Lil Nas X is popping up on the cover of magazines everywhere largely due to his historic success on the Billboard charts since he has the longest-running song on the Billboard Hot 100 ever. While Lil Nas thanks the "meme culture" or his "Old Town Road" success he once considered a different path for success that involved outrageous stunts as a way to garner attention.
"I've watched the music industry from the sidelines, so I learned what to do and what not to do and who I wanted to be friends with," Lil Nas told PAPER Magazine in his recent feature. "I would watch a lot of musicians try to come up by doing crazy stuff and using outrageous behavior to keep attention. I even thought about doing that, like maybe busting a car window or something to get attention, but I knew I could do it without making everything into a stunt."
Elsewhere in the feature Lil Nas' past Twitter account came up (@NasMaraj), one that was used to not spread the kindest messages on the interweb. However, the "Panini" rapper is a new man and now tries to remain as "positive" as possible online.
"I'll ask myself, 'Is this going to offend somebody?,' before I do it. A lot of the stuff I used to do years before would sometimes go too far. I know I have a platform now, so there's more of a need to make sure nothing is hurtful or too crazy. Even dealing with mean people, I can do it because I understand them," he explained.
"I used to sometimes say mean shit for no reason. I know that when people say things they're just thoughts that might be there today but I'm not going to care about tomorrow. What am I even gaining from acknowledging it?"