Old Town Road

About

"Old Town Road", subtitled as "Old Town Road (I Got Horses in the Back)" is a 2018 trap song by rapper Lil Nas X. On TikTok, parodies featuring portions of the song have widely circulated, typically using the names "Horses in the Back" or "Yee Yee Juice," in which participants drink juice that turns them into a hillbilly. In April 2019, a remix of the track featuring country singer Billy Ray Cyrus was released.

Origin

On December 8th, 2012, Urban Dictionary user Thestagstalker^[1] defined "yee yee" as "An exclamation used by hunters, fishers and other country folk when just about anything happens. It's used under any circumstances usually with the phrase "live action" added in before. Hunters will occasionally raise their guns in the air to exclaim a yee yee. " The definition received 1,223 upvotes and 250 downvotes in seven years.

On December 2nd, 2018, musician Lil Nas X uploaded their song "Old Town Road (I Got Horses in The Back) to YouTube (shown below). The video gained 2.7 million views and 110,000 likes in three months, reaching 66.4 million views as of May 15th, 2019.

Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road
I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more
I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road
I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more
I got the horses in the back
Horse tack is attached
Hat is matte black
Got the boots that's black to match

Spread

A clip of the song was uploaded to Tik Tok by @nicemichal and used in 144,200 videos. TikTok user @nicemichaels parody gained 19,000 likes as of March 8th, 2019 (shown below).

On February 25th, 2019, the first Old Town Road compilation was uploaded to YouTube by Blissful Minds (shown below, left). The video accumulated 415,800 views and 5,200 likes in two weeks. On March 1st, a video entitled "Yee yee juice cowboy dog horses tiktok" was uploaded by Trendy and received 14,800 views in a week (shown below, right).

That same day another compilation was uploaded by Tasty TikToks that gained 3,900 views in a week (shown below, left). On March 2nd, Really Got It uploaded a compilation video that gained over 145,300 views and 1,700 likes in a week (shown below, right).

Instagram Presence

Following the popularity of the song on TikTok, Old Town Road gained recognition on Instagram, appearing in multiple edits made by the users. For example, on March 2nd, Instagram user amoistnapkin posted a video edit featuring Ben Shapiro which gained over 329,000 views and 21,200 likes in five weeks (shown below).^[10]

On March 9th, Instagram user thicc.m4v posted a video which gained over 521,800 views and 42,400 likes in one month.^[11]

Billy Ray Cyrus Remix

On April 4th, 2019, Lil Nas released a remix of "Old Town Road" featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, gaining over 710,000 views on YouTube in less than a day (shown below).

The release happened amid an ongoing controversy after Billboard removed the song from the country music charts, deeming it a hip hop song.^[2] It is unclear if the Billy Ray Cyrus remix is an intentional nod at Billboard to make the song seem "more country." Nevertheless, the song was widely praised on social media. User @itsjeron posted a still from Django Unchained to illustrate his feelings about the song, gaining over 7,100 retweets and 20,000 likes (shown below, left). User @JAWalker joked that the track put Billboard in an awkward position, gaining over 4,100 retweets and 16,000 likes (shown below, right). Jokes were covered by Buzzfeed^[3] and Vulture.^[2]

Other Remixes

On April 17th, 2019, rapper Cupcakke released an unofficial remix of Old Town Road titled "Old Town Hoe," which Lil Nas X responded favourably to. On April 29th, producer Diplo released his remix of Old Town Road that used the remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. On July 12th, a remix that kept Cyrus' feature and also added new features from rapper Young Thug and singer Mason Ramsey was released. A music video was also uploaded that referenced the Storm Area 51 Facebook event. (shown below, left) On July 24th, a remix that featured rapper and BTS member RM titled "Seoul Town Road" was released. The video for the song received more than 8.1 million views in one week (shown below, right).

Stephen A. Smith Parodies

On April 4th, the day of the "Old Town Road" remix release, American sports television personality, Stephen A.Smith, began being used in "Old Town Road" Twitter commentary as he is known to wear a cowboy hat on occasion. That day, Twitter user @actfredo^[5] posted a photo of Smith wearing a cowboy hat and included the caption "Billboard 100: 'Rap cant be in country music,' Billy ray cyrus:" which compares Smith to Cyrus (shown below, left). The tweet gained 100 retweets and 439 likes in four days. The next day, Twitter user @darijorozayy^[6] posted the same image with the caption "Me showing up to work this morning blasting that Billy Ray verse" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 3,100 retweets and 12,300 likes in three days.

On April 6th, @stephenasmith posted an ESPN TikTok video featuring himself walking around in a cowboy hat to the song "Old Town Road" with the caption, "Mood" (shown below). The post gained 57,500 retweets and 198,600 likes in two days. That day, @LilNasX^[4] responded to Smith's post with "YOOOOOOOO" which accumulated 11,000 likes in two days.

Genius Appearance and Billboard Hot 100 №1 Achievement

On April 8th, 2019, Lil Nas X made an appearance of Genius "Verified" series, explaining lyrics of Old Town Road and commenting on its viral success.^[9] The episode gained over 8.1 million views in five days.

On April 9th, 2019, "Old Town Road" achieved №1 position on Billboard Hot 100 Chart, climbing from №15 position the previous week.^[7] On the same day Lil Nas X tweeted about the achievement, with the tweet gaining over 2,700 retweets and 37,300 likes in four days.^[8]

Records

On July 29th, 2019, Billboard^[16] reported that Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" had become the Billboard song with the most consecutive weeks at number one. With 17 weeks in the number one slot, "Old Town Road" surpassed "Despacito" and "One Fine Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, both of which were tied with 16 weeks at number one. Additionally, the song holds the record for the most consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard's Streaming Songs chart, as well.

Billboard writes:

As on the Hot 100, "Road" (on Columbia Records) leads the Streaming Songs chart for a 17th week, another record-breaking mark, topping the 16-week run of "Despacito." "Road" rules Streaming Songs with 72.5 million U.S. streams, down 16%, in the week ending July 25, according to Nielsen Music. "Road" set the record for the top streaming week (143 million) following the April 5 arrival of its remix solely with Cyrus (who has been billed on 16 of the song's 17 weeks atop the Hot 100) and claims nine of the 11 biggest streaming frames to date, including the top three.

That day, the publication tweeted,^[17] "Over 28,000 songs have debuted on the #Hot100 in its 60-year history. 1,086 songs have hit No. 1. 38 songs have spent 10+ weeks No. 1. 3 songs have spent 15+ weeks at No. 1. 1 song has spent 17+ weeks at No. 1:
@LilNasX ft. @billyraycyrus, 'Old Town Road.'" Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 31,000 likes and 6,500 retweets (shown below).

Video Teaser

On May 13th, 2019, Lil Nas X posted an image of himself in a cowboy hat to Twitter,^[12] teasing a music video for "Old Town Road," gaining over 5,000 retweets and 54,000 likes (shown below).

After the tweet, many fans began making jokes about it. Twitter user @UziBetter said it looked like the perspective of the last chip in a can of Pringles, gaining over 3,300 retweets and 23,000 likes (shown below, left). User @TylerBurgener made an Ant-Man Will Defeat Thanos by Crawling Up His Butt and Expanding joke about the picture, gaining over 1,400 retweets and 10,000 likes (shown below, right).

Other Twitter users compared the image to the film Holes. These include tweets by @greenberg30 which gained over 30 retweets and 680 likes (shown below, left) and another by @bizgamer9 that gained over 40 retweets and 1,200 likes (shown below, right). Jokes about the teaser were covered by Twitter Moments.^[13]

Music Video

On May 17th, 2019, Lil Nas X released the "Old Town Road (Official Movie) ft. Billy Ray Cyrus" on YouTube (shown below). The video features guest appearances by Chris Rock, Haha Davis, Rico Nasty, Diplo, Jozzy, Young Kio, and Vince Staples. Lil Nas X also sips from a Snapple bottle labeled "Yee Yee Juice" referencing the original TikTok videos to use the track. The video gained over 40,000 views and 125,000 likes in three hours.

That day, @diplo tweeted, "I played a small but important role @lilnasx @billyraycyrus" and shared a short clip (shown below). the tweet gained 2,100 likes in two hours.

That same day, @GK3 tweeted, "how long until yee yee juice is an official @Snapple flavor" and Snapple responded "Not sure the world is ready for that" (shown below).

Twitter Parody Remix

On June 24th, 2019, Lil Nas X^[14] posted a childhood photo of himself in a military uniform (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 355,100 likes and 30,400 retweets in three days. That same day, @BlackySpeakz^[15] started a lyric thread which parodied "Old Town Road" with "I got my troops in the back, they ready to attack" (shown below, right). A handful of Twitter users followed with parodies of the following lines.

On June 25th, Lil Nas X uploaded a video scrolling Through the Twitter parody lyrics while he sang them. The video garnered over 90,100 retweets and 283,200 likes in two days (shown below).

#OldTownRoadForever

On July 17th, 2019, Billy Ray Cyrus made a Time Traveler Conversation TikTok video using the hashtag #OldTownRoadForever which inferred that "Old Town Road" remixes would continue well into the future. His video gained over 375,100 likes and 12,600 shares in six days. On July 19th, Indie rock band Younger Hunger made their own remix of "Old Town Road" captioning it "POV: Its 2030 and Old Town Road is still number one after a Younger Hunger remix #oldtownforever" (shown below, center). The video garnered over 6,000 likes in four days. That same day, alternative rock band Panic at the Disco uploaded a time traveler conversation video revealing that Pete Wentz would being included in a future remix (shown below, right). The video gained over 23,800 likes and 1,000 shares in four days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References