There’s not really even any country rap songs here, though you may see this claim as well. However, Love Story is not a country rap album, though you may see some make this claim. Take the entire canon of country rap in all of its forms, from Jason Aldean’s rendition of “Dirt Road Anthem” that was the best-selling song in country in all of 2011, to the entire discographies of Colt Ford and Cowboy Troy, to the Moonshine Bandits and Big Smo and all those second-tier semi-successful country rappers, to all the more recent mega hits from Florida Georgia Line to Blake Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here”-take it all and squeeze whatever true artistic value any of it can account for combined, and Yelawolf has just laid to waste the entirety of those cumulative efforts in one album. Love Story is bursting with creative vision, respect for art forms, and most importantly, it is an album that tells a very personal, self-reflective, and at times vulnerable and self-deprecating story. But what Yelawolf has done with Love Story is pulled the curtain back and exposed the sheer lack of talent in the ranks of country rappers and other misguided genre benders by putting out an album that sets a creative high watermark, and bucks the narrative of commercial pandering and derivative cliché in the space between country and hip-hop. So what is Saving Country Music’s interest in this new Love Story record? The serious threat of country rap seems to have waned significantly in the rise of Bro-Country, and country music faces much bigger problems now. Where Radioactive seemed to only be considered relevant to the country rap debate because Yelawolf was white and from rural Alabama, Love Story has some serious ties to country music that can’t go overlooked. Love Story came in at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 last week, and where Radioactive flopped, Love Story has bounced.
“Love Story” album coverįast forward nearly four years later, and Yelawolf has just released one of the biggest albums in American music at the moment. And though Yelawolf continued to enjoy an incredibly strong grassroots following, his effort to break it into the mainstream at large seemed somewhat scuttled, and his effect on country music remained fairly negligible.
Incidentally, his headlining spot at Soundland was at the last Soundland Festival there ever was, with some wondering if the strange Yelawolf booking was responsible. Radioactive was a “flop” as Yealwolf himself admits, as he tried to make everyone happy but himself. The attempt to keep hip-hop artists at bay from making inroads into country was in serious jeopardy if an artist like Yelawolf decided to take his music down country avenues.īut Yealawolf’s major label debut was seen as a letdown by some fans and hip-hop critics. What made Yelawolf so intimidating to some in country, including Saving Country Music, was that unlike the country rappers in both the country music mainstream and underground, Yelawolf actually had talent, even if at the time he was using that talent to peddle the same time of self-gratification and materialism that much of mainstream hip-hop is known for. It seemed like everyone was singing Yelawolf’s praises even in and around country music, and that he was poised to take a big bite out of the World. Yelawolf was booked as one of the headliners for Nashville’s Soundland Festival-a festival that traditionally catered more to roots artists. “Pop The Trunk” had garnered over 8 million hits on YouTube at the time, and caught the ear of Eminem who he signed Yelawolf to his imprint of Interscope Records. His previous album Trunk Muzik 0-60 was a big success and launched some huge underground hits. The rapper had nearly everyone buzzing it seemed, including many members of the greater country community who had ties to, or an affinity for the Alabama-born rapper. That was 2011, and hip-hop artist Yelawolf was just getting ready to release an album called Radioactive.
from “ Yelawolf Has No Place in Country and Roots Music” published October 18th, 2011. Unlike many others that flee from this fight, I am willing to take the charges of racism and closed-mindedness to fight for the preservation of diversity and contrast in music.”
“Here at Saving Country Music, we have put ourselves squarely on the front lines of opposing the infiltration of hip hop into the country genre, or possibly, the takeover of country by hip-hop, that seems to be pervading the current mainstream country music landscape.