It can’t be curtains already for Lil Nas X.
On Friday, the “Old Town Road” rapper took to social media to tell his millions of fans that he’s taking a chill pill and will stand still.
“It’s been a wild last 7 months and im ready to take a little time off,” the 20-year-old Atlanta native tweeted on Friday: “Sorry to everyone attending twitchcon or the sandbox music festival, i will not be there.”
“i love u guys and will make it up to you some way,” he assured his followers, signing off with a sunglasses-wearing emoji and heart.
These abrupt cancellations came as a shock for many as the boy wonder, who has taken the music world by storm with a Country & Western-Trap music hybrid that has become the song of the year (maybe even the decade).
His “time off” announcement immediately follows Fiona Apple’s very public claims that Lil Nas X owes her money.
According to Billboard, the “Criminal” singer said she’s looking for Nas X to cough up the dough for sampling “Every Single Night” from her 2012 album The Idler Wheel... on the “Kim Jung” song from his 2018 mixtape Nasarati.
Apparently, the “bout it-bout it” bad girl took umbrage with writer Rachel Handler of Vulture—who failed to include her quotes about the former Soundcloud sensation who made history over the summer when his breakout single “Old Town Road” dominated the Hot 100 for 19 weeks.
“One thing that the lovely Rachel Handler [the author of the profile] didn’t mention that I did say in the interview which I would just like to say now is that Lil Nas X—you’re probably really great, but you used my song ‘Every Single Night,’ too,” she said in a video posted Thursday on Instagram.
“You sampled that song, too, in a song called ‘Kim Jong Un,’ I think. And, hey, where’s my money, you cute little guy? Where’s my money?”
Is the 1990’s wild child of pop taking cues from 50 Cent (who’s made a pastime of trolling social media notables for owing him money)?
Well, at least she called him cute. *shrugs*
Lil Nas X, born Montero Lamar Hill, has not publicly responded to the claim.
It’s strange considering Lil Nas launched his career via social media—and up until Apple’s diatribe, was very active.
In June, Reuters reported that the Time magazine cover boy and his new record company, Sony Music, were sued by a California-based music publisher for $25 million for allegedly stealing from Bobby Caldwell’s 1982 song Carry On for Lil Nas X’s song of the same name that was posted to YouTube, Spotify and Soundcloud.