Less than a year ago, nobody knew the name Lil Nas X. Now, his song “Old Town Road” has set the record for longest time spent atop the Hot 100 singles chart.
The country-rap song has now occupied the top spot for 17 weeks, a feat that has not been achieved across the chart’s six-decade history. Last week, the song was in a three-way tie for the previous record with “One Sweet Day” (1995) by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men and the “Despacito” remix (2017) by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber.
So how exactly did a 20-year-old, who less than a year ago had no name recognition and only some amateur music, earn this milestone? In part because he knows how to play the chart game. Billboard has a nebulous remix policy which allows remixes of a song to contribute to the chart tally of the original, as long as the remix is musically similar enough; Billboard senior director of charts Gary Trust says remixes can’t deviate too far in composition in order to count together, but he didn’t get into the details of the internal deliberation process. In this case, it appears changing the name, dropping a collaborator — this is the only remix without Billy Ray Cyrus — and adding new verses still falls within the policy.
“Old Town Road” now has five official versions, the latest of which was released last week, likely in an attempt to push listening numbers up into a record-breaking week — the same tactic Lil Nas X employed the week prior, by dropping a Young Thug and Mason Ramsey remix.
