UPDATED May 21, 2:57 p.m. ET: Lil Nas X has responded to a tweet by Rolling Stone over his country music comments.
"you don’t have take me out of context and paint me as bitter rolling stone. i said im proud and happy for them while i also wish i wasn’t removed from the chart.. especially now that country has more trap/rap influences than ever," he wrote.
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Lil Nas X is lamenting the fact that his forays into country music weren’t as celebrated as Beyoncé and Shaboozey's.
In an interview with BBC, Nas said he was “happy” that these artists are getting their much-deserved shine. “I wish this would have happened for me,” he added, per Rolling Stone. “I wasn’t even able to experience this.”
Beyoncé has made history with her Cowboy Carter country album, with “Texas Hold ‘Em” becoming the first single by a Black woman to reach No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The project, itself, landed atop the Top Country Albums chart, making it the first offering from a Black woman to hit No. 1 as well. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” also saw major success, climbing to the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10.
Nas didn’t see the same accolades with his own country music effort, 2018’s “Old Town Road” and 2019’s remix with Billy Ray Cyrus. In fact, in 2019, Billboard removed the track from its Country Songs chart because it failed to “embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current form,” according to the outlet. Many speculated that this decision had to do with Nas being Black.
When asked in the BBC interview if he would return to making country music, Nas said that he has been “trying out some country [sounds] here and there over the last couple of years,” but that he wants “to feel connected to it and not force it.”
The 25-year-old is gearing up for his new mixtape, Nasarti 2, which is set to include four recent singles, “Light Again,” “Right There,” “Lean on my Body,” and “Trust Me.”
