![]() ![]() Stafford, a gospel singer without a Twitter account, has been one of his son’s toughest critics. “He’s critical in smaller places where he thinks he can help - like penmanship,” says Nas. Rather, his father’s go-to is disapproval, like chiding his son for sloppy handwriting. They’re not impressed by hysterical fans clamoring for hugs, selfies and autographs. There’s no danger of nas forgetting where he came from because his father and 10 siblings won’t let him. ![]() With verses written for Cyrus by Missy Elliot protégé Jozzy (“Baby’s got a habit, diamond rings and Fendi sports bras / Ridin’ down Rodeo in my Maserati sports car”), the “Old Town Road” remix dropped on April 4 and catapulted straight into the pop-culture zeitgeist. And it paid off in a major way.”Īs did securing Nas’ dream duet partner: Billy Ray Cyrus, something that Leber, longtime manager of Miley and Noah Cyrus, and Perry facilitated. “A lot of people thought Ron was nuts when he went after that record,” Leber says of “Old Town Road.” “They were doubting him, but Ron just believed and went all in 100%. “I brought my dad, and was, like, ‘We’re going to make your son a millionaire and super-famous.’ It sounded like I was on an episode of ‘Punk’d.’ ” The ceremonial contract execution at the Columbia offices lasted the equivalent of eight episodes of “Empire” - from 7 p.m. “Ron was acting like a mad scientist,” Nas recalls. Says Nas: “He knew the best way to approach the guy who’s on Twitter tweeting memes.”īy contrast, the process of signing a record deal proved to be decidedly old-school. Perry took an unorthodox approach to wooing Nas: He slid into his DMs on Instagram. “And musically, it moved us toward a genre-less world.” “Culturally, ‘Old Town Road’ brought people together, which is important in these divisive times,” says Perry. His song soared up multiple streaming charts and a bidding war to sign him broke out, which inevitably attracted the attention of Ron Perry, the newly installed chairman at Columbia Records. (Today, nearly 10 months and 1.8 billion streams later, it still stings for Nas, who says, “I don’t feel like any specific place in the music industry accepts me as a whole.”)īut getting booted from the country format turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to Lil Nas X. What followed was a controversy over perceived racism and whether genres in music matter at all anymore. Then it cracked the Billboard Hot 100, and just as “Old Town Road” was about to take over the top spot on the country chart in March, Billboard disqualified it as “a mistake,” claiming the song exhibited too much trap and not enough twang. Buzz about the genre-blurring country-trap mashup began, as many out-of-nowhere smashes do these days, on social media.Īfter self-releasing the infectious earworm to SoundCloud and iTunes the day after he recorded it, Nas turned his attention to TikTok, where it eventually went viral thanks to his inventive #Yeehaw challenge and tireless promotion via Reddit, Twitter and Instagram. Second-guessing can be death to creativity, but when the college dropout rented time at a local Atlanta recording studio in December 2018 and created “Old Town Road,” he had nothing to lose other than the $50 it set him back ($30 to download the beat and a $20 flat rate). “He’s had to learn everything on the fly, and he’s still learning.” “While his story is so incredible and it’s been such an unbelievable journey - a fairy tale - there is the downside of that,” says Adam Leber, Nas’ co-manager, along with Gee Roberson, at Maverick. Like, what song should I put out next? Or should I put out multiple songs? Or how do I prove this person wrong?” ![]() “I would start to overthink it all and I’d get overwhelmed. “It crushed me.” The downtime gave him an opportunity for self-reflection, but it wasn’t all that restful. “When the crowd sits? l felt like I was butt-naked on stage,” he marvels of the reaction to new (read: unfamiliar) songs. Nas had not only never performed at a concert, he’d never even attended one. That insecurity stemmed from his inexperience on the stage. “I wanted to do more performances last year, but it didn’t go as planned and I didn’t have confidence,” says Nas. 1 came to an end - Nas announced that he was cancelling performances at two festivals so that he could take a break, which some media outlets misinterpreted as putting his career on hold. At the end of September - a month after the record-breaking 19-week run of “Old Town Road” at No. One might not necessarily associate trap beats with an artist who embraces spirituality and self-help books but overnight success and global fame have tested Nas’ mental health in ways he never imagined. ![]()
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