Lil Nas X‘s “Old Town Road” is now officially the biggest song in the 69-year history of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The song, which was originally released in December of 2018 independently before Billy Ray Cyrus jumped on the remix in April 2019, was certified 14-times platinum by the association on Saturday (January 9). The mark makes “Old Town Road” bigger in terms of sales than other massive chart-topping hits such as Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” Usher’s “Yeah!” and more.
Lil Nas took to Twitter on Saturday to celebrate the historic moment.
“OLD TOWN ROAD IS OFFICIALLY 14 TIMES PLATINUM,” he exclaimed. “MOST PLATINUMS FOR ANY SONG EVER! LETS GOOO!”
The record already owns the Billboard Hot 100 record for longest run at No. 1 at 19 weeks. By comparison, the longest No. 1s by Hip Hop artists belong to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” at 12 weeks, Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” which stood at No. 1 for 11 weeks and Drake’s “God’s Plan” which held the No. 1 spot for 10 weeks.
Lil Nas X Taking His 'Old Town Road' Act To Children's Books
The growth of “Old Town Road” has prompted the Atlanta artist to launch into a new avenue: children’s books. He recently released his first kid’s book, C Is For Country and in an interview with NPR, he acknowledged his main line of fans are kids due to the popularity of “Old Town Road.”
“I’m well aware that life and careers and everything goes in chapters,” he told the outlet. “That’s the chapter I’m in right now and I’m OK with that.”
Revisit the award-winning video for “Old Town Road” below.
I can’t wait to see all the homophobic comments with all these dudes and have dick on their minds. LOL
“Old time road”
You even immediately use the correct title in the article!
I miss editors.
Lil Nas X sold more off of one single than what they broke woman beater Nas sold in his entire 30 year career. Haha! Old Town Road >>>>>>>> Illmatic. It’s the ROC in here!
Clearly you have some unrequited love for the Nasty one lol
Wow, I can’t imagine how this guy got it right on this song..
masterpiece LOL WHAT
I guess you misse the part where it says it’s the MOST SELLING SINGLE OF ALL TIME genius. It’s not my cup of tea, but it was pure genius.
It is impossible to compare streams today to sales recorded before streams. The 1500 streams =1 sale idea makes headlines like this ridiculous. A stream means something played the song for about 15 seconds. A sale before streaming meant a person actually purchased the song or album. Stop the madness RIAA
I’ma ride til I can’t no more…. nobody can tell me nothing….he told us