The nearly-instantaneous ascent of Lil Nas X’s "Old Town Road" is one of 2019’s most astonishing stories; a 20-year-old online personality named Lil Nas X uploaded a country rap song to SoundCloud last December that is now the no. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100. It’s a journey that has kicked up all sorts of dust, including a Billboard chart controversy, a deep-dive into Lil Nas X’s history online that exposed his involvement in Nicki Minaj’s fan community (which he and his team have repeatedly denied), and extensive critical analysis tackling the socio-political underpinnings of "Old Town Road"'s rise to the biggest song in America.
Advertisement
While "Old Town Road"'s unprecedented success tells an intriguing story about the value of the country music industry’s traditional gatekeepers, the genre’s racist history, and the role of social media in American pop culture, the song follows a concrete musical tradition, too. Many have pinpointed Woody Guthrie’s "Talking Blues" and the style of music it represented as an ancestral predecessor to the increasingly robust relationship between rap and country in the modern chart era. But this guide purports to focus specifically on the lineage of "Old Town Road," and how its platter of sounds—banjo, trap drums, a tongue-in-cheek twang—became so potent in the cultural imagination.In the past 20 years, the notion of "genre" has evolved from a defining category tag to more of a marketing term—indeed, Lil Nas X tagged his initial SoundCloud upload of "Old Town Road" as "country" so that his song wouldn’t have to compete with SoundCloud’s saturated rap library. But the sonic blueprint "Old Town Road" successfully follows began in the cradle of the American south, where audiences could easily abide genre crossover moments (so long as they were the two biggest regional genres in a given area). While something like "Old Town Road" is having a conversation with the music that immediately preceded it, the roots of country rap in its current form date back to the early 2000s.The songs in this guide tell the musical story that led us down this road, carrying us into a time where the swirl of genres and musical touchpoints is stranger and more inspiring than ever.
Advertisement
Back in the mud (2000-2003)
Advertisement
Playlist: Bubba Sparxxx - "Ugly" / Bubba Sparxxx - "Bubba Talk" / Bubba Sparxxx - "Comin’ Round" / Bubba Sparxxx - "Jimmy Mathis" / Bubba Sparxxx - "Miss New Booty"In the early-to-mid-2000s as pop versatility became an important selling point for the biggest American artists, prominent rap and country artists began to reach across the aisle with increasing frequency. Generally, the songs came in two formats: country songs made by rap artists, or rap songs made my country artists. (I do not believe it’s going to shock you which approach turned out better music).As part of his 2004 genre-spanning collection, Sweat/Suit, Nelly enlisted Tim McGraw for a low-key, lazy summer singalong called "Over and Over." The song was concrete proof that rap artists and country artists could co-exist in a pop music context, and that the collaboration didn’t need to sound forced or sum-of-its-parts. (About a decade later, Nelly would even use country as a vehicle to revive his music career). "Over and Over" topped out at no. 3 on the Hot 100, but was not included on the Hot Country Songs chart at all.It would take until the 2010s for rap and country collaborations to become mainstream, but when it happened, the floodgates opened. Massive country artists like Jason Aldean and Blake Shelton commissioned their own half-rapped hits, resulting in tracks like Aldean’s "Dirt Road Anthem" (a track originally cut by the extremely on-the-nose country rapper Colt Ford, produced by Houchins) and Shelton’s "Boys ‘Round Here."
Crossover attempts, some ill-fated, some not (2004-2013)
Advertisement
As the ‘10s approached, it would become increasingly common for someone like Aldean to be sure to say "I listen to Kanye West" in an interview or for, say, Taylor Swift to rap with T-Pain for a CMT Awards video. This era culminated with the country pop group Florida Georgia Line taking a country rap song to its highest chart position, having equipped their modest Hot 100 hit "Cruise" with a Nelly verse. (The partnership was mutually beneficial, as Nelly had been trying out country rap himself). The remix lifted the song to no. 4 on the pop chart and held down the Hot Country Songs no. 1 for 27 weeks. The group, who built their narrative identity around light references to hip-hop, is now one of the most successful groups in the entire music industry.While many of the songs from this period reek of opportunism, and include cringe-y videos (the BBQ scene in "Boys Round Here," dear God) this sonic narrative set the stage for the streaming era, where no musical collaboration could be considered too farfetched.Playlist: Nelly - "Over and Over" (feat. Tim McGraw) (2003) / Jason Aldean - "Dirt Road Anthem" (2010) / B.o.B. - "Both of Us" (feat. Taylor Swift) (2012) / Nelly - "Hey Porsche" / Blake Shelton - "Boys ‘Round Here" (feat. Pistol Annies) (2013) / Bubba Sparxxx - "Country Folks" (feat. Colt Ford and Danny Boone) (2013) / Florida Georgia Line - "Cruise" (feat. Nelly) (2013) / Florida Georgia Line - "This is How We Roll" (feat. Luke Bryan) (2013) / Florida Georgia Line - "It’z Just What We Do" (2013)
Advertisement