Lil Nas X dropped his highly anticipated video for the “Old Town Road” remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus and it was everything we hoped it would be. The star-studded visual is set in 1889 on Old Town Road and boasts hilarious cameos from Chris Rock, Rico Nasty, Vince Staples, and more.
In a very shady moment, most likely aimed at Billboard, X is sitting next to Cyrus when he says “I don’t know man, the last time I was here they weren’t too welcoming to outsiders.” Cyrus responds “Eh, you’re with me this time — everything’s gon’ be alllllright!” and moments later, after being shot at, the outlaws time travel through a portal to 2019 where X reintroduces everyone to country Black folk.
In case you missed it, X went viral back in March when Billboard decided to remove the original version of his hit song from the Country charts, citing it as not Country enough. Billy Ray Cyrus then hopped on the remix to show the up-and-coming artist and “Old Town Road” some love — so the music video is super symbolic.
“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 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,” Billboard told Rolling Stone at the time. Billboard also claimed their decision had “absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist.”
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Practically giving them the middle finger, Billy Ray held X down and welcomed him to the outlaw club.
“@lilnasx Been watching everything going on with OTR. When I got thrown off the charts, Waylon Jennings said to me ‘Take this as a compliment’ means you’re doing something great! Only Outlaws are outlawed. Welcome to the club!,” he tweeted in an epic moment that is sure to go down in music history.
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Watch their hilarious visual up top and hit the flip to see how social media has been responding so far.
