“I told him it was not the perfect country and western song—because he hadn’t said anything at all about mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin’ drunk.”
–David Allan Coe, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name”
Is the rapper Post Malone a country music artist now? Is his latest album, F-1 Trillion, authentic country music?
The brief answer to these questions: “Yes.” F-1 Trillion is, for better or worse, the defining country music album of the moment.
This is not a judgment of its quality but a diagnosis of its content. “Country music” isn’t just a genre; for many it’s a semi-sacred cultural tradition like Latin music or Irish folk. But it’s undeniably the case that a rapper with platinum teeth and face tattoos has released an album that encapsulates the current state of this musical tradition.
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