Old Town Road

"Old Town Road" is the debut mainstream single by the American rapper and singer Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. He also recorded a remix with American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, which was released on April 5, 2019. Both were included on Lil Nas X's second studio extended play (EP), 7 (2019). The song was recorded on the 2nd of December, 2019, at CinCoYo, based in Atlanta, Georgia.

The song has been widely viewed as "country rap", a somewhat rare musical style not often heard in the mainstream prior to this song's release. Dutch record producer YoungKio composed the instrumental and made it available for purchase online in 2018. It features a sample of "34 Ghosts IV" by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The sample was placed behind trap-style Roland TR-808 drums and bass. Lil Nas X purchased the instrumental for US$30 and recorded "Old Town Road" in one day. At the time, he had been living with his sister after dropping out of college; his real-world struggles were an influence on some of the lyrics.

The song initially gained popularity on the video sharing app TikTok and eventually entered the Billboard charts in March 2019. The song also reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart before the magazine disqualified it from the chart on the grounds that it did not "fit" the genre, sparking a debate on what constitutes the "definition" of country music. Though "Old Town Road" did not re-enter any country charts, both versions of the song collectively peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the top for a record-breaking 19 consecutive weeks (later tied with Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)"); the remix peaked at no. 50 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart. One or more versions of "Old Town Road" have topped the national singles charts in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and have charted in the top 10 in various other international markets.

The song was certified diamond by the RIAA in October 2019 for selling 10 million total units in the United States, the fastest song to be certified diamond, a record not beaten since. At the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, the remix (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus) was nominated for Record of the Year and won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video. In October 2019, Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment won the Music & Sound Recordings Award from SAG-AFTRA for "work that exemplifies equal access" to LGBTQ individuals and "other misrepresented or underrepresented groups." In September 2021, the song set the record for the second-highest certified song in history by the RIAA (behind Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower"), at 16× platinum in the United States—meaning it accumulated 16 million equivalent song units. The single has sold over 18 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Rolling Stone named it the 490th greatest song of all time in its 2021 list.

Country rap, and its subgenre, country trap, emerged onto the mainstream following the American rapper Young Thug's experimental mixtape Beautiful Thugger Girls (2017). Lil Nas X has cited Young Thug as a pioneer of country trap. In May 2018, Lil Tracy and Lil Uzi Vert ignited the trend with their country rap single "Like a Farmer (Remix)".

In 2018, Lil Nas X dropped out of college to pursue a music career even though he was discouraged by his parents. He moved in with his sister, spending time promoting his music on the Internet while having just three hours of sleep each night. Lil Nas X found the beat for "Old Town Road" in October 2018 and began writing after his sister told him he had to move out soon. Lil Nas X felt like he was "out of options" and said that his sister's and parents' frustrations with him inspired the song's chorus, "can't nobody tell me nothing". Within a month of writing it, Lil Nas X chose to alter the song's meaning so that the "old town road" would be a symbol of success. Lil Nas X recorded the song on December 2, 2018, at the CinCoYo Recording Studio in Atlanta, and released it the same day on SoundCloud under the title "Old Town Road (I Got the Horses in the Back)".

The Dutch record producer YoungKio produced the beat a year before the song's release and uploaded it as Future Type Beat to his online store for selling beats. He sampled Nine Inch Nails' track "34 Ghosts IV" after finding it from his YouTube algorithm's suggested videos. YoungKio downloaded the song and imported the file to FL Studio, chopping up the Nine Inch Nails sample and filtering it so that it sounded like an old field recording, then reordering sections in an effort to make the austere original more catchy and adding drums underneath. He had never heard of Nine Inch Nails before stumbling upon "34 Ghosts IV". YoungKio did not have the intention of the beat being country related and did not see it as a country music instrumental. Lil Nas X bought the beat from YoungKio for $30, but since purchases on his online store were anonymous, YoungKio did not know the song was purchased by Lil Nas X until he saw it in an Instagram meme in December 2018. Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor later said that, shortly after the song began gaining traction, he received a call from Lil Nas X's manager about the sample, asking for clearance to use it, which he granted. He described the song as "undeniably hooky".

On December 4, 2018, a day after the original version's release, Lil Nas X tweeted that he wanted Billy Ray Cyrus on the song. Lil Nas X knew of Cyrus because of his role on the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana. The country singer Jake Owen was originally approached to co-write and record the first remix of "Old Town Road". The Columbia Records executive, Ron Perry, reached out to Cyrus' wife Tish Cyrus saying that he would love it if Cyrus were to hear "Old Town Road". Cyrus first heard the song over coffee on March 16, 2019, when Tish played it to him. Cyrus explained that he loved the original song the first time he heard it. Cyrus also mentioned that he related to the song the first time he heard it, connecting the "old town road" to the Old Town Bridge in Argillite, Kentucky, that he used to play on as a child. In response to Billboard removing "Old Town Road" from the Hot Country Songs chart, Cyrus tweeted his support for Lil Nas X and noted that the removal put him in the ranks of great outlaws.