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I’d like to dedicate this record
Right here to my main man
Johnny Cash, a real American gangsta…
Grand Ole Opry, here we come
—Snoop Dogg, “My Medicine”
There’s long been an assumption that black folks and country music just don’t mix—even though that assumption completely erases from history the music and success of Charley Pride, Ray Charles and even the Pointer Sisters: To many blacks, country music is seen as synonymous with rednecks and white supremacists, its incongruity with pigmented people, relegating it to little more than a bad punch line in pop culture. (Cue Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac stranded at a country juke joint in Soul Men! Two brothers singing country and dancing the two-step! Hilarity ensues.)
For far too long if you loved country, and you had, what Pride called a “pigmentation situation,” chances are, you kept that love on the down low.
Now, it seems, it may finally be OK to come out of the closet.
Oprah recently dedicated an entire show to country music, declaring, “Country music is the real soul music!” Sitting next to her was Darius Rucker, of Hootie and the Blowfish, who made history atop the country charts, the first African-American solo act to have a No. 1 country hit since Pride wrapped things up in 1983. (Ray Charles, performing with Willie Nelson, had a hit in 1984.)
In an interview with The Root, Rucker said country comes as naturally to him as any other kind of music. “Country music is just part of what I like,” he said. “To me, it wasn’t country or soul or rock. It was all just music to me.”
And Rucker’s got plenty of interesting company. The black country scene, it seems, is booming. These days, there’s Pittsburgh-born Rissi Palmer, who, in “Country Girl,” insists that country is “a state of mind, no matter where you’re from.” There’s Cleve Francis, the guitar-playing cardiologist.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a black bluegrass band, does a mean cover of Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style,” on banjos and fiddles. Then there’s Cowboy Troy, dubbed “the world’s only 6’5” rapping black cowboy”:
People say it's impossible, not probable, too radical,
But I already been on the CMAs,
Hell, Tim McGraw said he liked the change,
That he likes the way my hick-hop sounds and the way the crowd screams when I stomp the ground,
Now, big and black, clickty clack and I make the train jump the track like that
Even hip-hop acts like Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg are getting their country on. Snoop’s “My Medicine” is about as far from “Gin and Juice” as you can get. And last fall, Lil Wayne joined Kid Rock onstage at the Country Music Awards, performing “All Summer Long.” Sadly, Weezy’s performance wasn’t a true marriage of urban and country—he remained silent and rhymeless, strumming on a guitar while Kid Rock worked the room.
For all the burst of activity, Rucker has been the breakout success. His CD, Learn to Live, reached No. 1 and has remained on the charts for 30 weeks. The disc’s first two singles, “Don't Think I Don't Think About It" and "It Won't Be Like This For Long,” each sailed to No. 1, making Rucker the first male artist to get two debut singles atop the Hot Country Songs chart since Clay Walker 15 years ago, according to Billboard.
But don't think I don't think about it
Don't think I don't have regrets
Don't think it don't get to me
Between the work and the hurt and the whiskey
Listening to Rucker’s voice, with his South Carolina-soaked twang, he’s country through and through. You’ve got to wonder what took so long for him to release a country record, and why, until now, country music has remained one of the most stubbornly segregated art forms in America. When, exactly, did music, roots music, get so rigidly attached to color?
Comments
There are two genres of music that people will say they want nothing to do with. "I like all music except rap and country." "I like all music except rap." "I like all music except country." No one ever mentions Polka. Or Mexican music. Rap and country are sometimes the same story, just told different ways.
I love Darius Rucker. I went out and bought his CD very soon after it came out. He has a fantastic country sound and fits right in with all the other artists. You can't blame anyone if they don't like country/rap/polka. People like what they like. Personally, I switched to country shortly after I got stationed in Louisiana. Right after I hear Plies "singing" about the wet spot.
There's a Facebook group for Black People Who Like Country Music.
The toweris quite different from that of the Singer Building.
Nobody excluded white people from playing basketball, or tried to claim that a white person had nothing to do with its invention, but that's exactly what's been done to blacks with regard to American music. Hank Williams, Sr learned his craft from a black street musician, but that fact isn't well known. In fact, it is barely known at all because it's been deliberately obscured. The music industry has gone out of its way to deny the black origins of rock music, exclude many black artists who play it, or whitewash the few that became popular. If there was never any racism, this wouldn't be a discussion. It was racist exclusion that caused this state of affairs in the first place.
The colorblind universality of music is certainly a noble ideal, but it can't be achieved as long as ignorance and exclusion rule the day.
Why reclaim anything?
Wouldnt that be as racist as if white people would go out and "reclaim" baseball or golf or how about NASCAR?
Or basketball, but I am going to get to basketball later. You know, basketball which is as urban as a do-rag now and is claimed by blacks yet was created by a white man. Gee, maybe basketball should get back to its roots?
Oh wait, that would be racist but wanting to take a form of music back would just be pride.
Mmhmm. When other races want to reclaim something it is viewed as exclusionary and when anyone of color wishes to do the same it is considered a moment of pride.
You cannot have it both ways.
Golf is BETTER for having Tiger Woods just like music is BETTER for having the Beatles.
Period.
I dont want to know about music if we were depending on The Sugar Hill Gang to dictate today's tastes and had never had a white influence in the same what I wouldnt wish to follow golf without a superstar on the scene like Woods who has transcended the game.
Look, country music was Hank Williams, Sr. and he was doing it BIG way before Charley Pride was even thinking about singing about kissing an angel good morning. Does this mean we dont love Pride for all he brought to the table? No. We do.
We just dont need to sit around and talk about taking something back but rather we should enjoy where we are going with it and do so no matter what color the man making the music is.
F**k you if you think you need to reclaim music because you are black because this is just as racist as a white person wanting to reclaim anything else.
Your "pride" is racism and it seems to me you are jealous if other races took the ball and ran with it to make it better.
Basketball was CREATED BY A WHITE MAN. It was originally PLAYED BY ALL WHITE MEN.
Yet, today it is a black game. It is also BETTER.
Should whites want to reclaim it and get back to Naismith's roots?
NO.
So, stop trying to reclaim your music and quit calling it "your" music.
It is ours now, just like basketball and everyone's contributions have made it better. To say otherwise is not feeling pride but rather being a racist.
LOL. I have been a fan of some country music artists for a while. Actually, I like music in general and so I listen to a lot of everything. I'm saddened when I see that so many people don't realize that black people have had a hand in all of the musical artforms that come out America. We are Amercian music. It was just co-opted years ago and we let it go by the wayside. I'm glad we are making strides to reclaim (musically) what was ours. Young kids today need to realize that all American music originally had our fingerprints all over it. It isn't just hip-hop, r&b, or the blues that we created.
"When, exactly, did music, roots music, get so rigidly attached to color?"
When Jazz became popular in the early 20th century, whites copied it and obfuscated the role of black musicians in its creation. The same thing happened with blues and rock. Country music became attached to color because of a combination of factors; the ignorance of blacks concerning their musical history, and white resistance to rock and roll's so-called "jungle rhythm." For a long time, drums were resisted in country music for just that reason. Country music is also southern music, with all the racial baggage that accompanies that region.
Even though there a few black artists in the country genre, you can find influences in many of the past blues, rock, and folk artists. Interestingly, there's a mural near my workplace that highlights several black artists and their influence on the region's bluegrass and country music genre. Here's a link to the picture-http://www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/node/50
Well done, Teresa! It's great that you've given voice to an area of music where we're often under-represented and, to a large extent, feel we don't belong. Something's in the air, a cultural shift is taking place, and I feel like we're in the process of reclaiming so much that we were disconnected from. Articles like yours help that process along immensely.