5, 2019), which Montero didn’t realize borrowed its melody from a Nirvana song he’d probably never heard performing “Rodeo” at the 2020 Grammys with his rap-veteran namesake “Big” Nas, a version that Lil Nas X later released as a spooky, “Thriller”-like remix and issuing the stopgap single “ Holiday” (No.
In the lyrics of that last mini-hit, Lil Nas X dropped a concise career statement of purpose: “Pop star, but the rappers still respect me.” 37, 2020), a loopy, thumping, Christmas-themed if not exactly sleigh-belling record, with Lil Nas X playing an E’d-out Santa in its music video.
The track kicks off with perhaps its subtlest in‑joke: a gently strummed guitar line that, if not exactly country, could qualify as Tex‑Mex, suggesting for just a few seconds that LNX has put his 10-gallon hat back on to troll the Saving Country Music crowd again.
