Lil Nas X spurred dozens of thk piec, broke Billboard chart rerds, me out as gay and earned six Grammy nomatns. What did you do this year?
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LIL NAS X MAK GRAMMY HISTORY AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RAPPER NOMATED TOP TEGORI
Award, makg him the first openly gay black male to do “Old Town Road” — which spent much of the year as the No.
” However, the album wasn’t regnized the rap genre, nor was “Old Town Road” nomated untry (Hill’s sgl also sred nomatns the rap sung and pop duo/group tegori) the time most of heard “Old Town Road, ” teenagers on the vio-sharg app TikTok had already been obssg over the tune, which fed together lo-fi trap and banjos lifted om a Ne Inch Nails sample, for as the rerd went om viral meme to cultural phenomenon — eclipsg a chart rerd that Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men set over two s ago — Hill was often dismissed as a novelty act: too rap to be untry, too untry to be nsired real Billboard ially cid to bump the rerd om the untry charts this sprg due to “not embracg enough elements of today’s untry mic s current versn, ” “Old Town Road” beme a lightng rod an ongog nversatn about untry mic’s relatnship wh black the unlikely foc of a raft of thk piec dissectg race, genre and thenticy, Hill’s cisn to e out as gay while “Old Town Road” ro the top of the charts was all the more powerful. Seemgly overnight, Hill beme the biggt gay pop star the world and did so the orb of hip-hop and untry, genr that have historilly snubbed queer artists.
Although he’s not the first queer artist to pete the major tegori at the Grammys (Sam Smh was the first openly gay artist to w rerd of the year 2015), Hill is the first gay rapper to be nomated. The then-four-time Grammy wner beme the first openly gay man to accept the Legend Award at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, an award that had prevly been btowed on stars like Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Frankl and Billy Joel, who prented the legend wh the award. While many still remember the 2015 Grammys as the year that Beck managed to beat out Beyoncé for album of the year, the 57th Annual Grammys were also the year where Sam Smh walked away wh four Grammys, one of which (for bt pop vol album) they beme the first openly gay person to w.