Songfacts®:

• Panini was a character from the Cartoon Network animated series Chowder that ran from 2007 to 2010. A pink cabbit (cat/rabbit hybrid) friend of the title character, Panini had a crush on Chowder and was over possessive of him.
• During this slinky trap cut, Lil Nas X playfully reflects on his older fans who were initially pleased about his success with his "Old Town Road" single, but have now grown resentful.
  
  Ayy, Panini, don't you be a meanie
  Thought you wanted me to go up
  Why you tryna keep me teeny?
  It's a dream, he wished it on a genie
  I got fans finally, ain't you wanting them to see me?
  
  X explained to Genius that Chowder is "a representation of fans of who love you when you're small. Once you get the spotlight, they aren't feeling you as much. The song is not a diss, but anger towards that fan, but also wanting them back."
• X interpolates Nirvana's Nevermind song "In Bloom" on the chorus. It follows Lil Nas' use of another rock tune, Nine Inch Nails' "34 Ghosts IV" on "Old Town Road."
• According to X, his borrowing from the classic grunge track wasn't pre-planned. "People was like, 'Wow, he sampled Nirvana.' I was like, 'No.' It's like, I didn't realize I was using almost the exact same melody," the rapper told Beats 1's Zane Lowe.
  
  X added that writing the song introduced him to Nirvana's classic album, Nevermind. "It's like I always seen the cover but I never actually listened to it," he said.
• The song was recorded during Lil Nas' first-ever studio session in early April 2019. It was produced by the duo Take a Daytrip (Sheck Wes' "Mo Bamba," 6ix9ine's "DUMMY") and Dot Da Genius (best known for his many collaborations with Kid Cudi).
• As they convened for the session, Take a Daytrip's Denzel Baptiste and David Biral started playing DotDaGenius some of their ideas. When DotDaGenius heard their beat for "Panini," he immediately latched onto it.
  
  Nas X then started making suggestions for subtle changes. "What he did, without saying it, is extend the first verse to have twice the length, and he moved the chorus around and added a pre-chorus," Baptiste recalled to Complex. "But he obviously didn't know the vocabulary for all that. He was just intuitively moving it."
• Lil Nas performed this at the 2019 MTV VMAs, where "Old Town Road" won for Song of the Year.
• The futuristic video follows Disney actress Skai Jackson navigating a cyborg world of flying cars and hologram billboards. We see her trying to escape Lil Nas X, who pops up in hologram form everywhere she goes, trying to win her over as a fan.
  
  The treatment for the visual came directly from Lil Nas X himself and was brought to life by film director, special effects artist and YouTuber Mike Diva.