Perhaps that perception will change with the success of Lil Nas X and Blanco. We’re so used to churning out new art forms that the idea of appropriating white artists seems almost unseemly, like the crassest of sellouts. For the past century right up to the present, white artists from Al Jolson, Elvis Presley and Benny Goodman to the Rolling Stones and Eminem have made a mint assimilating African American jazz, rhythm and blues, rock ’n’ roll, funk, rap and more. ![]() Lest the irony of black performers such as Lil Nas X and Blanco Brown appropriating white country music be lost, understand that in the minds of many black folks, cultural appropriation is something only other races do. “The obscenity and the vulgarity of the rock ’n’ roll music is obviously a means by which the white man his children can be driven to the level with the n-–,” said Asa “Ace” Carter, founder of the North Alabama White Citizens Council, in 1958. That raises interesting questions, because perhaps no other art form is more associated with white racism than country music, which flourished during a period when the South’s white ruling class viewed black music as a plot to “ mongrelize” America. Indeed, we can assume that more than a few fans of “Old Town Road” are white Southerners. What better way to celebrate rap’s 40th birthday than with a country-rap single whose historic success underscores hip-hop’s border-bounding global appeal?Ī track like “Old Town Road” doesn’t spend 17 weeks at No. 2 was the 40th anniversary of the recording of Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” the first hip-hop track of any consequence and the song that started a musical revolution. ![]() The timing of that achievement is eerily auspicious. The week of July 30, it completed 17 weeks atop Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100, making it the longest-running No. As you’ve probably heard by now, “Old Town Road” is an international phenomenon, having topped charts throughout North America, Europe and Australia. 1 tune in the chart’s 60-year history.Ĭyrus, of course, makes a cameo appearance on the mega-popular remix of Lil Nas X’s “ Old Town Road,” a country-rap track that uses a Nine Inch Nails sample to celebrate rhinestone cowboy extravagance ( “My life is a movie/ bull ridin’ and boobies/ cowboy hat from Gucci/ Wrangler on my booty”). It completed 17 weeks atop Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100 the week of July 30, making it the longest-running No. “Old Town Road” is an international phenomenon for Lil Nas X (left) and Billy Ray Cyrus (right). Juxtaposing weepy pedal steel guitar against automated rap beats, the tune is a boot-scootin’ dance craze tune along the line of Billy Ray Cyrus’ 1990 breakthrough hit, “Achy Breaky Heart.” Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs was released on Friday, October 11th, and includes “The Git Up” alongside other hybrid pop-country-rap numbers as “Georgia Power” and the ballad “Tn Whiskey.Amid ongoing debates about cultural appropriation and the pain caused when corporations and white entertainers profit off the customs of black people and other minorities, along come Lil Nas X and Blanco Brown, two African American rappers whose tunes have penetrated the upper reaches of - get this - the country music charts.īlanco Brown’s “ The Git Up” made headlines recently after it topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, having also charmed its way into the pop Top 20. Four dancers come out to join him onstage, and the five run through the lively dance routine that launched a thousand Tik Toks. Mid-song, his DJ transitions to the now-familiar looped pedal steel from “The Git Up,” causing the crowd to erupt in screams of appreciation. “Mama always told me that if you gotta make sure/Then you better make sure/That you make the best of your mistakes,” he sings, recalling some words of encouragement and advice from when he was growing up. Blanco Brown made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday, performing a medley of tunes from his new album Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs that included the hit “The Git Up.”īacked only by his DJ, Brown began the performance with “Funky Tonk,” a track from the new album that pits speedily picked acoustic guitar runs against Brown’s rapid-fire rhymes.
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