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Jason Aldean’s Try That In a Small Town has gotten substantial media discussion and has been covered here as well, with one of the themes I see being country, conservative, and small-town defenders noting that the song isn’t actually particularly violent compared to rap. While I think this is obviously true, there’s been something about it that has rubbed me wrong, and I finally put my finger on it while I was running with some country music in my ear from Spotify recommendations. The song that got me thinking for the first verse in Bryan Martin’s Wolves Cry:
Much like the Aldean kerfuffle, one distinguishing feature from rap violence is that there is implied instigation on the part of whoever’s going to be left to lie, but the verse above leaves much less ambiguity about what happens if you cross Martin on his land. Martin’s music has a decent bit of this sort of edge, with Everyone’s an Outlaw clarifying that this isn’t exactly a Back The Blue situation:
…
This clearly articulates honor culture values, that you’re morally obligated to do what’s right, including stepping up and killing someone if necessary. These themes aren’t at all uncommon in country music, although they’re usually not as aggressive in the most popular music.
Returning to my point, what I’ve realized bothered me about resorting to comparisons to rap is how whiny, pussified, and self-pitying it sounds to me. While some people did just just reply that honor culture is good, that men should be willing to commit violence against outsiders that wrong them, there was this appeal to how the black people can get away with being tough and cool and they’re way tougher and cooler than country white people, which played into the hands of people that write things like this Rolling Stone article:
For me, this is another example of the woke are more correct than the mainstream. Don’t whine about black music! Respond to this criticism by saying that it’s much easier to appeal to PMC fears of chud expression, that liberals said they favored free speech, and that this is a serious art form that deals with all aspects of human life, including the negatives. Have they ever listened closely to country singers and thought about what it might mean for an artist to give voice to the people that they grew up alongside in the trailer park? It’s doubtful.
I grew up in a rural, heavily white area, and the men I knew from that area really do represent the sort of rugged individualism and willingness to engage in violence embodied in some country music. Some of this spills over into behavior that I’m not personally a fan of, maybe even “toxic masculinity”, but I think it’s a culture that’s worth articulating and defending, not one that can only be defended by way of saying that black culture is worse. Jason Aldean is the light, poppy version of this, but country music really does have a fair bit of violence, and it’s good, actually.
king von being a serial killer (no, seriously) makes his bragging about killing people 'a serious artform that deals with all aspects of human life, including the negative ones', while jason aldean being a poser who most certainly didn't come from a small town dealing out vigilante justice means his music isn't just crappy country music, it's advocating for white nationalism. he should try collabing with kyle rittenhouse for authenticity next time.
It’s also just an example of a journalist dressing up a musical artist in a way their fans, peers, and they themselves wouldn’t recognize. I follow the Chicago rap scene somewhat; uniformly drill fans (including his own) regard Von as uncontroversially a psychopath. Nobody defends him as an artist trying to express tortured truths; it’s basically a meme joking about how he’s totally 100% in hell. That’s part of why he’s fascinating as a character, because how could a real human being be that ridiculously, cartoonishly evil.
I don't know. This particular "we're reflecting our harsh environment" is a very common hypocritical cope in hip hop - see the Straight Outta Compton trailer
TBH in general rappers often ride the line on glorifying vs describing and the same rapper can do both.
That being said, I expect progressive journalists to totally ignore these tensions.
While they may form a unified front when rap is criticized by Geraldo Rivera and other right wingers, Hip hop fans are well aware of them and even make fun of the types who defend people like YNW Melly and King Von.
In a sense it almost feels like kayfabe or a habit in rap: someone like Young Thug gets caught up and is almost certainly guilty, people feel like they have to routine noises about how "They" are trying to get black men and how awful the legal system is just for form but everyone also seems to know the guy was just caught dead-to-rights.
Straight Outta Compton is of course written by people much more similar to a Rolling Stone journalist than a gangbanger turned popstar. There's also levels to this kind of thing and worth distinguishing between the broader genre of rap, where it's mostly about tough talk but fake in real life (ie NWA were not gangsters, aside from Eazy-E, and basically brought him on for credibility), in contrast to drill, where the whole point of the subgenre is to be an authentically scary person in real life. The latter tend to make way more agressive music and be 0% apologetic about it.
Consistently my experience here is that the people making these kinds of noises are third party types with little exposure to the subjects they're defending. If you look on the drill rap subreddits whenever someone gets arrested the general reaction from the front row fans is "what an idiot".
It was written with the direct supervision of the surviving and prominent group members, like the Rami Malek Queen movie, and it's been criticized in a similar way for representing their self-serving viewpoint.
And rappers need no help with the fundamental hypocrisy of "brag about committing crimes constantly" followed by "fuck the pigs for harassing me though" from white Rolling Stone writers.
From a recent hit song, All My Life:
Like, Lil Durk is a direct product of the incredibly violent Chicago drill scene. Yet he's whining about being "harassed" by cops like he's Miles Morales facing Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk.
Or hell, The Game who actually is a Blood from Compton, in Ali Bomaye:
I mean, this one isn't even internally consistent; after equating policing with slavery, he gives us two reasons independent of the fact that he's a gang-banger and gang-promoter for why he was stopped. This is exactly what I mean about it almost being a reflex.
(BTW: Game's From Adam is a perfect example of the latter half of the "glorify and then problematize" game such rappers play. )
I spent more time on /r/HHH and Youtube so maybe it leans more normie. But, when I look at say...criticism due to Meek Mill being on parole for years, (people leave out the fact that it's cause he kept violating it) you do get "Meek should stop being an idiot" but also "the System is awful" (despite Meek having a ton of advantages and being a spoiled brat)
Also: the entire debate about using rap lyrics - which some people frame as a grand injustice - seems to be a prime example of this phenomenon: the examples people go to are almost certainly guilty but the system is also somehow malicious for using them as evidence when it can be corroborated.
And like I said, they weren't gangsters. Ice Cube was the driving force then and the one who added the most input to the film now, and he was a college kid with a degree in architecture and a passion for the arts.
The verse you're quoting is by J. Cole, the example par excellence of an effete college kid becoming a rapper. Lil Durk is more likely to say:
re:
This might be it man. All I'm saying is normal people, including and especially normal black people who listen to drill and even like Von, don't think he's a hero or a misunderstood martyr or something. Everyone knows he's a scumbag, shit just sounds hard. Same way people like watching mob movies or whatever, it's fun to play the villain.
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