How did Lil Nas X go from ‘Country Rapper’ to global superstar music icon through a series of carefully orchestrated social media marketing ploys?

Words by Sizwe Shabalala

Many people around the world know Lil Nas X as the country rapper who got famous over night with the record-breaking song, Old Town Road. However, what seems to be a sprint of a come up is actually a result of a mastermind and genius plan that goes way deeper that people think. Ultimately, Lil Nas X uses the same social media marketing tools that every other artist in the industry has access to but what has set him apart from everyone is how he’s found unique and effective ways to actually use these tools to disrupt the norm and establish himself as a mastermind of social media.

Down a Reddit Hole:

Have you ever heard of Reddit? Most likely yes. How many artists do you know of that utilise Reddit as an actual marketing tool? Not many, right? This is one of the very reasons why Lil Nas X saw this as an opportunity to create curiosity and hype around his music on a platform where he would not have to fight for the spotlight with already established industry artists. Way before Old Town Road became a worldwide phenomenon, Lil Nas X went and created a Reddit account and started a thread where he was asking other Reddit users if they knew a song called Old Town Road, or the lyrics to “that Country Trap song.” He was planting the seeds but little did he know just how great the benefits he would reap months down the road.

The real life-changing moment came when a TikTok user decided to use the Old Town Road in one of his videos and by sheer luck, the video caught fire and before we knew it, a viral challenge had hit TikTok and overtime it spread to Twitter and Facebook. There is such an overload of content circulating on social media and that is why it is incredibly difficult to have a viral moment that lasts longer than a week these days, let alone a viral moment that catapults you into stardom. A song about a cowboy, made by a black artist from the South, during a time when the black cowboy phase was trending on social media. If there was ever perfect timing for a struggling musician, this was it. What followed next was the sort of thing dreams are made of.

Lil Nas X soon found his song on the road to the Billboard Country Charts. When the song was then excluded from the Billboard Hot Country Chart later that week, it sparked outrage on social media. By this stage, the song was basically unavoidable, it was everywhere. The discrepancy against the song not being a “real” Country song spread and to Lil Nas X’s luck, Billy Ray Cyrus decided to use his position to show support to Lil Nas X by not only condemning Billboard but also went as far as reaching out to Lil Nas X to record the official remix of Old Town Road. The rest, as they say, is history.

King of the Internet:

Someone on Twitter once said, every day on Twitter there is a main character and the goal is to never be that main character. Essentially, you should try stay away from becoming a trending topic because more often than not, more bad than good will result from that situation. Fortunately for Lil Nas X, he has found ways to control his narrative on Twitter. He understands “Stan Twitter” because he, himself, used to be behind one of Nicki Minaj’s popular Twitter stan accounts. He knows exactly how trolls work. In fact, part of what makes him so good with Twitter is how he handles trolls and other negative comments directed his way. It’s also important to note that he doesn't go up against every single troll on his page but instead, he chooses his battles very wisely.

He is aware that not everyone will like his music or his videos but he is conscious of recognising when an opportunity for a teachable moment presents itself, especially when it’s negativity or ignorance that has to do with his sexual identity and the LGBTQ Community at large. How people choose to see in you is not necessarily a reflection of who you are but rather a reflection of who they are and Lil Nas X has found a way to navigate the negativity directed at him. He uses his Twitter skills to bait bigots to engage with his posts, only for him to flip the script and promote his music.

A perfect example of this would be his well-orchestrated controversy during the rollout for his single, Montero, a few months ago. I say “orchestrated” because there was not a single moment during that entire period where it seemed like he was not in control of the narrative. Ever since he came out as gay, he has been unapologetically and explicitly reminding everyone of his sexuality. This, of course, has been met with backlash from a lot of narrow-minded critics and conservatives not just in America but around the world. The music video has scenes depicting Lil Nas X giving Satan a lap dance and even descending to hell. The intention behind this was to flip the script and shine a spotlight on the hypocrisy of these judgmental, narrow-minded people. There were also sneakers that supposedly contained blood, which his team had put up for sale and Lil Nas X knew that it would cause outrage but at least the attention would be on him that entire time. It worked. Like clockwork, a week after the song was released, it debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. With the release of this song, not only was he able to bag himself another Billboard number 1 hit, but he also managed to make a statement that ignited an important conversation.

Image Credit: ca-times.brightspotcdn.com

When Drake announced his album and shared the now very popular album cover on his social media, it became a meme instantly. While people were busy making their own versions of that album cover which featured emojis of 9 pregnant women, Lil Nas X joined in on the fun, except he took it to a place nobody else had thought of taking it. He posted a photo of himself with a prosthetic pregnancy tummy as a way tell his fans that his album was due very soon. Many people called him out for being insensitive. Essentially, the backlash was because in many parts of the real world, it is still unsafe for trans men and trans masculine people to get pregnant. Lil Nas X was called out for using a very delicate matter as a marketing ploy for shock value at the expense of people who don’t have the luxury of taking that “costume” off at the end of the day — they live with these realities everyday of their lives. He is not the first person to do the fake pregnancy thing, when you consider James Charles did it earlier this year.

For an artist as popular and as successful as him, you would expect him to carry himself a certain way, especially when there are multi-million-dollar campaigns and brands involved. However, he remains unshaken in the face of the social media beast. He always finds a way out of sticky situations but most importantly, he remains a few steps ahead almost all the time. The social media mastermind of his time.