Yes, Roommates, y’all read that right. Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ has been dominating the TikTok app with its blend of country and hip-hop sounds. Lil Nas X found his hit debuting on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip Hop songs all at once.
‘Old Town Road’s seat at the country table was short-lived though. According to @rollingstone, Billboard removed ‘Old Town Raod’ from the Hot Country Songs chart and informed Columbia Records that Lil Nas X’s inclusion on the chart was a mistake.
“Upon further review, it was determined that ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard’s country charts,” the statement read. “While ‘Old Country Road’ incorporated references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”
However, the celebrities and fans beg to differ. Many celebs took to twitter, including Wale, questioning exactly what it means for a song to be “country enough”, and many have accused Billboard of removing Lil Nas X’s song because of his race.
Manager of another country sensation, Danny Kang, told Rolling Stone that Lil Nas X’s removal from the Billboard Chart has nothing to do with his race, and even offered a theory of how he ended up on the chart in the first place.
“He is listed as a country record. He was going to these spaces, gaining a little bit of traction,” Kang said. “And there’s a way to manipulate the algorithm to push your track to the top.”
Rolling Stone also sites the various streaming services that list ‘Old Town Road’ as a country song including SoundCloud, iTunes, and Spotify.
Lil Nas X declined to comment on Billboard’s decision, but took to instagram expressing how disappointed he was in what took place.
