Lil Nas X samples 34 Ghosts IV - Old Town Road

[Sarah K]

https://www.billboard.com/articles/c...view-lil-nas-x

How did the beat for "Old Town Road" come together?I had just mastered my melody game and I was trying to get more into sampling. I knew how to sample, but I wanted some crazy challenges. So I would go on YouTube trying to find really weird stuff to sample. I was searching for Beethoven or the classical stuff from hundreds of years ago. Music you normally wouldn't sample.

I found this Nine Inch Nails song ["34 Ghosts IV"] and I thought, "Damn. This shit is crazy." [Laughs]. Normally, when I sample something I chop it, filter it -- I turn it into something different. But this sample, I thought if I chopped this and filtered it, it's going to ruin it. I tried to keep as much of the originality of the sample, but I also wanted to have the trap vibe, so I sped it up. I didn't really have any country thoughts about it. It was just me trying to find a challenge for myself and randomly stumbling on a sample like, "Damn. I have to do something with this." The beat is more than a year old.

https://genius.com/artists/Lil-nas-x

What made you decide to sample the Nine Inch Nails

LIL NAS X :

I didn’t even know about the Nine Inch Nails sample at first. After I did find out about it, it was like, “Wow, so it’s rock, country, hip-hop all in the same room.” I am a Nine Inch Nails fan, but I wouldn’t say a hardcore fan. I know their most popular hits, something like that. I know “Closer,” I know “Hurt.” Honestly, it makes me feel great that I was able to put completely different worlds together and make a song that so many people like. Almost everybody who I’ve shown this song to, even people commenting comments like, “Hey, I hate this genre and that genre, but I like this song.””