As a flurry of Area 51 raid memes hits the mainstream, Lil Nas X has now taken his rightful place as leader of the invasion. The Atlanta-based SoundCloud rapper released an Area 51-themed music video for the latest remix of his hit “Old Town Road.” It’s a perfect synergy of two big 2019 meme staples and the timing could not be more perfect.
The particular remix — featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, Young Thug, and Mason Ramsey (better known as the Walmart Yodeling kid) — dropped on Friday. In response, many began to share jokes and memes about an infinite flurry of “Old Town Road” remixes. Lil Nas also tweeted about how he just wants to release more “Old Town Road” remixes. “Old Town Road” already had a great legacy as a meme legend, rising to popularity on video app TikTok and taking the Billboard 100 by storm.
At the same time, the shitpost Facebook event “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” started to percolate off of Facebook, eventually making it onto Twitter, which led to online denizens riffing about breaking into the government facility. While some of the offline crowd raised concerns about the youngs threatening to break into an Air Force base, the fact remains that the Area 51 storm is just another great performance piece by the collective Gen Z and younger millennial crowd.
With these two big meme moments happening at the same time, it only made sense that they would collide in such a perfect way.
Not only do Lil Nas and his co-stars Billy Ray, Young Thug, and Mason Ramsey storm Area 51, they also encounter Keanu Reeves Naruto-running, Thanos’ head on a bird, a disembodied Infinity Gauntlet, references to Lil Nas’ other hit “Panini,” and a whole lotta aliens. Animated by SomehoodLum, it’s a perfect fusion of the country-rap song and the memes of the moment. Given that Lil Nas X loves to share memes on his social media accounts and indulges in his own meme-catapulted fame, it makes sense that his latest music video would indulge in the meme of the moment.
