In February, Beyonce won the Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year Grammys for Cowboy Carter. Country music – the corporate, sanitized, radio-approved country music industry – had already decided that they despised Cowboy Carter, but seeing Beyonce’s country album win those two Grammys sent them over the edge. There was a backlash and it was just as dumb and racist as you would expect. A couple of country “stars” have also attacked Beyonce and incurred the wrath of the Beyhive, namely Gavin Adock and Morgan Wallen. Well, another country star has thoughts about Beyonce and the grenade she set off in country music. That man is Charley Crockett. Before now, I’ve never heard his songs, but I’m listening now and he’s got a real vintage vibe? You can tell that he’s obsessed with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Crockett is a Texas native and mixed race. Well, Crocket went OFF on his Instagram this week:
Hey country folks. @beyonce ain’t the source of your discontent. It was 25 years of bro country. #1 country artist on earth listens to nothing but rap. Openly says he doesn’t really know any country music. Gotta respect his honesty.
The machine points to a black woman who’s making a statement about marginalized people being removed from the conversation altogether, and somehow we all act like the entire pop industry didn’t just ambush roots music. These “country boys” been *singing* over trap beats for years. So what’s different now? Authenticity.
Many of those business folks called me early on. They had whole albums pre written and recorded ready to just plug me in. I have receipts. It’s harder than ever to keep the public’s attention. They said and I quote “we wanna get into country music where you have audience loyalty.” Hot today, forgot tomorrow.
I don’t need to put down a black woman to advance my music. That’s just embarrassing to the idea of America and I got no respect for it. Somebody asked me why I listen to @bigxthaplug the other day. Easy. He’s genuine. A true story teller. The best hip hop sound to come out of Texas in this century.
The challenges country music faces aren’t unique. It’s an issue in every *genre*. I don’t have a problem with Americana. I have a problem with being compartmentalized by the music business. Outlaw as a *sub genre* of country was artists standing up for their rights against a rigid system. Ain’t no reason to imitate @officialwaylon and @willienelsonofficial if you ain’t about the fight. Texas forever.
The “#1 country artist on earth listens to nothing but rap” thing is a reference to Morgan Wallen, who said that he barely listens to country music… and you can tell. Wallen has been dying to crossover into a more mainstream pop/country career. He’s also one of the country artists singing over trap beats, but Wallen isn’t alone there. Anyway, while Crockett’s points are sort of scattered and stream-of-consciousness, I get the feeling that he was sending a message to some specific people in the music industry (not just Adcock and Wallen) and not all of it was a message for the larger public.
In any case, Crockett is correct – Beyonce “ain’t the source of your discontent.” It’s actually a huge tell of country music’s self-defeating gatekeeping that they refused to embrace Beyonce and Cowboy Carter. They should have recognized that the biggest, most influential artist of the past twenty years making a country album was a huge cultural moment for their genre. They should have begged her to perform on all of their country music shows. They should have invited her to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Instead, they all showed their asses and proved Beyonce’s larger point, that she didn’t feel welcomed in a genre which was authentically HERS.
Photos of Crockett, courtesy of his Instagram. Additional photos/screengrabs and album cover courtesy of Netflix, Backgrid and Beyonce.
