According to a damning investigation by New York magazine, before he was giving the Devil a lap-dance, Lil Nas X was going viral via the dodgy process of tweetdecking. Twitter frequently bans users for utilizing mass-tweeting practices to artificially inflate engagement numbers. Lil Nas X allegedly amassed hundreds of thousands of dedicated followers with the @NasMaraj account, which was essentially a Nicki Minaj fan page that posted a ton of different click-bait. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed it was ultimately suspended for violating their strict spam policy. In 2017, BuzzFeed News spoke to a then-17-year-old Lil Nas X, who admitted he'd engineered a viral tweet out of boredom. However, the rapper consistently refused to acknowledge he used to run the account even though, as New York magazine notes, his current account, @LilNasX, used to be @NasMarai, a name that's insanely close to @NasMaraj.
Likewise, a Reddit user with the same name frequently posted his tracks before they had gained any traction. In May 2020, X finally acknowledged that he's a Barb, or Nicki Minaj fan, on Twitter. In a tongue-in-cheek news piece at the time, Vulture jokingly acknowledged this doesn't necessarily mean Lil Nas X was behind the original account, but it's a safe assumption. Lil Nas X referenced a fan account in "Sun Goes Down," however, as Business Insider notes, with lyrics including, "I'd be by the phone/ Stanning Nicki mornin' into dawn / Only place I felt like I belonged."
