Lil Nas X facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lil Nas X
Lil Nas X in 2024
Born	Montero Lamar Hill (1999-04-09) April 9, 1999 (age 26) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Education	University of West Georgia (no degree)
Occupation	Rapper singer songwriter
Years active	2015–present
Awards	Full list
Musical career
Origin	Austell, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop pop rap country rap trap
Labels	Columbia

Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), known as Lil Nas X, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He became very famous in 2019 with his song "Old Town Road". This song mixed country and rap music. It was the number-one song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for 19 weeks. This was the longest time any song had been number one since the chart started in 1958.

Around the same time, Lil Nas X shared that he is gay. He was the only artist to have a number-one song while openly sharing this.

After "Old Town Road" became a huge hit, Lil Nas X signed with Columbia Records. He released his first short album, called 7, in 2019. This album included popular songs like "Panini" and "Rodeo". "Panini" reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100.

His first full album, Montero (2021), reached number two on the Billboard 200 chart. It was even nominated for Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. This album featured two more number-one hits: "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and "Industry Baby" (with Jack Harlow). Another song, "Thats What I Want", made it into the top ten.

Lil Nas X is known for his creative music videos and his active presence on social media. He has won many awards, including two Grammy Awards and five Billboard Music Awards. "Old Town Road" is one of the best-selling songs in the United States. In 2020, Forbes magazine included him in their 30 Under 30 list. The next year, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2022, he became the youngest person to receive the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Early Life and School

Montero Lamar Hill was born in Lithia Springs, Georgia, on April 9, 1999. He was named after a car, the Mitsubishi Montero. His parents got divorced when he was six years old. He lived with his mother and grandmother in Atlanta for a few years.

When he was nine, he moved to Austell to live with his father, who was a gospel singer. Around age 13, he started spending a lot of time online. This was when memes became a popular way to have fun. He spent much of his teenage years by himself, making memes online.

During his teen years, he also thought about his identity. He prayed that he wasn't gay, but by age 16 or 17, he accepted it. He played the trumpet in fourth grade and was very good. But he stopped in middle school because he worried about looking "uncool."

Lil Nas X went to Lithia Springs High School and finished in 2017. He then went to the University of West Georgia to study computer science. But he left after one year to focus on his music career. To support himself, he worked at Zaxby's restaurants and the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park. In September 2019, he surprised his old high school with a concert.

Music Career

Becoming an Internet Star (2015–2017)

Lil Nas X said he spent a lot of time online as a teenager. He wanted to become an internet personality to share his creative work. He tried different social media platforms. He said, "I was doing Facebook comedy videos, then I moved over to Instagram, and then I hopped on Twitter... where I really was a master." He also posted short funny videos on Vine.

He reportedly ran fan accounts for rapper Nicki Minaj on Twitter. One account, "@NasMaraj," became popular for its story threads. This account was later suspended by Twitter. After news linked him to these accounts, Lil Nas X first denied it. But in May 2020, he admitted he was a fan. He explained he denied it because he feared people would think he was gay. He said the music industry was not yet accepting of gay men. Nicki Minaj later tweeted that she understood and congratulated him.

Around 2018, Lil Nas X decided to focus on music. He started writing and recording songs in his closet. He chose the name Lil Nas X as a tribute to the rapper Nas. On July 24, 2018, he released his first mixtape, Nasarati, on SoundCloud. It didn't become famous right away. Later, in October 2018, he found the music beat that would become "Old Town Road."

Breakthrough with "Old Town Road" (2018–2019)

Lil Nas X in April 2019

On December 3, 2018, Lil Nas X released "Old Town Road." He bought the music beat online for $30 from a Dutch producer named YoungKio. The beat used a sample from a Nine Inch Nails song. He recorded the song in less than an hour at a studio in Atlanta.

Lil Nas X started making memes to promote "Old Town Road." The song became super popular in early 2019 on TikTok, a video social media app. Millions of users posted videos of themselves dressed as cowboys or cowgirls for the #Yeehaw Challenge. Most of these videos used "Old Town Road" as the background music. By July 2019, these videos had been watched over 67 million times.

The song also became popular with children. They liked that it was easy to sing along to and had lyrics about horses and tractors. "Old Town Road" started at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and later climbed to number one.

In April 2019, Lil Nas X broke a record for the most U.S. streams of a song in one week. "Old Town Road" had 143 million streams, beating Drake's previous record. By August 2019, the song had been played over a billion times on Spotify. The music video was released in May 2019 and quickly gained hundreds of millions of views.

Lil Nas X at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards

Lil Nas X released his second single, "Panini," on June 20, 2019. It was named after a character from the TV show Chowder. In September 2019, a remix of "Panini" with rapper DaBaby was released.

His first short album, 7, came out on June 21, 2019. It reached number two on the Billboard 200 chart. Lil Nas X performed with Billy Ray Cyrus at the 2019 BET Awards. He also performed at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK, a very large music festival.

On June 30, 2019, the last day of Pride Month, Lil Nas X publicly shared that he is gay. This was a big moment for an artist in country and hip hop music, which haven't always been open to gay artists. Rolling Stone magazine's new chart, the Rolling Stone Top 100, featured three of his songs in early July. "Old Town Road" was the very first number-one song on that chart.

Montero Album (2020–2021)

On July 7, 2020, Lil Nas X announced his first full album was almost ready. He also said he was working on a mixtape. On November 8, 2020, he announced a new song called "Holiday," which came out on November 13. To promote the song, a virtual concert was held on Roblox, a popular online game platform. The song reached number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In January 2021, he released a children's book called C Is for Country. The next month, he showed a preview of his new song, "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)," in a Super Bowl LV commercial. The song and its music video were officially released on March 26, 2021. On the same day, he shared that his first album would be called Montero. "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. This was his second song to reach the top spot.

Lil Nas X then released "Sun Goes Down" on May 21, 2021. In this song, he talks about his past struggles with bullying. He performed both "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and "Sun Goes Down" on Saturday Night Live.

On June 29, he posted a video promoting his album and a preview of a new song called "Industry Baby." This song was released on July 23, featuring rapper Jack Harlow. It was produced by Kanye West. "Industry Baby" reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and later climbed to number one.

His album Montero was released on September 17, 2021. It included the song "Thats What I Want." On October 23, 2021, Lil Nas X made a surprise appearance at a concert in Las Vegas, performing some of his hit songs.

On April 26, 2022, he announced his first concert tour, the Long Live Montero Tour. The tour supported his album Montero and ran from September 2022 to January 2023.

Recent Projects (2022–Present)

On March 16, 2022, Lil Nas X teased two new songs from his upcoming album. One of them, "Late to da Party," was released as a single on June 24, 2022. He described the album as "something fun, something for the summertime."

During his Long Live Montero Tour, he performed an unreleased song called "Star Walkin'." On September 15, 2022, Riot Games, the creators of the video game League of Legends, announced a partnership with Lil Nas X. He was named "President of League of Legends" as a fun publicity stunt. "Star Walkin'" became the anthem for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship. He performed the song at the tournament's opening ceremony. He also helped design a special outfit for a character in the game.

A documentary film about him, Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. The premiere was delayed because of a threat, but it was later found not to be real.

On January 3, 2024, Lil Nas X announced his single "J Christ," which came out on January 12. His next single, "Where Do We Go Now," was released on January 26, 2024. The documentary Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero also became available for streaming that day.

Lil Nas X was featured on Camila Cabello's song "He Knows," released on May 10, 2024.

Musical Style and Influences

Lil Nas X's music style includes hip hop, pop rap, country rap, trap, pop, and rock.

He looks up to LGBTQ artists like Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator. He says they made it easier for him to be comfortable in his career. He also names Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Drake, Miley Cyrus, and Doja Cat as big influences. He grew up listening to hip hop artists such as Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Kid Cudi, and Lil Uzi Vert.

Impact and Influence

Lil Nas X's success made him the first person of color and the first openly gay performer to be on Forbes magazine's list of Highest-Paid Country Acts.

After the music video for "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" was released, many people praised Lil Nas X for its openly queer visuals. Variety magazine said the video "changed everything for queer music artists."

Personal Life

Sharing His Identity

In early June 2019, Lil Nas X told his sister and father that he is gay. He felt it was the right time to share this, even though he wasn't sure how his fans would react. On June 30, 2019, the last day of Pride Month, Lil Nas X publicly shared that he is gay. He hinted at this in his song "c7osure". The song talks about growing up and accepting yourself. The next day, he tweeted about the rainbow-colored building on the cover of his album 7, saying he "deadass thought i made it obvious." He clearly stated he was gay in a BBC Breakfast interview a few days later.

Most people reacted positively to the news. However, some people reacted negatively on social media. This also brought attention to how some people in the hip hop community react to gay artists. In January 2023, Lil Nas X joked about his identity on Twitter. In November 2023, he confirmed he was "still gay."

Beliefs

Lil Nas X said in September 2021 that he was an atheist at one point. But now, he is a "very spiritual person" who believes in the Universe. In December 2023, he wrote that he was entering his "Christian era."

Politics

Lil Nas X supported Kamala Harris for the 2024 US presidential election.

Awards and Achievements

Lil Nas X at the 2019 American Music Awards

Lil Nas X has won many awards. These include two Grammy Awards, five Billboard Music Awards, and five MTV Video Music Awards. He also won two BET Hip Hop Awards, two iHeartRadio Music Awards, and two American Music Awards. The Songwriters Hall of Fame gave him the Hal David Starlight Award, making him the youngest person to receive it.

Lil Nas X was the male artist with the most nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. He won awards for Best Music Video and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. He is the first openly LGBT Black artist to win a Country Music Association award. He is also the first openly LGBTQ person to win an MTV Video Music Award for Song of the Year. In 2021, he became the third artist, after Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift, to win an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for a video he helped direct – "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)".

Lil Nas X has had three number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In July 2019, "Old Town Road" was at the top of the Billboard 100 for 13 weeks. This made it the first hip hop song to do so. It was also the first song to sell 10 million copies while still at number one. After 15 weeks at the top, Lil Nas X became the first openly gay artist to have a song stay number one for so long. He passed Elton John's record from 1997. With 19 weeks at number one, Lil Nas X holds the record for the most weeks since the chart began in 1958. By November 2019, the song had sold or streamed 10 million units, earning a Diamond Certified award.

Time named him one of the 25 most influential people on the Internet in 2019. They recognized his "global impact on social media." In 2020, he was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. In 2021, he appeared on the Time 100 list, which names the 100 most influential people in the world. On September 1, 2021, The Trevor Project gave Lil Nas X their first Suicide Prevention Advocate of the Year award.

Discography

Studio albums

• Montero (2021)

Concert Tours

• Long Live Montero Tour (2022–23)

Film and TV Appearances

See also

In Spanish: Lil Nas X para niños

• List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones
• List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100
• List of most-streamed artists on Spotify
• List of bestselling singles worldwide
• LGBT culture in New York City
• List of African-American LGBT people
• African-American LGBT community
• LGBTQ+ representations in hip hop music