Lil Nas X is a meme star, sure, but his debut EP reveals a star, period
LA TimesPop Music Critic Six months after he posted the song on the internet, three months after Billboard said it wasn’t a country song and two months after it went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 — where it’s stayed put ever since, fending off would-be chart-toppers from superstars like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran — Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” has finally been embraced by the Nashville establishment. A savvy digital-era operator who categorized “Old Town Road” as a country song on SoundCloud because he knew it would stand out that way, Lil Nas X recognizes that Nashville’s initial resistance was of course a boon. Like “Old Town Road,” they’re short — around two minutes apiece. Lil Nas X has clearly been thinking about where he fits into pop — about how to fill the space “Old Town Road” created for him before he even had a chance to figure out what he’d like to tell us.