Removing Lil Nas X from Billboard’s country chart is unjustified and racialized

𝒾 𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝔥𝔬𝔯𝔰𝔢 𝔱𝔞𝔠𝔨 𝔦𝔰 𝔞𝔱𝔱𝔞𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔡

At this point, you’ve probably heard these lyrics before. They come from Lil Nas X’s recent hit, “Old Country Road,” which his producer, Yungkio, describes as a “country trap” song. Released in December of 2018, the track gained popularity through the #yeehaw challenge on the popular app TikTok, in which participants would transform themselves into cowboys as the song plays in the background. After the challenge went viral, the song took off, and eventually found itself as the No. 19 single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. 

That is, until, Billboard removed Lil Nas X’s song from the charts completely, claiming the song was “not embracing enough elements of today’s country music.” A strange accusation to claim while, just last year, Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s country-EDM hybrid, Meant To Be, ruled the country charts. With that in mind, wouldn’t “Old Country Road” just be another product of this fresh new  approach to country music? Why was Lil Nas X’s song actually removed?

In a recent interview with Times Magazine, Lil Nas X spoke on the controversial issue of his song’s unjustified removal by stating, “The song is country trap. It’s not one, it’s not the other. It’s both. It should be on both.” He continues by adding, “I believe whenever you’re trying something new, it’s always going to get some kind of bad reception,” when asked if he believed if there was a racially motivated reason for the song’s removal. When the song was initially released, Lil Nas X tweeted, “just because old town road has funny lines doesn’t mean it’s parody. it has a theme. anybody with ears can tell i put some kind of effort into that song.” Lil Nas X gained support from his fans, along with other musicians. Fellow rapper Ski Mask tha Slump God called Billboard’s action “discrimination at it’s finest,” while country singer Meghan Linsey said, “That is some BS. It’s got plenty of ‘country elements’ and its as ‘country’ as anything on country radio, tbh.”

What was the real reason Lil Nas X’s song was no longer considered “country” enough for country? I mean, with just one listen, it’s clear that the song has a clear country vibe to it; so what was the real issue?

Shane Morris, a former country music label employee who once worked for the largest music label in Nashville, composed a Twitter thread to add his insight on the whole situation. In it, Morris states that “Old Country Road” was removed because “the [mainstream] terrestrial country music market is filled to a surfeit with racism and bigotry.” Morris brings up the point that “GIRL” by Maren Morris and “Golden Hour” by Kacey Musgraves are both pop-leaning songs, yet they still found a spot on the country Billboard chart. Morris then speaks upon the present racism in Nashville’s country music scene and the dominance of whiteness in the industry of country music as a whole and comments upon, “what they want country music to sound like, and more importantly… LOOK like.”

Unfortunately, the whiteness of the country music genre doesn’t come as a shocker to many; however, it’s a complacency that we should no longer allow. Country music has Black roots: it’s a fact. Author Pamela Foster writes in her book My Country: The African Diaspora’s Country Music Heritage that, “In the antebellum South, banjos, fiddles, and harmonicas were the dominant instruments played in black culture. Unfortunately, history has distorted these facts to make people believe jazz, blues and spirituals were the staples of black culture at that time when, in fact, it was country.” Why is it that the country music industry excludes the very same group of people that they originate their sound from? Former country singer Cleve Francis states that “Black artists feel like they have been left out of a whole industry for no reason other than color. Country music has mirrored the racial divide in this country. Other forms, such as pop and opera, have integrated but . . . blacks have never been welcome in Nashville.” Morris reminds us in his Twitter thread that in the history of country music, only four Black men have ever topped Billboard’s Country charts, and now, with “Old Country Road” being taken off the charts, that’s 25% of black men removed. Not a good statistic.

The removal of Lil Nas X’s song from the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart is unjustified, and an obviously racialized issue that reveals the overt racism present in the genre of country music. With that I say:

To Billboard: reconsider Lil Nas X’s placement.

To Black artists: produce more country music. Let’s boil the blood of racist YTS.

To Everyone: support Black country musicians.

Article by Sunny Sangha