Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known as Lil Nas X, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. He is best known for his country rap breakout single "Old Town Road", which achieved viral popularity as part of the "Yeehaw Challenge"[2] on the video sharing app TikTok.[3] "Old Town Road" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was controversially removed from the Hot Country Songs after debuting at number 19.[4][5]

Montero Lamar Hill graduated from Lithia Springs High School in Atlanta, Georgia.[6]

Lil Nas X began his career as an internet personality on Twitter. He gained popularity through his Nicki Minaj fan account "NasMaraj", named after Nicki Minaj's actual surname of "Maraj" as well as New York rapper Nas. In 2015, Lil Nas X became known for his viral tweets and other fanpage, "FactsAboutNM". In 2017, his "NasMaraj" account gained attention for its interactive "scenario threads". These flash fiction-style threads were popularized on Twitter using the social media dashboard application, TweetDeck.[7][8][9] Following reports and stories by media publications linking Montero to the "NasMaraj" account, he has however, for unknown reasons, denied that he ran the "NasMaraj" account.[10][11]

He began uploading songs to SoundCloud in 2018. On December 3, 2018, he released the country rap song "Old Town Road". The song went viral in early 2019 due to the "Yeehaw Challenge" meme on the social media app TikTok. "Old Town Road" debuted at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100, later climbing to number one.[12] It also debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart at number 19 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at 36.[13] Billboard controversially removed the song from the Hot Country songs chart in March 2019. Speaking about their decision in Rolling Stone magazine, Billboard said:

Upon further review, it was determined that "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard's country charts. When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is a musical composition. While "Old Town Road" incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today's country music to chart in its current version.[14]

Another Billboard spokesperson told Genius, "Billboard's decision to take the song off of the country chart had absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist."[15]

Country music star Billy Ray Cyrus has since supported Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" in a tweet,[16] and he is a featured vocalist in a remix of the song released in early April 2019.[17]

On April 16, 2019, it was announced that Lil Nas X had broken Drake's record for the most US streams in one week. "Old Town Road" achieved 143 million streams for the week ending April 11, surpassing Drake's "In My Feelings", which achieved 116.2 million streams in one week in July 2018.[18]

Lil Nas X will release his debut major-label EP, titled '7', in June 2019.[19]