Album Review – Struggle Jennings – “Last Name”

Contemporary Pop Country (#530) and Contemporary Christian Country (#530.5) on the Country DDS. AI = “unknown”

Is even attempting to draw distinctions in the realm of country rap a fool’s errand? Or is there actually country rap that’s better than bad country rap? Or is it all country+rap=crap? If you really try to dispassionately asses the music, sure, some country rap artists can be better than others by trying to articulate real life struggles into meaningful songs that speak to fans on a human level compared to marketing ploys to rope in multiple demographics of listeners like a Graham Barham character.

Who are some of these better country rappers? One way you can distinguish them is by looking in the orbit of the Nashville-based rapper Yelawolf, who is one of the few hip-hop artists who tries to enact some quality control in the scene, including calling out bad mainstream country rap, or as he calls it, arena rap. Struggle Jennings is one of those rappers in Yelawolf’s fold. He was signed to Yela’s Slumerican label previously.

But that’s probably not why you know about Struggle Jennings if you’re a country fan. You know about Struggle because of his last name, and familial affiliation with Waylon. Technically, Struggle—whose real name is William Curtis Harness Jr.—is not blood related to Waylon Jennings. His mother is Jennifer Eddy, who was the daughter of legendary guitarist Duane Eddy, and Waylon’s second wife Jessi Colter, born before Colter left Duane for Waylon.

In fairness, Struggle’s father William Harness Sr. was murdered when he was young, and Struggle spent significant time with Waylon growing up, with Struggle basically adopting Waylon as his grandfather. Shooter Jennings is Struggle’s uncle, even though Shooter’s only a year older. When Struggle Jennings started his country rap career selling mixtapes out of his trunk, he adopted the Jennings name. So that’s the official story of Struggle’s Last Name.

The story of his new album is that it’s not really hip-hop at all. In fact, this album seems to have significantly less to do with Struggle hanging out in the orbit of Yelawolf and hip-hop, and more about hanging in the orbit of Jelly Roll and contemporary Christian music. Struggle and Jelly have released four studio albums together in what are blasphemously called their Waylon & Willie series—at least they’re blasphemy for many traditional country fans. The two have also recorded multiple big singles together.

And now seeming to follow Jelly Roll’s lead, Struggle Jennings has put his partying and rapping days behind him, and is selling the public on a redemption arc and praise music. Basically, Last Name feels very much like a Jelly Roll 2.0 album. You can’t blame Struggle for following Jelly Roll’s path. After all, it’s earned Jelly Roll arena level status, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Country Album.

Granted, the Struggle Jennings version of this kind of music does feel somewhat superior. Again, it’s important to try and draw distinctions in these things, if you’re trying to be objective. Where Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken felt extremely “one note” in its lyrical themes and even sonic approach while falsely peddling itself as “country,” Struggle offers a bit more variety, even if only a marginal level of more depth.

The songs all come with two to four co-writers, and it still smacks of commercial product with mainstream production. But a song like “Howling at the Moon” about being falsely accused of bad behavior to the point of saying, “Well, if I’ve going to be accused of it, I might as well do it” is something you just wouldn’t hear from Jelly Roll these days. But you also get those religious songs wrapped around “I’m a broken sinner” confessional themes like the tracks “Folded Hands,” “Storm I Can’t Weather,” and “Broken People.”

But where Jelly Roll still bests Struggle is that Jelly Roll actually is a pretty good singer, and always has been. That’s how he was able to make the transition from the underground rap scene in Nashville to the mainstream country circuit. Meanwhile Struggle’s voice is thrashed at this point. He might have never been a great singer. But a few decades of hard living—including going to prison from 2011 to 2016, and serving 15 months in prison after being arrested when he was 21—have not been kind to Struggle’s pipes.

Jelly Roll’s voice was ready for the mainstream whenever he wanted to make that move. For Struggle Jennings, his country rap audience finds his rasp real and authentic, but mainstream fans will find it a turn off. There couldn’t be more contrast between Jelly Roll and Struggle than when you listen to their duet on the album, “Only God Knows.” This is also probably the reason that here over a month after the release, you really haven’t heard much about Last Name, despite the Jelly Roll affiliation, or the Jennings name recognition.

If this review feels more of a biography, it’s because this information might be just as important as the music of Last Name. The title track is all about the blessing and curse that a famous name bequeaths to multi-generational performers, both in how they’re perceived in the public, and how they tend to wrestle with the same demons as their predecessors. But with Struggle Jennings, he selectively chose his stage name, so it just doesn’t pack the punch this sentiment might have for Shooter, Hank3, or Justin Townes Earle.

Love or hate Struggle Jennings or this album specifically, he is part of the extended family of Waylon Jennings and country music through his real grandfather Duane Eddy. He’s definitely also wrestled with demons on a level neither of those men did. Just like Jelly Roll, it’s not fair to doubt their redemption story, or how they’ve used faith to turn their lives around. But ultimately, the music is just not very good, and certainly not country, even though you do want to give Struggle credit for being better than many of the other artists and albums in this “post country rap contemporary Christian-adjacent mainstream country” space.

It feels like the public is starting to heavily sour on Jelly Roll and his media-driven narrative story. Unfortunately for Struggle Jennings and Last Name, there’s probably just not the appetite for another performer to use this model to rise out of the underground, and into the mainstream.

If you want a Jennings who is using his faith and redemption story to make music that is actually country, Waylon nephew Whey Jennings has also just released an album, Baptized By Fire.

5/10

– – – – – – – – – –