Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), known by his stage name Lil Nas X (/nɑːz/ NAHZ), is an American rapper and singer. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single “Old Town Road“,[1] which first achieved viral popularity in early 2019 before climbing music charts internationally and becoming diamond certified by November of that same year.[a]
“Old Town Road” spent 19 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the longest-running number-one song since the chart debuted in 1958.[2] Several remixes of the song were released, the most popular of which featured country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Lil Nas X came out as gay while “Old Town Road” was atop the Hot 100, becoming the only artist to do so while having a number-one record.[3]
Following the success of “Old Town Road”, Lil Nas X released his debut extended play, titled 7, which spawned two further singles, with “Panini” peaking at number five and “Rodeo” (featuring Cardi B or Nas) peaking at number 22 on the Hot 100. His debut studio album, Montero (2021), was supported by the chart-topping singles “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and “Industry Baby” (with Jack Harlow) and the top-ten single “Thats What I Want“.
Lil Nas X was the most-nominated male artist at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards
[4] where he ultimately won awards for Best Music Video and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. “Old Town Road” earned him two MTV Video Music Awards including Song of the Year, and the American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Song; Lil Nas X is also the first openly LGBT Black artist to win a Country Music Association award
.[5] Time named him as one of the 25 most influential people on the Internet in 2019,[6] and he was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2020.[7]
