First of all, let us be clear about what we are talking about.  As much as I enjoy a good panini, I am not talking about the tasty food, but rather about the song by Lil Nas X.  In this particular case, the song Panini is named after and refers to a character in a cartoon that has an unrequited and somewhat possessive love for a character named Chowder.  Now, I must admit that before this song I was not familiar with the cartoon it was based out of, but I think it is at least mildly clever that a singer would reference such a cartoon in order to describe the sometimes toxic relationship that exists between an artist and his (or her) stans when that artist becomes big and is no longer obscure enough for someone to feel as if their fandom is rare or exclusive.  In many such cases, the interests of an artist in becoming more successful and better known, as happened to Lil Nas X when his single “Old Town Road” became a #1 hit in the United States for 19 weeks, and the interests of fans who want an artist to remain obscure so that they feel more cool by their support of what other people do not know or do not appreciate [1].

Such a focus is an interesting one for a song, and the fact that Panini and fan are close in terms of sounds makes it a witty pun to use Panini as a description of a certain type of dissatisfied fan.  There are at least two dynamics at work in this song.  For one, Lil Nas X is trying to appeal to the better angels of the natures of his fans back when he was releasing a non-charting EP and songs on TikTok to a few appreciative fans with no budget.  These are the kind of fans that every performer or artist of any kind needs, the sort of people who will support someone when their major label drops them and they are going on tour to make a living.  Both at the beginning and end of an artist’s career, it is the devout fans who will buy tickets and albums and support artists in the absence of the label infrastructure that exists when an artist is at one’s peak.  That said, there are other types of fans, too, more casual fans who will pay attention to an act if they hear songs on the radio or see something on the charts but will otherwise not know what is going on, and these kind of fans are the difference between sales in the tens of thousands and sales in the hundreds or thousands or millions.  Obviously an artist has to cultivate those fans as well to be successful.

And Panini as a song is attempting the delicate task of appealing to both types of fans.  For devout fans there is the appeal to their high-minded support of an artist’s well-being and the way that thriving requires an artist move to the big-time.  For more casual fans, the message is a subtle one that Lil Nas X is more than a one-hit wonder for the smash success of “Old Town Road” but is going to be an artist who has other good songs that are worth paying attention to as well.  Panini debuted in the top 20 and has spent the last ten weeks in the top 40, and is probably only about a month away from clinching a spot in the Year End Top 100, a list where “Old Town Road” has already clinched the #1 spot.  The fact that an official music video has been released, which will increase the streams and likely help the song continue a successful chart run means that Lil Nas X will almost certainly be able to count Panini as a second hit, and therefore escape the label of being a one-hit wonder and give himself some time to craft a full-length album.  It is even possible that a remix of “Rodeo,” a song that just missed the top 20 when it was released as an album track featuring Cardi B, would give Lil Nas X a third hit and further lower the pressure he would feel to rush a full-length album to support his overall career arc and give him the chance to get the right features and work with the right producers over the right beats and to craft some songs that will continue his success.

Interestingly enough, the music video supports this by adding still more layers to the song.  In the video, Skai Jackson portrays a “Panini,” one of those early fans who is sick of seeing Lil Nas X succeed in the mainstream, and who is trying to run away from the omnipresence of Lil Nas X wherever she turns, a problem that many such people likely felt once “Old Town Road” was successful on streaming, radio, as well as numerous remixes and music videos.  Her behavior, though, is pretty extreme.  She dashes out of an Uber and even jumps out of a plane to avoid the image of Lil Nas X.  Honestly, when someone is willing to jump out of a plane to avoid seeing your face, they probably don’t like you very much.  Don’t ask me how I would know this.  The subtle use of corporate branding and the futuristic image of a world where popular artists truly are inescapable is almost dystopian, but the ending of the video shows Lil Nas X giving his runaway former fan a picture of trees, which hints at his desire to marry a glam approach with video game and futuristic elements and also an appreciation of creation, all of which hints at a harmony and a unity in a diverse body of work so far.

Whether or not Panini is successful enough of a song for people to think of it as a hit on the same level as “Old Town Road,” the song and the video demonstrate that he will at least be able to point to it as a successful enough second hit to work on the next phase of his career.  Right now the question is whether he will be able to do a better job than Desiigner, a rapper from a few years ago whose career arc Lil Nas X would do well to avoid.  Coming from total obscurity when a song of his was used as a sample in a Kanye West song “Father Stretch My Hands Pt 2” from the Life Of Pablo album, Desiigner reached #1 with the song “Panda,” where he showed himself as a Future rip-off in the mumble rap game.  His appearance on the XXL was disastrous, but he managed to have a second hit on the same level as “Panini” so far with a song called “Timmy Turner” that barely made it on the year-end list the same year as “Panda.”  So far, so good, but then Desiigner released a terrible mixtape project called “New English” and now only has Paninis who care about what he is up to these days as his mainstream popularity has completely evaporated to the point where his first solo album has not yet been released and may never be released.  This is the fate that Lil Nas X wants to avoid.  He already has two hit singles, and his first EP is likely going to be certified at least platinum as soon as the certifications catch up for his songs so far.  It is possible that he will even get a third hit single from that EP.  Here’s hoping that Lil Nas X can continue to shine, hone his craft, and manage to continue to appeal to his longtime fans who have been with him from the beginning as well as more casual fans like myself who enjoy the way he serves to connect a few different genres together in a diverse and compelling fashion with a clever attention to aesthetics.  He is certainly a more competent emcee than Desiigner, so I’m rooting for him.

[1] I have seen this dynamic work out personally where some parts of a fandom were at odds with other parts of a fandom.  During college, for example, I had a friend who was a passionate fan of the Dave Matthews Band and was offended by the “crash girls” that were fond of a different aspect of Dave Matthews’ music, namely his occasionally cringy sexual tone in songs like “Crash Into Me” and “Dreamgirl.”  To be sure, though, there were many other aspects of his band’s music that one could be fond of, from the instrumental virtuosity of his band to themes of justice to his notable live touring and so on and so forth.  Most fandoms, if they are large enough, have within them different groups that like different parts of an artist’s approach or body of work, and ensuring cohesion within the fandom so as to ensure success with album sales and the performance of singles is by no means an easy task.