1,123.) Mon Dec. 30, 2019

2019 Yearly Roundup

The Song of the Day is:

Lil Nas X – “Old Town Road (w/ Billy Ray Cyrus)”

From the EP 7 (2019)

I got the horses in the back
Horse tack is attached
Hat is matte black
Got the boots that’s black to match
Ridin’ on a horse, ha
You can whip your Porsche
I been in the valley
You ain’t been up off that porch, now

Montero “Lil Nas X” Hill – Trent Reznor – Atticus Ross – Kiowa Roukema

Okay. Okay, okay… I’ll do it already. I’m not gonna lie, don’t really care for this song, and while I understand it as a curiosity or novelty, I struggle with the level of mass appeal it’s obtained. I was gonna have to play it eventually, lest I misrepresent the whole year. So here is “Old Town Road” the “your peanut butter is in my chocolate, is in my caramel, is in my tomato soup” hit of the year. Hit of a lifetime, rather. It won’t come together like this again; a phenomenon like this cannot be planned. You can’t just expect to take an unknown gay cowboy rapper add a one-hit wonder country singer from almost three decades ago, have them sing over a Nine Inch Nails sample and expect it to overtake the longest charting #1 single of all time. But that happened this year…and condolences to Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men who no longer hold that record after a quarter century. Honestly, I’m not sure how it happened. When there was talk of a rapper named Nas having a hit song, I though the Illmatic rapper was making a comeback. Instead though it was the new breed: Lil Nas X, a 20 year-old Internet personality. He did indeed pick his stage name in honor of the aforementioned rapper, and he started crafting his legendary debut single just over a year ago. Nas X purchased the beat from a Dutch producer YoungKio for just thirty bucks. I don’t understand how a person can sample from a band like Nine Inch Nails (it was 2008’s “34 Ghosts IV”), remix it and sell it commercially for $30, but there must have been some arrangement to afford this possibility. Lil Nas X finished his vocals over the song with cheap studio time and began promoting it on TikTok. In April of 2019, veteran musician Billy Ray Cyrus added a vocal to a remix of the song. I’ve got to say, I do appreciate the weathered grit that Cyrus’s voice has acquired since I last really listened to him (the inescapable “Achy Breaky Heart”). This song has probably given Billy Ray a year in which he wasn’t overshadowed by his daughter Miley Cyrus for the first time since she landed the Hannah Montana gig in 2006. Like “Despacito” two years prior, “Old Town Road” became a love-it or hate-it song of the summer phenomenon that saturated the pop, rap and country markets. Certain country markets wanted little to do with the genre-bending song, but those markets would be countered with claims of racism for not willingly promoting a popular African-American artist who was appealing to their format (not that he is the first). Nas X also became the first LGBTQ artist to publicly come out while having the number one single, though to Nas X, he was never really concealing the fact that he was out. The song has been heaped with accolades from BET, MTV, the CMAs, the American Music Awards, the People’s Choice Awards, and the Grammy’s. Lil Nas X also scored a surprise Album of the Year nomination for his EP(?) 7.

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