Our autumn 2019 issue is here, celebrating all things yeehaw. And who better to lead the charge than the high sheriff of the internet himself, Lil Nas X, appearing on the cover of a cowboy-spirited issue.

We’re halfway through 2019, and Lil Nas X – real name Montero Lamar Hill – is already the year’s biggest (sherriff) star. A hitmaker whose rapid rise to fame was the product of fervent viral moment-making, the rapper and musician blended the trend of the moment with the genre of the moment, applying a loop-friendly hook and country music’s biggest legends on the remix. With undeniable talent, meme-mastering humour, and a sensibility of a generation growing up on the internet, Lil Nas delivers what digital dreams are made of.

Across the issue, we explore the yeehaw agenda set by Nas, his peers, and more in ‘Dazed Goes West’. To celebrate the moment, we’ve also partnered with TikTok on the Lasso Challenge – an amalgamation of the worlds within which Hill navigates, the wild, wild West and the arguable wilder plains of the internet.

TikTok, the video sharing website in which users upload homemade clips set to 15-second song samples, has been instrumental in the success of the rapper’s breakout single, “Old Town Road”. The song first went viral after Tik Tok star Michael Pelchat – known to his considerable following as @nicemichael – shared the #YeeHaw challenge, set to the drop of the now ubiquitous hit. TikTok’s memable format, in many ways, was the perfect fit for a song born for and of the internet, and the first step towards its remarkable run as number one – which, as the star himself pointed out on Twitter, has lasted five months and counting.

So grab that lasso and make your attempt at the #LassoChallenge on TikTok now, all while you wait for the Lil Nas X cover out Tuesday July 30. 

Lil Nas X photographed by Charlotte Wales, styled by Tom Guinness

Our Autumn 2019 ‘Dazed Goes West’ issue is on sale Thursday, August 1