His number one hit "Old Town Road" is the only song that Lil Nas X has out at the moment, or ever, but the young rapper wants the public to know that he's more than just a one-hit wonder. The 20-year-old fell into a goldmine with "Old Town Road" after the controversy over the song's inclusion into the genre of country music gained national attention. Billy Ray Cyrus swooped in to save the day when he agreed to work on the song's remix, and the nod from the country star seemed to be the co-sign that the genre's fans needed to back the hip hop-country-blended track.
As annoyed as some listeners are with "Old Town Road" at this point, it's one of the hottest singles in the world right now. Lil Nas X, real name Montero Lamar Hill, recently sat down for an interview with Nightline to assure his fans that he's more than his current hit. "This is only the beginning," he said. "And you know people won't realize that until they realize it. I knew for a fact that this song would take me to another level but...I can’t say I knew that it was going to be worldwide or nationwide."
Before he was catapulted into stardom, Hill said he was desperately trying to get anyone to listen to his music. "Life was me moving from sibling to sibling[‘s] house, promoting my music through Twitter...barely getting a reaction out of anything," he said. "Then I find this beat on YouTube which is ‘Old Town Road,’ beat by this guy named Young Kio...and I made this song."
Hill paid $30 for the beat and released the song on Twitter while creating memes in hopes that they would be shared online. The song gained popularity on the Tik Tok app and soon went viral. "Social media is the biggest factor in every song is nowadays,” Hill said. “It's like I use that to my advantage...and it worked." He later added, "When I hear something, I don't necessarily try to define it by what is its musical genre. I say ‘do I relate to that song? Does it feel like my roots?' 'Old Town Road’ was all of me—it was my past, present and future. It had everything that I'd been raised on my whole life—banjo, bluegrass and [a] solid country hook."
The "Old Town Road" star recently shared the album artwork for his forthcoming EP 7 that's said to be dropping this month, with an album to follow, and he's certain that fans are going to continue to support his career. "I just know they're both going do great and people going to love it,” he said.