Who to Blame for All This Bad Country-Rap Music

"Should we blame whoever it was who introduced a teenage Morgan Wallen to (I just know a young Morgan got in his feelings to " Good Ones Go Interlude" after a session at the batting cages.) Or Earl Sweatshirt for making fun of "White Iverson" so hard that he scared Post Malone into ditching FKi beats and Key! features for Nashville bars and Super Bowl ads with Shane Gillis?"

"It does feel particularly inescapable now, though, to the point that when I'm walking around Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn it's not unusual to run into a country-themed bar with knockoff 808 Mafia hi-hats rumbling into the streets whenever the bouncer opens the door to let in a couple dressed like John Travolta and Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy."

Algorithmic cross-pollination between popular Southern rap and pop-country has intensified genre blending and produced many low-quality hybrids. Cultural moments like "Old Town Road" and collaborations fusing 2000s radio-rap nostalgia with honky-tonk aesthetics accelerated mainstream crossover. High-profile examples and personal anecdotes include Morgan Wallen, Post Malone’s stylistic shifts, and the influence of mockery from other rappers. The phenomenon feels ubiquitous in urban spaces, where country-themed venues adopt trap-influenced production. A parallel tradition of deeply Southern rap with country elements exists in artists associated with Pimp C, Trill Entertainment, Boosie, and Georgia acts such as Ghetto Mafia and Field Mob.

Read at Pitchfork