Lil Nas X knows how to turn heads — whether it’s from how he dresses to what he says on social media. Born Montero Lamar Hill in Georgia on April 9, 1999, he later dropped out of college to pursue his music career.
(Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
By 2018, Lil Nas X started writing and recording songs in his closet. He adopted the stage name Lil Nas X as a tribute to the rapper Nas. X comes from the Roman numeral 10 and the number of years he thought it would take to find fame. He added Lil in front of his name to be funny because he said “Every new rapper’s name is Lil, Lil, Lil. ‘What if I was Lil Nas?”
Hailing from a conservative upbringing just outside Atlanta, Georgia, the rapper thought he was going to take the secret of his sexuality to his grave. He would later publicly come out as gay on the last day of Pride Month in June 2019.
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On December 3, 2018, Lil Nas X released the country rap song “Old Town Road” online for free when he was 19. He bought the beat for the song anonymously on a beat-selling platform called BeatStars for $30. The song samples Nine Inch Nails’ 2008 track, “34 Ghosts IV.” The song that gave him superstardom was recorded at a “humble” Atlanta studio on their “$20 Tuesdays,” taking less than an hour!
To promote the track, LNX made over one hundred memes that went viral on TikTok as part of a #Yeehaw Challenge. Millions of users posted videos of themselves dressed as a wrangler or cowgirl, with most #yeehaw videos using “Old Town Road” as the song for their clips. When LNX wrangled himself country legend Billy Ray Cyrus on the remix version of the track, he was the “only country dude” he knew because of Hannah Montana.
Since then, LNX has become a hero among the queer community, an award-winning artist, and one of the most influential people in the world.
Take a look below at Lil Nas X’s most iconic fashion moments:
