Lil Nas X bought the beat for 'Old
Town Road' for $30, and now
the song has taken the world by
storm.
If you're not familiar with Lil Nas X
or Old Town Road, then you must be
living under a rock.
The song has been at the top of the
Billboard Hot 100 chart since it
came out and has even been remixed
with country star Billy Ray Cyrus.
But how did a 20 year old kid from
Atlanta turned the country music
genre on its head?
Here's how Little Nas X did it.
LittleNas X grew up in Atlanta,
Georgia.
His parents divorced when he was 6
and he lived with his mother
grandmother and brother in a tough
housing project.
When he was nine, Nas and his brother
moved in with their dad to an Atlanta
suburb.
After high school he enrolled at the
University of West Georgia but
dropped out in 2013 to try his hand
at music.
He crashed on his sister's couch and
lived off his savings.
Nas had worked as a cashier at
Zaxby's and worked as a ride
attendant at Six Flags.
He found the Old Town Road Track on
YouTube and paid $30 to lease the
beat. He wasn't super familiar with
cowboy culture so he spent a lot of
time on Google researching the right
way to phrase Western lingo.
He posted a part of the song to
Twitter in December and dropped Old
Town Road on soundcloud later that
month.
By March 2019 the song had enough
streams to pop up on the music
charts. It spent a few weeks on the
Billboard Hot Country Songs list
before being taken off for not
meeting country music requirements
but it quickly popped up on the
regular Billboard Hot 100 list.
Cyrus recorded a verse for the remix
during that time and that remix
helped push the song to #1.
The original music video for Old Town
Road has 68 million views on YouTube.
It's just the track looping under
images from the video game 'Red Dead
Redemption.' Nas made that video
himself before the song blew up.
The new official music video features
Billy Ray Cyrus and a cameo by Chris
Rock and his 46 million views
as of this writing.
Now Nas has a record deal with
Columbia Records and a new clothing
line collaboration with Wrangler
jeans that's been quoted at around
six figures.
He performed with Cyrus at the 2019
Stagecoach Festival and he's in the
studio right now recording a full
album.
Nas isn't sure how much money he's
made so far but he was quoted by
Rolling Stone saying that he'll be a
millionaire soon if he's not already.
