Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
- Lil Nas X is one of the most popular musical artists in the world right now with the bonafide song of the summer, "Old Town Road."
- The 20-year-old artist rose to fame this year after his hit song first went viral on short-form video app TikTok, and has since set a record for the longest-running song at the No. 1 spot on Billboard Hot 100.
- Here's everything you need to know about Lil Nas X, who most recently performed at a concert for Amazon employees and partied backstage with CEO Jeff Bezos.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Sources: Time, New York Magazine
At 19, Lil Nas X decided to drop out of college in the summer of 2018 after just a year at a Georgia university. He crashed at his sister's house while he pursued a music career and posted some songs on SoundCloud that got little traction.Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Source: Rolling Stone
Then, right around Halloween this past year, Lil Nas X discovered a beat on YouTube from a 19-year-old Dutch producer named Young Kio. Lil Nas X bought the track for a mere $30 off of a music licensing website called BeatStars.Lil Nas X/YouTube
YoungKio's beat isn't entirely original — the producer put a trap beat under a snippet of banjo playing from a Nine Inch Nails song called "34 Ghosts IV." However, neither YoungKio nor Lil Nas X reportedly got the needed clearance to use the Nine Inch Nails song, so Lil Nas X may have had to pay the rock band some money in back royalties when his song got popular.Getty Images/Karl Walter
Source: Rolling Stone
YoungKio's beat inspired Lil Nas X to create "Old Town Road," a song that's part-trap, part-country. He told Rolling Stone the song was "basically what I was going through, but in another lens," and that he chose the title "Old Town Road" simply because of how country it sounded.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Source: Rolling Stone
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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