Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), known by his stage name Lil Nas X (/nɑːz/ NAHZ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and internet personality. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single "Old Town Road", which first achieved viral popularity on the social media app TikTok in early 2019 before climbing music charts internationally and becoming diamond certified by November of that same year. "Old Town Road" spent 19 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the longest-running number-one song since the chart debuted in 1958. Several remixes of the song were released, the most popular of which featured country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Nas X came out as gay while "Old Town Road" was atop the Hot 100, becoming the only artist to do so while having a number-one record. Following the success of "Old Town Road", Nas X released his debut extended play, titled 7, which spawned two further singles, with "Panini" peaking at number five and "Rodeo" peaking at number 22 on the Hot 100. His debut studio album, Montero, is preceded by the singles "Holiday", the chart-topping "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)", and "Industry Baby". The album also contains the singles "That's What I Want" and "Lost in the Citadel". In 2022, Lil Nas X released "Late To Da Party" alongside YoungBoy Never Broke Again and "STAR WALKIN'". The latter was the anthem for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship. Nas X was the most-nominated male artist at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, where he ultimately won awards for Best Music Video and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. "Old Town Road" earned him two MTV Video Music Awards including Song of the Year, and the American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Song; Nas X is also the first openly LGBTQ Black artist to win a Country Music Association award. Time named him as one of the 25 most influential people on the Internet in 2019, and he was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2020.
- He was the first artist to have a song remain at number one on the Billboard 100 list for 19 weeks.
- Old Town Road was the first song to ever sell more than 10 million copies whilst in the number one spot.
- On a global scale, Old Town Road was the fifth most-streamed song of 2019.
- Billboard removed the song from its Hot Country Song’s chart due to its lack of embracing enough elements of country music. As a result, Billy Ray Cyrus created a remix of Old Town Road with Lil Nas X after recognizing its country vibe.
- In 2019, on the last day of Pride Month in the USA, Lil Nas X came out publicly as being gay by asking his followers to listen carefully to his song “C7osure”.