According to Riot Games, Lil Nas X might have been one of the many artists who contributed to Arcane, the League of Legends animated series. Nas collaborated with the publisher on the Worlds 2022 song and was also a candidate for Arcane’s inaugural season.
Artist and creative partnerships manager at Riot Games Music Bob DeBelina discussed his experience working on both projects in an interview with Dot Esports.
Lil Nas X was absolutely considered for Arcane,” DeBelina said without diving too much into why the artist was ultimately not involved. He commented on the “time and creative” constraints of the team that had to spend most of their time “reverse engineering songs into picture.
For the Arcane soundtrack, DeBelina worked as an artist and repertoire, meaning he was responsible for finding promising artists who would fit into the project’s vision and overseeing their artistic development. With various artists such as Imagine Dragons, Sting, and Bea Miller being featured in Arcane, Riot put all its learnings from creating the Worlds anthem and virtual groups, such as K/DA and Pentakill, when it approached the creation of the series’ soundtrack and vice versa.
Since 2017, DeBelina has been a member of practically every song collaboration with Riot musicians; his most recent work being the anthem for the Worlds 2022, “STAR WALKIN’.” He expressed his “extreme gratitude” for the opportunity to collaborate with so many outstanding individuals both inside and outside of Riot.
So even though Nas was rejected by Arcane, the event inspired the creation of “STAR WALKIN’.”