines which are being blurred — country and hip hop. Some non-musical elements are also used to elevate the gentle yet distinctly raucous effect of the song. A light scraping sound is heard multiple times throughout the song, and pronounces the rawness and reedy outdoorsy nature of the song. These elements all combine to embody what Lil Nas X hails the country trap genre.
The instruments in the song, namely the banjo, provide a historic outlook into the impact of defining country music. What this history shows is that African Americans in the rural south helped create country music, yet the industry has failed to recognize their contributions. The banjo was an adaptation from West African slaves in the new world during the 19th century. Research has shown that there were over 60 different plucked lutes played by West Africans, all of which strongly resemble the modern banjo. The earliest reference of the banjo in North America was in 1736, and by 1860 the banjo had gained popularity among rural white Musicians of the southern USA, who learned of the instrument via direct contact with African American musicians. Moreover, black banjo player references were most popular in newspaper ads for runaway slaves. In the south, banjos, fiddles, and harmonicas were the touchstone instruments played in black culture. In fact, country music was the staple of black culture, much more than jazz and the blues. In addition, since the 1920s, more than 450 African Americans involved in country music have been documented. Blacks in the south helped create country music through their embrace of the banjo. If there was a dance party on a plantation, the musicians were most likely slaves playing banjos and fiddles. The banjo grew in popularity among country music, and became one of the identifying symbols of the country music we hear today. Despite these contributions from West Africans and African Americans, the industry’s perception remains that country music is for white people.
Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road was perhaps the most grand instance of aiding to remove such a perception, and emerged at the peak of the Yeehaw agenda. Bri Malandro was a twitter user who coined the term, which was used to describe the way that black artists were adapting the country aesthetic and identity into their personas. As the internet was adopting and embracing the cowboy and cowgirl theme, Old Town Road emerged onto the scene, and completely inundated the internet with the Yeehaw Challenge. On Tik Tok, people recorded themselves in regular clothes, and when the beat of Old Town Road dropped, they would appear wearing cowboy and cowgirl clothes and dancing to the song. This challenge consisted of people attempting to outdo other people dancing to Old Town Road, and the challenge went viral, further boosting popularity of the song. The challenge also served to highlight the hybridity of the song’s country and hip hop elements. The song starts off with a classic country-style banjo and within seconds converts to an upbeat hybrid of banjo and trap music. This element of the song proved to be captivating and infectious.
Old Town Road is a song that unleashed the power of music beyond genre-lines, and allowed the music industry to confront its history with racial categorization within musical identification. It is a song that allowed the world to question what constitutes country music and its origins, and who decides the conditions to abide by. By deconstructing the construct of genre, we are able to further embrace musical dynamics and fluidity. Moreover, by embracing Old Town Road, country trap and country hip hop music can allow the music industry and listeners to acknowledge and uncover the true history and impact that African Americans have had on country music. The racial controversy and discourse regarding the genre of Old Town Road has proven to be beneficial to artists looking to expand on the country hip hop genre and further advocate for the inclusion of hybrid and fluid music.
