Columbia records lil nas x9/8/2023 In “DEAD RIGHT NOW,” Lil Nas X details his bitter feelings toward those who have attempted to reenter his life upon seeing his success, despite not being there when he was suicidal. Laced with guitar, claps and a hint of flamenco, the track sets an energetic atmosphere for the rest of the album.īeyond the title track, subsequent songs on the record begin to delve into various aspects of his rise to fame. In the first track, “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),” Lil Nas X leads off with an upbeat confession of his desire to be closer to his significant other. Interlaced with interludes about romance and his past, the album is a refreshingly honest and intricate look into the world of a rising star. But in his debut album “MONTERO,” Lil Nas X, known offstage as Montero Lamar Hill, weaves a candid narrative of his rise to fame and his journey of proving his worth as an artist. That’s what it boils down to.Lil Nas X is more than just an outdated meme.Īfter rising to prominence in early 2019 with the hit song “Old Town Road,” the genre-blending artist faced doubt from many who believed he was not a serious musician despite his two Grammy Awards. “It’s a level of respect that they have for Billy Ray. “When the world saw Billy Ray support this young African-American kid who was being treated unfairly, it resonated with people - and became a cultural phenomenon.”Īs an added bonus for Cyrus, he now has cred in the hip-hop community: “The Billy Ray version was the sole focus of urban stations that started adding it on their own and going hard,” said Roberson. “You almost couldn’t wrap your head around it.” But aside from the novelty value, this pairing took on a symbolic power that helped their remix to transcend music genres, radio formats and racial divides, among other barriers. What 19-year-old kid would say, ‘Oh I want Billy Ray on the record?’ That says it all.”(Read more about the lyrics in Variety‘s recent interview with co-writer Jozzy.) Just for Nas to have that presence of mind to go there - that’s what I think about. “It’s like the perfect ingredients to the stew. The truth is Billy Ray smashed his verse and I think that’s what sort of catapulted it.” And they went in the recording studio later that day and banged it out. That whole process of the call from Ron to me to Tish to Billy Ray was done in the span of an hour. “It wasn’t even a conversation - they both got it. “I knew she would get it, so I sent her the song and she called me back literally three minutes later and she was with Billy Ray,” Leber recalls. Leber says his first call was actually to Billy Ray’s wife, Tish. But it makes all the sense in the world: Billy Ray was a rebel in Nashville and an outlaw of country music - he was almost ex-communicated for having such a big hit with ‘Achy Breaky Heart.’ So if you think about it, 30 years later Nas actually has a very similar story, right?”Īt least the Cyrus clan thought so. “My initial thought was: Billy Ray makes no sense for this. “I got a call from Ron Perry inquiring about whether Billy Ray would jump on the song,” says Leber. “To me that was a vital tipping point.” Adds Leber: “When that happened it became one of the biggest conversations in music at that time.”Īnd that was before Cyrus came into the picture. “I knew it was going to explode when the country chart didn’t accept it and it went from No. “Billboard deemed it, you know, not country enough,” recalls Leber. But it was the social video sharing app TikTok that helped it gain popularity and led to Nas’ deal with Columbia Records in March when the song blew up - and Billboard booted it off its Hot Country chart just as it was about to reach the summit. 4 - the day after releasing the original independently. After all, he seemingly manifested this remix: “Twitter, please help me get Billy Ray Cyrus on this,” he wrote on Dec. “What we’ve learned working with Lil Nas is he’s the master of his own destiny,” Leber says. These seasoned industry power players - Roberson represented Nicki Minaj for most of her career (the two split in June) Leber manages Miley and Noah Cryus and their dad as well as Labrinth and serves as music supervisor on HBO’s “Euphoria” - are quick to give their 19-year-old client full credit. Over 20 weeks, “Old Town Road” has racked up more than 282 million YouTube views, 612 million streams on Spotify and is approaching 360,000 spins on radio, according to Mediabase, half of those plays on Top 40. “I mean, it’s week 20 and we’re trying to find out whether we’re still No.
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