Will Smith has his boot-scootin’ boogie ready to go for whenever Lil Nas X wants to make a music video to immortalize his hit “Old Town Road” remix with Billy Ray Cyrus.
Lil Nas X’s (real name Montero Lamar Hill) smash song is one of the most popular in the U.S. right now, with the remix trending widely across social media and topping the iTunes song sales chart over the weekend.
Smith, always savvy with social media, posted an edit of footage from the music video for his 1999 song “Wild Wild West” dubbed over with “Old Town Road.”
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“Y’all call me when you’re ready to shoot the video,” Smith wrote under the clip on Instagram, tagging Lil Nas X and Cyrus. In response, Lil Nas X commented, “NO FUCKING WAY.”
Smith’s video is but the latest addition to the wave of recent viral attention “Old Town Road” has gotten — see also Mark Ruffalo, fellow Online Dad, who also celebrated the song’s success over on Twitter, or Miley Cyrus, who posted a congratulatory Instagram for her dad and Lil Nas X after making it to No. 1 on iTunes. Over the last few months, “Old Town Road” took over TikTok with the #Yeehaw challenge and was released as a single in December, when it began to steadily climb the Billboard charts.
I hear my friend @billyraycyrus + @LilNasX have the #1 song in the country right now. Congrats on your hit. Now, I’m off to take my horse down to old town road... pic.twitter.com/8DuuNoXYRv
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) April 7, 2019
The attention on “Old Town Road” reached its peak over the last two weeks, when Billboard decided to pull it from the Hot Country Songs chart after reaching the No. 1 spot, telling Rolling Stone it was ultimately not eligible as country. The backlash was swift, with many decrying Billboard’s decision as a shortsighted continuation of historically racist assumptions about music, and Lil Nas X himself describing the song to Time magazine as both country and trap.
In the intervening days, Cyrus jumped on the remix, and tweeted his thoughts Friday when the track dropped: “It was so obvious to me after hearing the song just one time. I was thinking, what’s not country about it? What’s the rudimentary element of a country and western song? Then I thought, it’s honest, humble, and has an infectious hook, and a banjo. What the hell more do ya need?”
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Since the “Old Town Road” remix dropped, Billboard has suggested its decision could change.
“Billboard welcomes the excitement created by genre-blending tracks such as Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ and will continue to monitor how it is marketed and how fans respond,” Billboard said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Our initial decision to remove ‘Old Town Road’ from the Hot Country Songs chart could be revisited as these factors evolve.”
No matter what Billboard decides, it cannot deny the popularity of “Old Town Road” — so much so that it’s still climbing their charts. It is currently No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.