After four months, it seems the hype for Lil Nas X is still going strong.
The up-and-coming rapper’s debut hit, Old Town Road, has just spent its 17th week atop the Billboard Hot 100 — the song’s Billy Ray Cyrus remix, that is — which makes it the longest-running No. 1 song in the history of the chart.
Billboard made the announcement on Monday, only a few days after the release of Lil Nas X’s latest version of the country/trap tune, Seoul Town Road (ft. RM of BTS).
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The 20-year-old took to Instagram shortly after with a couple of videos to show gratitude to his fans, collaborators and supporters.
“I am so thankful that this blessing has been placed upon me,” he wrote. “This song has changed my life and the way I see the world around me.”
“Thank you to every single person who has been a part of this journey,” he added. “As I said before, it’s just the beginning!”
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Following the news, the previous record-holder for the longest-running No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single, Mariah Carey, took to Twitter to congratulate Lil Nas X.
Prior to Lil Nas X, Carey, 49, had held the record with Boyz II Men since 1995 for the song One Sweet Day, which spent 16 weeks atop the chart.
“Sending love and congrats to @LilNasX on breaking one of the longest-running records in music history,” she wrote.
“We’ve been blessed to hold this record with a song that means a great deal to @BoyzIIMen and myself and has touched so many,” added Carey.
In May 2017, Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber tied the previous record with their song Despacito but did not beat it.
Among the remaining seven songs on the list of top 10 longest-running Billboard Hot 100 singles are Mark Ronson‘s Uptown Funk, I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas and Elton John‘s Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight.
Carey and Boyz II Men are also featured again on the top 10 separately. The remaining songs all reached a whopping 14 weeks before losing the No. 1 spot.
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Lil Nas X said he was motivated to create and complete the song after his sister told him he needed to move out of her house for not pulling his weight.
“I was so upset,” he wrote on Instagram. “I used it as motivation for the song. I saw myself as a loner cowboy needing to run away from it all.
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Lil Nas X first dropped the horse-ridin’ cowboy anthem last December. It was his fourth independent release overall. Everything prior to the song was released to his YouTube account.
The banjo-sampled trap beat became a phenomenon on TikTok, among various other social media apps — it even samples a 2008 Nine Inch Nails track, 34 Ghosts IV.
Because of this, both Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been given credits as composers, lyricists and producers on all Old Town Road releases.
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