Hot 100 Haus: Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’

Welcome to Hot 100 Haus, where writer Chris Will breaks down each No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 for 2019.

Hot 100 – No. 1 for the week of April 13, 2019:

“Old Town Road” – Lil Nas X

Written by: Montero Hill (Lil Nas X), Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Produced by: YoungKio, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

But Why:

I mean really, why not. “Old Town Road” is less than two minutes long, a surefire formula for success in today’s get-to-the-point-with-your-pop-song top 40 landscape. It had a viral start on TikTok, the newest Instagram-turned-Vine social media outlet (I’m dating myself by describing it like this, especially because I truly still have no idea how the website fully works). The song also has such a steady flow that I found myself listening to it four times in a row before I realized I should change it, which shows its success in streaming. On top of that, it’s sonically a sharp and necessary twist on a trend that is becoming all too apparent in country music, where many country bros and gals adopt trap beats and borrow hip-hop elements without paying tribute to hip-hop culture even in the slightest. It’s goofy, but self-aware of how goofy it is, and is packed with nothing but one-liners and hooks. It’s really a perfect pop song, except it could better fit in three other genres than pop, which makes it a perfect pop song in 2019 without a doubt.

But what may be the most wild about this No. 1? “Old Town Road” borrows heavily from a Nine Inch Nails song called “34 Ghosts IV” from their 2008 studio album Ghosts I-IV ⏤ which means Trent Reznor is now officially credited with a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single. In 2019.

If we’re talking about the Billy Ray Cyrus remix, well, not only does that rework perfectly play into pop culture’s wild obsession with nostalgia, but it’s also pretty amusing to hear the “Achy Breaky Heart” and Hannah Montana star flip his own country-fried flexes over a trap beat.

Stats On Stats: Per Billboard.com’s weekly top 10 article, “Old Town Road” is Lil Nas X’s first No. 1 and first Billboard chart entry. It hits No. 1 on the Streaming Songs Chart with 46.6 million streams in the tracking week, as well as No. 3 on the Digital Song Sales with 22,000 downloads. It has yet to appear on the Radio Songs chart.

Next Week’s #1: “Old Town Road” – you know it, I know it, everyone knows it. The song hit number one WITHOUT the Billy Ray Cyrus remix, so you know the remix is going to be number one next week. Watch this stay at the top for four months like “Despacito” did in 2017, and watch this literally ruin every pop star’s plans for comebacks and single drops. I honestly hope this does happen; it would keep with the strong chaotic neutral energy that is the year 2019 thus far.

Feel Old Yet: The last time a country/rap song got anywhere near the Hot 100 summit? Nelly and Tim McGraw’s “Over and Over,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in early December of 2004. Nelly also returned to the top 5 in a similarly yee-haw fashion with “Cruise,” the collaboration with Florida Georgia Line that hit No. 4 in July of 2013.

I Have Feelings: Look, so here’s the thing, country music has always been touch and go for me. I have my groups and girls that I stan (Lady Antebellum, Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band and Maren Morris), but I generally don’t follow the genre and artists to the same extent I follow pop, alternative rock and hip-hop music. Thus, this song for me is so-so. I do enjoy Lil Nas X’s verses, though, and the refrain (“can’t nobody tell me nothin’”) coupled with that trap beat and heavy bass sounds great regardless of where you’re blasting it. The chorus, where the country part of the song really comes through, unfortunately doesn’t do it for me much. I do admire the sing-song, raise up our glasses against evil forces quality to it, though.

Do I think this song deserves to be a No. 1? Of course! Stylistically, it’s really an engaging and fun song, and it’s a perfect pair to the warm weather as spring starts to settle in (at least for the East Coast, praying for y’all out there in the Midwest with all that snow). If I happen to accidentally find myself out at a busy bar or club on a Friday or Saturday night (unlikely) and this comes on, I will most certainly belt the hell out of it. But you won’t catch me listening to this just for the sake of doing so, the original or the Billy Ray Cyrus remix. I can see myself potentially putting the Young Thug remix on repeat, depending on Young Thug’s level of contribution, but otherwise it’s really just not my thing at the moment.

But y’all know that could change, and two months from now, I’ll have an “Old Town Road” tramp stamp in Comic Sans font. Regardless, I’m happy about the shift that this hopefully signals, where more black creatives and artists will make money and find similar levels of success in the country genre.

Photo Credit: Eric Lagg

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