New York Magazine – July 08, 2019

as “old town road” closes out
its third month on top of the Bill-
board “Hot 100” chart, it enters the com-
pany of the most successful hit singles of
the past 20 years. It has already enjoyed a
longer stay than event records like Phar-
rell’s “Happy,” Adele’s “Hello,” and Destiny’s
Child’s “Independent Women, Pt. I.” Those
songs still get burn today; they’re etched
into the history of popular culture. Maybe,
in the future, we’ll remember “Old Town
Road” as a bright spot in strange times.
This feat is doubly impressive because
“Old Town Road” is Atlanta rapper Lil Nas
X’s first official single. The last time a solo
artist got this much distance on the first at-
bat, Jimmy Carter was president: In 1977,
vocalist Debby Boone, daughter of the
wholesome film and pop star Pat Boone and
a member of his Christian family band, cut
a cover of “You Light Up My Life,” the Oscar-
winning theme song to the forgettable low-
budget romance of the same name. Boone’s
ballad broke big—her reign on the top
lasted ten weeks—and her team rushed an
album out to capitalize on the momentum.
That album, also called You Light Up My
Life, was a mess that not even Beatles and
Abba covers could save. Boone got lost in
the shuffle trying to juggle pop, rock, coun-
try, and sentimental ballads. She didn’t have
the range. Light went platinum, but in three
years Boone’s pop career dried up and she
returned to the Christian-music circuit.
Lil Nas X’s major-label debut, 7, also
faces the unenviable task of creating a mar-
ketable sound for a new artist in short order.
A 19-minute EP, 7 houses about ten min-
utes of good ideas, four of which are
“Old Town Road,” a two-minute smash
whose simplicity looks all the more impres-
sive after six more tries ( 7 , which contains
eight songs, is bookended by two versions
of the hit single). The project feels, if not
rushed, then fascinatingly f lubbed;
like a pound cake that
sank, it loses form and
taste the further in you
manage to make it.
“Panini” and “Rodeo”
are highlights. The for-
mer floats on tuneful

Country Flub

Lil Nas X follows

“Old Town Road”

with a new EP.

POP / CRAIG JENKINS

7

LIL NAS X.

COLUMBIA

RECORDS.

BY

GRACE MCLEAN

DIRECTED BY

LEE SUNDAY EVANS

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SARA HOLDREN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE

RAVEN SNOOK, TIME OUT

BEN BRANTLEY, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“A PROPULSIVE, HAUNTING BURST

OF MUSICAL THEATER ENERGY.”

“INGENIOUS & WILDLY INVENTIVE. “

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