It’s the runaway hit sweeping the land that’s part hip-hop and, yes, part country--no matter what the Billboard charts will have you believe. I’m of course talking about “Old Town Road,” Atlanta rapper Lil Nas X’s “country trap” ode to riding off into the sunset.
The song topped the Hot 100 chart and, as of this writing, the original version and a remix featuring vocals from Billy Ray Cyrus collectively have more than 110 million YouTube views and more than 225 million plays on Spotify.
Enter the Baltimore County rap crew Creek Boyz, whose 2017 paean to friendship, “With My Team,” found a national audience. The Woodlawn group gave “Old Town Road” a Baltimore-style remake, keeping the original’s loose guitar strum and structure but setting the scene on Liberty Road with “the dummies in the back seat” and “the law is riding past me/ I hope that they don’t catch me.”
The track comes complete with a name check of an apartment complex, Cross Creek Homes, in the title and the Creek Boyz’s stated cigar preference for blunts: “Backwoods, no Dutchies.” Much of the song, however, is about a lothario’s exploits between the sheets–suffice it to say “riding” refers to something else entirely.
Watch the clip here.
Since being released on April 17, the video has been watched more than 120,000 times, and a truncated one-minute version the band posted on Twitter has nearly half a million views. And it’s not hard to see why: “Cross Creek Homes” keeps all the soaring hooks and the format of the original while repackaging the song into something that is unique, fun, cheeky and completely Baltimore.
Y’all think @LilNasX seen this yet? ???♂️ pic.twitter.com/yyH8XMJXCm
— Creek Boyz ? (@CreekBoyz111) April 21, 2019
The answer to the above question came a short time later, when Lil Nas X gave a co-sign to the Baltimore remix of his hit song.
BACKWOODS NO DUTCHESSSS https://t.co/FJfVVICyyJ
— NASARATI (@LilNasX) April 21, 2019
i love u guys periodt