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Notes -
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.
What the fuck. His rivals are about as bad.
I knew about 50 Cent, XXXTentacion, Tupac and so on but this level of systemic childishness drives the point home finally. It seems «hip hop stars» live with anime or RPG levels of disregard for mundane rules-based reality, fighting and killing each other and being let go by the guards after some modest cooldown, to compose a memorable «diss». America really is the land of endless possibilities.
I mean Chicago policing is legendary for its general incompetence and neglect. But yes, there’s a reason why some Americans view hip-hop as a uniquely corrupting influence.
King Von's shooting happened in Atlanta, but probably similar levels of care and ability
Atlanta is also known for ‘policing exists to help insurance companies do paperwork, not to catch criminals’, yes.
Atlanta culture is fascinating to me. It's essentially run by an affluent black elite whose view of the black poor is often about as dismissive and contemptuous as the average dissident right twitter user's. It was interesting in the 2020 riots (which did affect downtown Atlanta, but less so than many other cities like Portland or Seattle) for the mayor to come out and essentially say "no fucking around in my city".
I mean, sure, Portland and Seattle set the bar very high in that respect - they’re both cities with well-organized and experienced antifa/anarchist movements, where the police had already been somewhat hamstrung prior to this round of riots - but I remember Atlanta being struck very hard by the riots and by the subsequent surge in crime. I’m thinking of the very memorable scenes of thousands of rioters descending on the CNN headquarters, scaling its tall sign out front, smashing its windows, and threatening to actually occupy the building while its staff were inside live-broadcasting.
The attack on the CNN building (arguably more political violence than just rioting of the looting variety as it was in most of the rest of the country) happened on the first day of major protesting in Atlanta. The next day the curfew was announced and the mayor and governor jointly called in the National Guard, and activity continued to decline from then on, even when there was a very widely publicized police shooting in the city over the following weeks they only managed to burn down a Wendy's. This in a city that's like 50% black, vs much worse riots in cities with vastly smaller black populations and no serious history of recent radical leftist violence as in Portland and Seattle (eg. Kenosha is 10% black, Minneapolis is 19% black). So I think my point stands.
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