Lil Nas X and the song Old Town Road have both become internet sensations.
Everything about the song’s success is quintessential to the time that we’re living in.
From the backlash it originally received to the Twitter community that rallied behind
Nas with support, to the memes that originally made the song famous.
This is truly a success story that represents the social media age.
And it may have started online but the success is definitely having a real life effect for
Nas.
The song has over 35 million views on the original version on YouTube and close to 30
million views on the remix, and more than 100 million streams on Spotify including the
remix with Billy Ray Cyrus.
And I don’t think Lil Nas cares what genre you classify the song as because currently
it’s sitting at the number one slot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
But there’s a lot more to Lil Nas than just a viral song, in fact, Lil Nas is far from
a stranger when it comes to going viral, he has a pretty interesting past that you might
not know about.
But we’re gonna get into all of that in just a second!
What’s going on good people in the comment section?
I hope you’re having one Hecht of a day, my name is Jeremy Hecht and because so many
people loved our Before They Were Famous on Lil Nas X that we did, and because so much has been revealed
about the kid’s life and career within the past couple of days, we’re back with another
video on Lil Nas with some facts that you should know about him.
We’ve done other Top 5’s on Blueface, Lil Pump and Lil Uzi so check those out after
you’re finished watching this video, but first, let’s get right into the top 5 Lil
Nas X facts that you should know.
First up, in the fifth slot, let’s talk about the Nicki Minaj fan account he ran prior
to fame.
Some of you may know this, but for those of you still discovering the story behind Lil
Nas X, the internet recently found an old Nicki Minaj fan account that was allegedly
run, by none other than Lil Nas X.
It turns out, he was actually a Barb.
His account name was @NasMaraj and a lot of his followers were fellow Nicki stans.
Nas had the account running since October of 2014, and grew it to over 100k Twitter
followers through memes, threads and of course, defending his Queen, Nicki Minaj.
According to his new Twitter account, Nas even wanted to get signed by Minaj at one
point.
Since then though, the account has been suspended.
Shoutout to Black Femininity TV for the video they did on this whole thing, check that out
to see this whole story.
The NasMinaj account was suspended for violating Twitter terms, so he a new account called
“NasMarai” was created, subbing the i for the j, and he had some pretty viral tweets
on there receiving close to 100 thousand RT’s on this:
And this one with close to 30k retweets:
Apparently he was also tweeting from two other accounts: “FactsAboutNM" and "ViewsFromNas"
But what’s most interesting about this fact, is that Lil Nas, or at least someone on his
team, has been trying to distance himself from these past accounts.
Billboard rescinded the comments they made about the account and HotNewHipHop retracted
their statement saying:
“Lil Nas X’s team has reached out to us to confirm that the Lil Nas X did not run
a Nicki Minaj fanpage, despite Billboard’s initial reports.”
Apparently, Nas started to block anybody mentioning his potential past and at this point he doesn’t
even follow Nicki.
So, you know how the Barbs are, they started to come for him.
So Nas, if you’re watching this please don’t block me because I’m a legitimate fan of
yours!
At Number 4, we have to talk about the Viral Twitter Threads that Nas was allegedly creating
through his Nicki fan account.
Although Old Town Road might have been Nas’s first run in with streaming success, Lil Nas
is not new to going viral.
In fact, the guy was known on Twitter for creating Viral tweet threads through his Nicki
fan/ meme account.
He created scenarios that were basically like a choose your own adventure game, but instead
of a book or movie, it was through tweet threads, which is genius.
These tweet threads were even used by some massive YouTubers who tried out his adventures
for their videos.
But Nas always had a plan in mind for his music.
He told us that he would stay up late on a nightly basis trying to craft marketing schemes
for his music.
And with his dad paying his phone bill, he was able to use as much data as he needed
for his research.
Nas used his virality to push some of his music, tweeting out his songs beside memes
through the Minaj account and even using his reddit account of the same name to push his
music.
Most recently, you can see him ask fans what they think of his country trap fuse on the
hiphopheads reddit thread.
In fact, Nymag.com ran a story calling Lil Nas X a “Tweetdecker” where they go through
an entire investigative report linking Nas to the Nicki Minaj account.
But in an interview with NPR when asked about the account, he said:
It's like a big misunderstanding and it's not one that I even want to give the time,
because I'm never putting someone as the face of my career.
So I don't even speak on it.
I just don't even acknowledge it, really.
I know even more things are being made up and they're gonna be out there.
It is disappointing when a big blog will post something without me talking about it but,
I mean, it happens.
So who knows, was that really Nas’s account or could this all be a huge coincidence?
And do you guys even care?
What you think about all of this?
Let me know in the comments down below.
I think Nas is an internet marketing genius, regardless of if he ran that account or not.
At number three, we’ve got to mention the remix to Old Town Road, and not the one with
Billy Ray.
Although that one is still stuck in my head.
While Nas told us that he didn’t really have any big musical influences growing up,
he did say that Young Thug should be credited with creating the country trap sound.
And based on a snippet released by Thugger on Instagram, it looks like we’re getting
a second official remix to “Old Town Road” with a verse from Thug himself.
While everyone is excited to hear that, fans got even more excited by the prospects of
having the queen herself appear on a record.
Nas tweeted
"Ready to tell them @Beyonce" hinting that she was appearing on a remix of the song.
And although he later said that he was just trolling, which at this point we should expect
from Nas, stranger things have happened.
I mean, absolutely nobody would have expected for Billy Ray Cyrus to jump on the song, and
nobody would have expected for it to be this fire, but here we are.
So we’re looking forward to more collabs between Lil Nas and whoever else he decided
to work with, because I know the result will be flames.
At number 2, the kid is breaking records.
Old Town Has officially made history.
Even though it was removed by Billboard from the country charts, the fact that it appeared
on that chart along with the hot 100 and hot RnB/Hip-Hop songs chart, makes it the first
song to ever simultaneously appear on all three.
So congrats to Lil Nas X on using his controversy to fuel his success and showing the world
that good music succeeds over everything, no matter what you want to call it.
The song has also reached the number one slot on Billboard.
And at the number one spot, we have to talk about how Nas’ meme tweets went so viral
through even before the fame that he actually got himself an interview with Buzzfeed.
Nas’s viral tweets weren’t limited to defending Nicki and creating imaginary adventures,
Nas created a meme that went so viral, it was covered on multiple news outlets including
Buzzfeed and Elite Daily.
You’ll probably remember this meme.
The picture, was a meme of a dog who had a birthday party that nobody showed up to.
I even remember my girl showing me that and being really sad for that dog.
Nas was interviewed by Buzzfeed after the meme gained so much attention.
But oddly enough, he used an alternate name for the interview.
We spoke to Nas before doing his before they were famous video and he told us his last
name was Hill, but in the Buzzfeed interview he listed it as Williams.
So….
Did he lie to us?
No, I wouldn’t think he would do that.
I mean, he seems like a great guy!
So, he was definitely lied to Buzzfeed!
Nas told Buzzfeed that he was “really bored one day and didn’t expect it would go this
far.”
I’m sure he also didn’t expect that Old Town Road would take him this far, but it
seems like the road is a longer one than many people expected.
And I have a feeling Lil Nas is gonna ride the success of that song for a long time before
he can’t no more.
So there you go.
That was my list of Top 5 Lil Nas X facts you should know.
As always, let me know who to cover next in the comments down below, it could be a rich
life, before they were famous, or another Top 5.
Dream Good, Live Better and I hope you have one Hecht of a day.
I’ll see you in another video!