Let's Take a Closer Look at the Lyrics of "Old Town Road"

My son has been a fan of Lil Nas X for a bit now. I find his music kind of blah, but I do appreciate his lifestyle and how open he is with everything. He leaves it all out on the table and he is very confident in his own skin. That is a feat and an accomplishment. I like that.

So, with my son and his friends enjoying his music, that means I listen to it a lot in my car. Again, the music is blah, but the message is dope. The way I consume music is the lyrics, like a lot of others. I really want to hear what the artist has to say. I try to figure out what they are trying to get across. Trying to memorize lyrics is very fun for me. I love it when I do figure them out as well.

With Lil Nas X and his biggest hit "Old Town Road", the realization of some of the lyrics is hilarious to me. The song is incredibly catchy and very easy to hum along to. I find myself singing the words while walking around my house. My wife does the same. And during one of these personal singalongs, I had to stop myself because I couldn't believe some of the words I was saying. There is some hilarious stuff in this song. In the first verse Lil Nas has two lines that crack me up. He says, "hat is black matte/got the boots that black to match". This is as simple a rhyming pattern as one can have. He even finds a way to rhyme black with black. It is kind of impressive. I also love the whole idea of mentioning multiple times that he has a black hat and he managed to get black boots so it all matches. Also, letting us know his hat is matte is simply wonderful. He also lets the listener know that we can all whip our Porsche's. It is hilarious to me that he thinks all his listeners have a Porsche. Cracks me up every time. I don't care to go into Billy Ray Cyrus' verse on the song because he is clearly doing a coattails thing. Lil Nas X is much more talented and Billy Ray is trying to stay relevant. He almost messes the song up in my opinion.

Lil Nas' second verse though, this is where the hilarity hits an entire new level. He has one lyric in particular that I constantly think about. It is definitely the reason why I wanted to write this blog. I'll touch on that near the end though. I first want to talk about a few other parts in verse two. Lil Nas says that, "my whole life is a movie/bull riding and boobies". First off, boobies, that is nuts. That is what my 11 year old calls them. My seven year old uses the word boobies as well. Also, I believe Lil Nas X is sexually fluid, I am almost positive he is gay. So why boobies? If he is talking about heftier dudes, okay. But he never clarifies that. Again, it is the rhyming scheme, and I get that, but it is still hilarious. Also, in Lil Nas X's mind, a life lived like the movies includes bull riding and boobies. That is iconic. I love that that is where his mind went when he wrote those lyrics. That rules.

He also says that his "cowboy hat from Gucci/Wrangler on my booty". So he will schill out the big bucks for a cowboy hat, but he has to save on jeans. That is almost relatable. Maybe he loves hats so he is willing to spend big bucks on them. But when it comes to pants he is thrifty. I get it. I spend big dollars on running shoes, but I have had the same set of t-shirts forever, with no intention of buying new ones anytime soon.

The creme de la creme of lyrics in this song are as follows, "riding on a tractor/lean all in my bladder". The riding on the tractor point is all fine and well. He is a cowboy on an old town road. The tractor makes enough sense. But the lean in his bladder. That is a chef's kiss if you ask me. Lean, to the uninitiated, is purple drank or sizzurp. Lean is a mixed drink consisting of codeine cough syrup, soda and hard candy. It is a dangerous opioid and highly addictive. I've never had it, but I do know people who have and they have let me know it is disgusting. So for Lil Nas X to say that he is on a tractor and his bladder is full of lean. I mean that is lightning in a bottle. It feels like a comedian wrote this lyric. It is too funny to not be a joke. When I figured out what he was singing I thought I misheard him. Nope, he was saying that he had so much lean and it is now just in his bladder until Lil Nas X goes to use the restroom. That is so wild and so weird and so genius. I cannot get enough of this lyric in this song. I have not stopped thinking about it since I figured out the actual words.

This song is wildly memorable and for people to just glide past that lyric, that makes it even more perfect. I will never not think of these lyrics, especially the lean lyric, everytime I hear this song from now on. I bet you will notice it now too. Keep doing your thing Lil Nas X. You are a true music wonder. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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