Video features cameos by Chris Rock, Vince Staples, Diplo and others
Record-shattering artist Lil Nas X has premiered the highly-anticipated video for his global smash hit “Old Town Road” remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. The video was directed by Calmatic and features cameos from Chris Rock, Vince Staples, Rico Nasty, Diplo, Ha Ha Davis, Jozzy and “Old Town Road” beat creator YoungKio. Watch Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus as western outlaws on a wild time-traveling adventure. Moving from the 1800’s to modern day, their journey is a rootin’ tootin’ haze of horses, gun smoke and dance moves that set the old town road ablaze.
Flipping the industry upside down, disrupting the charts, and raising the bar for genre-less culture, “Old Town Road” continues its reign at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the sixth week in a row. The song was the No. 1 greatest airplay gainer on the Mediabase rhythm and urban airplay charts this week, notching over 99 million in total radio audience. Together with the Billy Ray Cyrus and Diplo remixes, “Old Town Road” has accumulated over one billion worldwide streams to date and has sold over four million combined units in the US alone.
The remix with Cyrus was released last month following Billboard’s decision to remove the track from the Hot Country Charts it debuted on along with Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs. Billboard claims the song “does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version,” according to CBS News.
Lil Nas X responded, “I started to think about it, I was like, you know, why? After like listening to other songs that’s actually on that chart, it’s like, wait a minute, something’s not right, basically.”
Due to the controversy, Cyrus decided he had to help out.
“I loved the song the first time I heard it. Country music fans decide what they like. Not critics or anyone else,” Cyrus says. “Waylon Jennings once told me every once in a while the industry outlaws someone because they’re different. Country music fans don’t need to be defined by critics. I’ve always said, don’t think inside the box, don’t think outside the box. Think like there is no box. So, I’m honored to collaborate with Lil Nas X on ‘Old Town Road.'”
The song is available for streaming.
