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How the Year 2007 Made Lil Nas X’s Meteoric Rise Possible
Tiffany ‘New York’ Pollard, YouTube, and Soundcloud created the environment for ‘Old Town Road’ to become a hit
Lil Nas X was correct to compare his life to a movie in the lyrics of his hit song “Old Town Road.” The “country-trap” earworm has now catapulted the 20-year-old rapper from relative obscurity into record-breaking fame. Not only has the genre-bending song officially achieved diamond certification (10 million units of streams and sales), it also became the longest-running #1 song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 list with a 19-week run. The rapper’s viral fame may seem to reflect the youth culture of 2019, but Lil Nas X is actually the latest in a long line of Black internet celebrities whose viral success can be traced back to the cultural shifts and technological advances of 2007.
Lil Nas X’s popularity is a result of three things that occurred in the year 2007: the launch of SoundCloud, the rise of Black media blogs, and the emergence of Black internet celebrities powered by social platforms such as Twitter and YouTube. This fact alone would make a strong case to argue that 2007 was an important year for both internet culture and popular culture in the United States. But, a lot more than that happened in 2007 to set the stage for…
