Amid Continued Jelly Roll Praise, N-Word Incident Goes Unreported
Jelly Roll has evolved into not only one of the most successful and lauded entertainers in the country music sphere at the moment, but into an American cultural icon and institution, recognized across cultural and institutional divides.
If it isn’t for his music with its pop sensibilities that cast a wide net, it’s been Jelly Roll’s story of redemption that has compelled so many in the United States and beyond to become Jelly Roll believers. That’s how a man with excessive face tattoos and a felonious past became someone that even your Christian mother strongly approves of.
Despite his list of previous felonies, or his overindulgences of the past, over the last few months Jelly Roll has evolved even further to be invited to participate in some of America’s topmost cultural institutions. We’re not just talking about his prominent appearances on WWE wrestling recently, endearing the entertainer to an even wider audience beyond the world of music. On July 16th and 17th, Jelly Roll hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! while Kimmel was on vacation. Jelly Roll is quickly becoming like a Ryan Seacrest character in American culture.
If it feels like Jelly Roll is everywhere, it’s because he is, especially since he’s been a favorite in media and beyond, ingratiating himself by his fiery acceptance speeches at award shows, and from the way his sound and image embody what many outside of country music believe to be what country music needs to “evolve.” Puff piece-style human interest stories on Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie XO are daily occurrences.
But through this rehabilitation of the Jelly Roll image, it’s fair to question if enough scrutiny has been brought to make sure Jelly Roll the man has properly reconciled with his past, and to ask why performers with much less shadier histories face much greater scrutiny. It’s also fair to ask if the media is outright shielding Jelly Roll from criticism that would otherwise inspire outright cancellation campaigns against other performers.
For example, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Jelly Roll has been captured on video using the N-word multiple times given his country rap past. In fact, this video evidence has been floating out there for many months, and has even gone viral on Reddit and other social media threads multiple times. Yet the media seems to either refuse to address it, or be so blind or soft to the Jelly Roll beat, it’s gone completely unreported.
It was Morgan Wallen using the N-word on January 31st, 2021, caught on a neighbor’s Ring doorbell camera that set off an incredible firestorm in country music and beyond that in certain circles is still raging to this day.
Hayley Williams for the pop punk band Paramore recently released a song called “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party” that starts off by repeating, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar” in reference to Wallen. While Morgan Wallen has not been allowed to officially return to the Grand Ole Opry since the N-Word incident.
But in video taken on January 23rd, 2023 at the Ghost Ranch of fellow country rapper Ryan Upchurch (also referred to as simply “Upchurch”), Jelly Roll is heard using the N-word in conversation, and perhaps as many as three times.
This video was captured nearly two years after the Morgan Wallen N-word incident. And unlike the Morgan Wallen footage that was published exclusively via TMZ, you can find this footage and many mentions of it on YouTube, X/Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook/Instagram/Threads. A major Reddit thread was posted about the incident in July. However, the media has never addressed it.
“We need to have 10 more conversations like this. I just turned down $50,000 from Tyler Farr, and I don’t know why. You know why? Because he’s somebody I can’t get a hold of … (inaudible) Because you’re beefin’ with Tyler Farr nigg–“ Jelly Roll is heard saying in the clip that has been the most widely shared. But it appears he’s heard using the N-word twice more later in the full video.
The full, 18:25 video was uploaded onto YouTube by an anonymous account called “The Leakage Capsule” on January 3rd, 2025. Along with the above remark found at the 7:42 mark of the video, other N-word’s can be potentially heard at the 6:46 mark when Jelly Roll is talking about talking to Taste of Country journalist/DJ Evan Paul, and at the 8:29 mark where Jelly Roll is talking about a collaboration with Jason Aldean.
Though both of these moments have been pointed out as other N-word moments, the audio is not clear enough to verify exactly what Jelly Roll is saying, unlike the moment at the 7:42 mark.
But the video has also surfaced in other places, and earlier than the full YouTube video. On December 18th, 2024, a Ryan Upchurch fan account on TikTok uploaded the N-word video, along with a series of videos of Ryan Upchurch addressing the video beforehand, and explaining the context of his meeting with Jelly Roll and fellow country rapper Adam Calhoun on January 23rd, 2023.
“I’ve been sitting her trying to start this video for the last 30 minutes, cause I ain’t gonna lie, this is probably one of my favorite videos I’m ever gonna make. And it’s also my most non-favorite video I’m ever gonna make. Why is it my favorite? Because everybody needs to see this,” Upchurch says. “And a lot of y’all are going to go back, and things are going to start clicking for y’all. By the end of this video, there’s gonna be some motherf-ckers who don’t have careers no more. Because that is absolutely true.”
Though the December 2024 TikTok clips are where many people first saw the information and the N-Word video, it doesn’t appear to be the origin of them. It was likely a YouTube video from Upchurch himself that has perhaps now been removed. Also interesting to note, the final video in the TikTok series that contains Jelly Roll using the N-Word has the sound removed, likely due to a violation for offensive language by TikTok’s policies.
Then on January 2nd, 2025, Adam Calhoun posted a response video calling Ryan Upchurch a narc for posting the Jelly Roll video. Addressing Upchurch, Adam Calhoun says, “You’re secretly recording people without their consent like a f-cking cop. You police officer, Fed, cop, narc, snitch-ass, tattle-telling little boy.”
Adam Calhoun’s response was in part due to the perception that the video would damage Jelly Roll’s reputation. But since the media never reported on it, no potential damage was ever incurred.
The January 23rd, 2023 meeting of Ryan Upchurch, Jelly Roll, and Adam Calhoun stemmed from a video clip of Jelly Roll being interviewed by Taste of Country’s Evan Paul. Jelly Roll was asked who might be the next country rap artist to break out. After shouting out Struggle Jennings, Jelly Roll also mentions Ryan Upchurch, but says, “I think Ryan Upchurch would be good for the format if we could ever to get him to dial in.”
Upchurch explained later that that the “dial in” comment by Jelly Roll is what offended many people in Upchurch’s fan base, and was the reason for the in-person meeting with Jelly Roll.
“When that’s up there on that channel that’s respected called ‘Taste of Country,’ and the title is ‘Jelly Roll: Why won’t Upchurch commit to country.’ Dude, that is straying people away from ‘Upchurch don’t do country music. Upchurch ain’t country.’ That’s when you get the fan base asking me a question,” Upchurch explains.
Jelly Roll defends himself by saying in the January 23rd, 2023 meeting, “I’m never going to go into one of these interviews and not bring up Ryan Upchurch, not bring up Adam Calhoun, and not bring up Struggle. #1, these are my friends, so I thought.”
Taste of Country actually used the conflict to promote a clip from the interview on YouTube, titling it, “Upchurch got real mad at us after he watched this video.” The clip alone has 1.5 million views. This means a major country music media outlet was very aware of the beef that was happening between Upchurch and Jelly Roll.
The underlying conflict between Jelly Roll, Ryan Upchurch, Adam Calhoun, and others goes much deeper than a single quote, and basically devolves into all of the complexities or a rap beef, and feelings on authenticity. Though many might not be familiar with the name Upchurch, he’s a massive country rap star with multiple Certified Gold and Platinum records. He’s also been someone who has regularly criticized other country rap stars and some country stars for not “keeping it real.”
It was Ryan Upchurch who Luke Combs collaborated with early in Luke’s career, and was later criticized for Confederate Flag imagery that appeared in a video they did together. As artists like Jelly Roll in the underground country rap scene started signing with major labels, Ryan Upchurch remained independent. Another part of the conversation finds Jelly Roll attempting to defend his authenticity, despite being played on mainstream country radio.
“My spirit is that I’m in a radio period, with Nashville radio people,” Jelly Roll says. “Because I’m now on Nashville radio finally, which #1, we should all be celebrating. There should be a moment unanimously for everybody in our culture that goes, ‘Yo, Jelly Roll snuck in the back door on these bitches dog. He’s probably in there doing cocaine and f-ckin’ starting fights and shit. Our dude’s in there.’ That’s how I thought that should be received.”
But when Upchurch says in his introductory video, “By the end of this video, there’s gonna be some motherf-ckers who don’t have careers no more,” he was completely wrong. For whatever reason, the Jelly Roll N-word moment has remained outside of the mainstream perception, and Jelly Roll was never even compelled to issue an apology or an explanation for it.
Saving Country Music reached out to the publicist of Jelly Roll for comment or clarification on this story. They have so far not responded.
Should the public draw the conclusion that Jelly Roll is racist since he’s caught on camera using a racial slur? Very similar to Morgan Wallen, this moment probably has much more to do with an individual very heavily influenced by hip-hop music speaking in the parlance of hip-hop. Also similar to the Morgan Wallen situation, Jelly Roll was in a private moment when he didn’t know he was being recorded, and was in no way exhibiting animosity or anger towards Black people.
However, Jelly Roll’s use of the N-word is still wrong, and especially after the major reckoning that Morgan Wallen and country music endured after the Morgan Wallen N-word incident nearly two years before. At the absolute least, it would seem like the Jelly Roll video would be something the media would find worth reporting on. This is just as much a media issue as it is Jelly Roll getting caught using the N-word.
Morgan Wallen’s N-word moment was not just used against Morgan Wallen. It was used against country music, and continues to be. Should Jelly Roll’s N-word situation be used against country too? The irony of both situations is it wasn’t their country music roots that inspired the utterances. It was their hip-hop ones. The phrase that Morgan Wallen used, “Pus-y ass nigg-“ is common parlance in hip-hip songs, and is even the title of numerous hip-hop tracks.
It is the hip-hop influence within the sound of both Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll that have made them so widely popular in music, yet strongly polarizing in country. It’s also what has earned both of them the most diverse Black and Brown audiences in the entire country genre.
And as hip-hop continues to encroach as an influence in country, this ironically doesn’t reduce the amount of perceived racism within the genre, it increases it. It’s within the country rap community where you still hear the N-word used, and still see Confederate flags like in the Upchurch video and other country rap videos—things most of mainstream Southern culture and country music moved on from years ago.
Jelly Roll has also seemed to have moved on from many of the excesses of his past, even if he presents himself partly as a sober story, yet continues to openly admit to still imbibing in some drugs and alcohol. But how much of Jelly Roll’s rehabilitation story is a true journey, how much of it is marketing, and how much the media is helping to shield Jelly Roll from the same criticism other performers and country music continue to face is a very fair question to ask.
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August 19, 2025 @ 8:49 am
Look I just think jelly roll should be hunted for sport
August 19, 2025 @ 9:17 am
“The phrase that Morgan Wallen used, “Pus-y ass nigg-“ is common parlance in hip-hip songs, and is even the title of numerous hip-hop tracks.”
There’s the problem: it’s common. It’s going to remain common as long as hip-hop doesn’t stop using it and doesn’t start condemning every one who keeps using it.
August 19, 2025 @ 9:23 am
I genuinely have no idea as I know almost nothing about him, but what is his ethnic background? Basically, does he get a pass for saying it?
(Apologies if it’s mentioned in the article, it was a long one!)
August 19, 2025 @ 9:30 am
What’s Shaboozey done?
August 19, 2025 @ 9:43 am
Jelly Roll is extremely White. He’s also the rare Nashville native in the country music industry.
August 19, 2025 @ 9:43 am
My 2 cents. The Morgan Wallen incident occurred during the height of the cancel culture movement. The Jelly Roll incident occurred 2 years later, but it looks like it wasn’t widely known until late 2024/early 2025 when cancel culture had run its course. Not saying it’s fair, and it’s not like Wallen was actually cancelled, but many people got swept up and away in the moment, leading to severe overreactions in the treatment of offenders. The treatment of the Jelly Roll incident is closer to the normal reaction to something like this. In short, famous guy said bad word and no one really cares.
August 19, 2025 @ 10:13 am
Morgan Wallen becoming more popular after his attempted cancelling was a severe blow to cancel culture. I don’t see any indication that the people who wanted him cancelled then don’t still wish that he was cancelled. It’s that the amorphous moral-panic mob was starting to be ignored.
August 19, 2025 @ 12:01 pm
I completely agree. The same people who wanted to cancel Morgan Wallen wanted to cancel everyone forever for everything. Thankfully people stopped going along with the rabble rousers.
August 19, 2025 @ 7:22 pm
There was never such a thing as cancel culture. Greatly exaggerated far-right tempest in a poo pot. Kind of like “woke” and “cultural Marxism.” Those terms are used mostly by journalists and politicians.
It’s human nature to respond to the previously unimagined power of social media and notice that as much, if not more, harm can befall famous people in the age of the internet than there used to be in gossip columns or tabloids.
August 20, 2025 @ 3:50 am
There was no cancel culture
There were no Covid lockdowns
There was no censorship on Twitter
Jelly Roll is a country singer
August 25, 2025 @ 7:48 am
“There was never such a thing as cancel culture.”
You are actively incorrect.
August 25, 2025 @ 8:53 pm
How about just cancelling people for sucking? Wallen is horrid. That video that went around with this dude “singing” that Ozzy…….my God.
August 19, 2025 @ 10:24 am
I acknowledge that the “end” of cancel culture and the “vibe shift” brought on by the Trump election might be playing a very minor roll in this. But the fact that NO media outlets whatsoever—including left-leaning ones that would go absolutely wild over any other “country” artist using the N-word—have reported on this story defies explanation beyond the obvious truth that Jelly Roll is not just getting a pass, but is being actively shielded from criticism.
You can’t tell me that if video proof of Jason Aldean using the N-word leaked all across the internet, the media wouldn’t have a field day with it. It would be the biggest story in all of America. Simply the phantom perception of racism in his “Try That in a Small Town” video from July of 2023 caused a massive uproar.
For context, the first time I saw the video was about six weeks ago. I actually saw it on X/Twitter, but it was from video taken from the viral Reddit thread I linked to in the article. At that point, it had only been posted for a few days. I started prepping this story and doing research in anticipation of someone reporting on it, but nobody did. As time went on, the fact that nobody was reporting on it started to emerge as the story.
Then when Hayley Williams released her song “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party,” that calls out the “racist country singer’s bar,” and everyone started to hypothesize who it was about (and she later confirmed Morgan Wallen), it illustrated the severe double standard at play here.
Nobody will be able to convince me that if some other prominent White person in popular American society got caught using the N-word, it wouldn’t at least raise a blip in the media.
So many outlets have spilled so much ink demonstrably praising Jelly Roll, many have decided they can’t go back now.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:42 pm
The media would absolutely try to drag Jason Aldean across glass shards in similar circumstances. They might try to make it the biggest news story, I just don’t think it would gain traction anymore.
I’m sure Jelly Roll is being shielded. The media isn’t fair. He’s hip hop and accepted in the black community. He gets a pass.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:43 pm
So what exactly are you calling for? You continue to lambast me and criticize Morgan for his statements long past, he admitted fault and he and we all have moved on. He’s the biggest country artist in the world, no one gives a shit, myself included.
Not sure what your point of the article is. Do you want jelly roll canceled? I don’t. And his fans surely don’t. Even his haters probably don’t. So what’s the point of the article? You trying to con the liberal media to write an article about him and bring him down? I sure hope not, cause that would be pretty fucked up and a complete abrogation of SCM, its mission and its readers.
Ultimately, he’s one of the best success stories in our genre in many decades. Not just because of his talent but because of what he overcame to become the headliner that he is. He’s a treasure in a way established country stars are who have been in this genre for many years. He’s a feel good story. And brings in fans from outside the genre to us.
I think the reason for all this is he’s not seen as overtly political. He appeared at UFC and shook trumps hand, he was criticized and people tried to cancel him but he gave a typical diplomatic political answer about how he respects all presidents.
Jason Aldean, and Hayley Williams are political figures. Their politics in many ways are bigger than their music. They are polarizing in ways few other artists are and in 2025, allegiances to either artist almost certainly are one to one correlations to how someone voted in 2024.
That said the media is still left wing. Hayley called country music, bar owners and US all racists. And the only people upset were conservatives. She faced little to no outrage or questions from the media and was completely insulated from it all. The fact she could engage in slander, and libel and act in such a disgustingly awful and gross manner is shocking. And it shouldn’t be acceptable.
Aldean though, was absolutely put through the wringer by the media after THIAST. ABC and CNN asked him in face interviews if he was a racist or not. That’s a level of journalist prejudice you don’t get for democrats.
I do question though your motives and partisan nature; in your Hayley article you refused to condemn or call her out for her behavior and admitted your impetus for the article was to discuss lower broadway.
With this article you seem to be almost begging legacy media do take down jelly roll.
Why the discrepancy? Why are you so harsh with people who use the n word ( wallen coverage by you was universally negative towards him), yet you seem to not want to call out those who demean US ALL by labeling us racist, inbred freaks.
To me the latter is way worse than the former. And Hayley should not be welcome in Nashville establishments.
Would appreciate you not acting partisan in posts, as it ruins the integrity of your brand.
Call balls and strikes. Instead of being blatantly liberal.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:59 pm
“I do question though your motives and partisan nature; in your Hayley article you refused to condemn or call her out for her behavior and admitted your impetus for the article was to discuss lower broadway. “
I refused to condemn Hayley Williams? The whole article was about how she was spewing out a negative stereotype that wasn’t fair to every bar, including artist-owned bars, in the region. Maybe I didn’t go hard enough for you, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t condemn it. I wrote a whole damn article about it.
“With this article you seem to be almost begging legacy media do take down jelly roll.”
If I was doing that, I wouldn’t have contextualized the N-word use, and explained why it shouldn’t immediately make people draw conclusions that he’s racist … and then say the same thing about Morgan Wallen. They might be racist. The N-word utterances don’t guarantee that though. It is ignorant behavior nonetheless that I condemn.
I chose to broach this subject because I wanted to contextualize it, as opposed to it being contextualized by somebody else, and used to claim the entirety of country music is racist. Eventually, somebody would have an will report on this. And there’s a very good likelihood they’ll use it to try and mischaracterize the entirety of country, esp. for trying to cover it up. Now, I’m on record. I’m breaking the story, not some political apparatchik opportunist who is hell bent on destroying country music.
I’m not calling for Jelly Roll’s cancellation. I am calling for fairness in country music reporting. Morgan Wallen was disqualified for awards, kicked off country radio, suspended by his label, had to apologize on national television, donate $500,000, and made a public pariah.
Jelly Roll? Seven months this info has been out there, and was reignited six week ago. Not a single other media outlet has even said a peep.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:32 am
Who’s going to care that Jelly Roll used “the N-Word.” Black people expect big fat tattooed White ex-convicts to be either racist as hell or appropriating black culture, often both simultaneously. They’re not surprised or particularly offended when a dude who looks like Jelly Roll says that word in either the hater or dude/man context. What else would he say? Let’s be realistic here.
That being said, I don’t like Jelly Roll due to his long partnership with Haystack, a rapper who’s a repeat sex offender. It’s one thing to be an outlaw or a criminal. It’s another to be a pervert or be cool with perverts. Cancel his fatass for that grossness.
August 19, 2025 @ 10:02 am
I’ve been aware of Upchurch for awhile simply because of my morbid curiosity for the shit-show that is Hick-Hop music. He’s very much a high-school girl in how he posts videos complaining about anyone and everyone while trying to gain clout. Upchurch has a song where he uses the hard-R variation of the N word that I hear played in this Country dance hall outside of Nashville every time I’m setting up. I believe that Upchurch is racist in that he has some mean-spirited ingroup preferences but I don’t see where Jelly Roll is any kind of racist even with his past associations with Upchurch. Prison sentences force people into racial groups because of the nature of prison culture but I’m not aware that JR was spoken on that. Rap is the wrong genre to be into if one truly is a racist. I utterly hate rap with every fiber of my being and I believe it to be worst version of modern music, but even I understand that black artists allow some white rappers to use the N word in certain contexts (not that I care about social nuances from rap culture).
For all the things Jelly Roll should be criticized for this one just makes my eyes roll. I don’t buy his redemption arc at all, and his crappy ass music that makes Creed sound like Steely Dan by comparison.
August 19, 2025 @ 12:29 pm
I agree, he’s no more country than Beonce.
August 19, 2025 @ 10:10 am
I can’t stress enough how much I do not care that Jelly Rolly used the “N” word. It doesn’t change anything about how I think of him.
August 19, 2025 @ 7:08 pm
I can’t stress enough if how you think this is all simply about how Jelly Roll used the N-word, you’re missing the much, much bigger picture. Morgan Wallen says the N-word, and thousands upon thousands of articles are written about it over years, and it creates a racial reckoning in country music that is still ongoing. Jelly Roll, who some already hate for the incessant human interest stories constantly being posted about him, stays the N-word, and there’s not a single story about it over seven months. Just as a statistical anomaly, it’s probably worth someone remarking on it.
August 20, 2025 @ 7:20 am
It is bizarre since Morgan Wallen seemed to have as much initial industry backing as Jelly Roll and Luke Combs. Morgan Wallen didn’t start out as some complete outsider but they were willing to throw that cash cow on the fire. The music industry people are still overwhelming liberal and the media people are even more so and I fully believe they would throw him under the bus for the “moral victory”… but they were directed not to. The Twitter people are still trying to carry the cancel culture torch – they tried to cancel Matt Healey of the 1975 for some remarks about asians in 2023 (two years after Wallen) that he apologized for.
Even though I can’t stand Jelly Roll, I don’t wish for him to face consequences for this because I still view the use of the N-word here has a non-issue. I’ll willing to bet that for most major artists before they get pushed that their social media past is scrubbed before they even hit the mainstream because the majority of us have made questionable and off-color comments and posts at some point.
August 20, 2025 @ 7:37 am
People are looking at this situation through too much of a binary lens. Either you have to root for cancel culture and say Jelly Roll must be canceled over this. Or, you say this article itself is an element of cancel culture, and thus are repulsed by it. As I explained in detail in this article and many others, the response to Morgan Wallen was too heavy handed, and that same heavy handed response is not what Jelly Roll should face.
But there’s nothing. There’s zero. He’s not even having pressure put on him to give a response, apology, or explanation. His publicist didn’t even return my email. Why? Because they know they have the media in their back pocket. This is the bigger issue than Jelly Roll saying the N-word.
August 21, 2025 @ 11:10 am
Cancel culture, like wokism and Cultural Marxism was never a real “thing”. There was a sudden realization that the internet effect of somebody saying or doing something distasteful or morally repugnant was greater than if it was in the newspaper or even on TV because everyone who wanted to could repost it or give their opinion, and networks and record companies and live music promoters could instantly see when an artist did something that turned a lot of people off. But there wasn’t anything like a “Cancel Commission” that decided to cancel someone. It just happened. It might seem like it’s died out or faded but if somebody famous was caught molesting kids, or something else heinous, you’d see it again.
August 21, 2025 @ 11:17 am
I hear what you’re saying. But Jimmie Allen was cancelled. I just wrote about him earlier this week, and being held liable in a civil suit. His career is basically over. Unknown Hinson was basically cancelled as well. Obviously, Morgan Wallen wasn’t.
I don;t think Jelly Roll should be “cancelled.” But should he have to answer an explain himself? Absolutely. Does the media now have an obligation to report on this matter after what happened with Morgan Wallen and many others? Of course they do.
And I’m here to tell you, this story is going to have a reckoning at some point. If nothing else, I wanted to put myself on the record as having recognized this was a story worth reporting on. And even for me it took six weeks, though that six weeks was waiting to see if anyone else would act first. Now the question is if anyone else will act at all.
August 19, 2025 @ 10:34 am
Bring back Marvin Rainwater.
August 19, 2025 @ 10:38 am
It’s just a word, people. Get over it.
August 19, 2025 @ 12:20 pm
Listen, the first rule to learn in life is that double standards exist, and pointing them out won’t induce shame in the people using them. They don’t care. Because if they did, they wouldn’t use them in the first place.
Jelly Roll belongs to the popular crowd.
August 19, 2025 @ 12:25 pm
I know this is mainly a piece about media…
And I know almost nothing about jelly roll or Wallen…
But I lived in Baltimore for 15 years and local working class or poor white males absolutely could use the N word just like local black folks, in the presence of black folks. It was common.
August 19, 2025 @ 7:55 pm
Just because it is tolerated doesn’t mean it’s OK. If black folks in urban areas objected to poor white people trying to look and sound black they’d never get anything else done.
I get Trigger’s point. It was a big, big deal when Wallen did it. I will admit that between that incident and my overall sense of his music I never gave him a fair listen. Jelly Roll, on the other hand, is everywhere. I saw him on the CBS New Year’s Eve bash and I’ve seen and heard him without even trying, at all. People like him that don’t like country or rap, let alone country rap.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:08 am
It was a big deal when Wallen did it because it happened less than a year after all of that George Floyd stuff and there was a mostly unwarranted nationwide moral panic about racism at the time.
August 22, 2025 @ 6:46 am
Okay, but what about all the uproar over Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town?” If Jason Aldean was exposed saying the N-word three times on camera, do you think there wouldn’t even be one single media report about it? Of course not. It would be the biggest story in America.
August 19, 2025 @ 12:28 pm
I don’t understand why people like this guy.
August 19, 2025 @ 4:39 pm
Well aside from me not liking his music but people like people that are relatable and seem cool to hang with pretty simple why people like him.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:12 pm
The worst part about this article is that the name Ryan Upchurch resurfaced. Can we please let this guy fade into obscurity? The Jerry Springer drama got old fast and probably killed any momentum he might have had at one point or another.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:36 pm
Jelly roll is a joke. Why do so many people think it is okay to use hate speech. It is wrong no matter who uses it. So many people think it is okay to use racist slurs or transphobic and homophobic slurs , and the r word to make fun of disabled people, there are bigots who try to normalize these words. There is a word for people who are bigots that they need to learn it is called RESPECT. no matter who you disagree with, every human being in this country deserves respect. You don’t look cool belittling or harrasing people, you just look disgusting.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:37 pm
If Morgan Wallen was obese and had face tattoos he would have been given a pass.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:45 pm
One standard for Wallen, another for Roll. I do not understand the Jelly Roll or Post Malone being mentioned when talking country music. Neither fit the genre at all. Neither sound country or look country. I would be happy for both to go away. They are no good.
August 19, 2025 @ 1:49 pm
No one seems to have an issue nor do they want to ban rap music with n words every other word, anti women lyrics and glorification of violence. Why single out Jelly Roll? His music is way more positive than most artists in the genre. Not sure why blacks get a pass on the word and can say it all the time in their songs and then be upset if a white person says it, while rapping along to those same lyrics. Dont rap and produce and release it if you don’t want people singing along to every single word.
Too often rappers blame others for their own issues. It’s pretty simple. Get married, graduate from school and get a job. Don’t get arrested and don’t commit crime. Don’t be a father than leaves your family and kids and wife. It’s simple. That’s what most normal people do.
It’s not Whitey or the system or the man or racism or the patriarchy, or capitalism or nazis or bigots that prevent you from doing any of that.
Jelly roll by contrast admits he’s flawed. Admits he’s made mistakes. Admits he did crimes. He takes full responsibility.
That’s the difference. One blames society for their failings in life. One accepts his own faults and warts and all and tries to make the world a better place and himself a better person.
August 19, 2025 @ 2:08 pm
Wallen’s last album is literally titled ‘I’m The Problem’. He apologized for the worst of his offenses. From what little I know of Jelly Roll’s personal life he hasn’t stayed sober – wasn’t that the majority of his schtick? I’m not sure what’s so positive about Jelly Roll’s music. It’s the sonic equivalent of a vague Facebook post from that one relative complaining about something without giving details and asking for prayers and saying they know who their people are. It’s dumb trailer park music that somehow road the Walmart fat scooter into the mainstream.
August 19, 2025 @ 4:03 pm
Didn’t Jelly Roll release an album last year all about the 12 steps and about recovery and redemption but on the same day he opened up a bar in Nashville? My timeline could be wrong but regardless quite the double standard there. Like anyone else, he’s not afraid to sell out for that extra dollar. Music isn’t all that inspiring either.
August 19, 2025 @ 4:40 pm
I went in-depth about this in the review of Jelly Roll’s last album. He literally has songs about 12 steps and getting sober, then openly admits he still drinks, smokes pot, and parties. I’m not saying Jelly Roll hasn’t cleaned up to some extent from the height of his excesses. He’s also lost a lot of weight. Good for him. But to present himself as a sober hero while he still drinks and opens a bar proves how imperfect he is as the sober hero he makes himself out to be. And once again, the media does not scrutinize the conflicting persona he presents because they believe he’s a sum positive for country music since he symbolizes a “diversification” of the country sound.
August 19, 2025 @ 6:14 pm
Isn’t he an open Christian? As in he has a cross tattoo on his face? Not sure how to break it to you trigger, but Christians don’t pretend to be perfect. Not sure I’ve ever heard him say, I jelly roll an sin free. That’s not how Christians talk.
Also, not sure how familiar you are with 12 step or recovery, but usually people don’t just go into rehab and that’s it. It’s a lifelong battle and struggle. Even if he was sober for 3 years, doesn’t mean he isn’t still apt to fall off the wagon the next moment.
Temptation, sin, redemption. All Christian ethics explored in the Bible, and all things any artist of faith explores in their music as he does.
The critique of jelly roll isn’t perfect and sinless is kind of a silly critique anyway.
Morgan also is very open about his faith. And not sure if I’m breaking some news here for you all, but Morgan has some flaws. It’s shocking I know.
Other Christian country artists like Johnny cash also had a flawed side. Cheating on your spouse isn’t typically a Christian value, but he had a problem.
I mean just google Christian country artists, not a single one is flawless and sinless. Many committed wild sins.
It’s an extreme misreading of the faith to suggest jelly roll needs to be sinless to make good art.
In fact I’d argue what makes these peoples art so compelling is the fact they all are seriously flawed. Morgan’s Superman is literally this laid out in song form.
Also check my username. May be a clue.
August 19, 2025 @ 7:11 pm
Well said
August 19, 2025 @ 6:25 pm
Part of the appeal of his personal life might be he overcame being a felon and in prison. We can never know for sure, but I’d guess he isn’t committing armed robbery anymore. He served his time. Plays shows at prisons and speaks about Jesus. Speaks about temptation and redemption. Maybe that doesn’t appeal to you, but redemption is maybe the key aspect of the faith. Once lost but now im found. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t sin anymore. But grace and redemption are kinda big deals to Christians
August 19, 2025 @ 7:22 pm
No doubt. I guess I was coming from the alcohol standpoint. I know someone near and dear to my heart that gone through the 12 step program. I don’t care about anyone past, lord knows we all sin and done things we’re not proud of, we’re all human. Yes, jelly roll has done countless good deeds and a huge blessing to a lot of people in more ways than one. I was just pointing out he put out an album about 12 steps, recovery, etc. but hey I’m also opening a bar.
August 20, 2025 @ 8:55 am
Flaunting cross tattoos, wearing obvious cross necklaces, ostentatiously praying, or constantly publicly talking about being a Christian and Jesus does not make you a Christian. The most convincing Christians are not those who constantly talk about it and openly show Christian symbols, but rather those who act simply and unobtrusively according to Christian ethics. These are often the very people who do not show off their Christianity. – Whether in showbiz, in politics or in everyday life.
August 19, 2025 @ 2:25 pm
The n word in hip-hop and the Confederate flag in country music: Compare and contrast.
August 19, 2025 @ 3:44 pm
The Confederate flag is dead in country music. Any singer who uses it gets both barrels from the media.
The N-word is alive and well in hip hop and rap.
August 20, 2025 @ 8:46 am
Flaunting cross tattoos, wearing obvious cross necklaces, ostentatiously praying, or constantly publicly talking about being a Christian and Jesus does not make you a Christian. The most convincing Christians are not those who constantly talk about it and openly show Christian symbols, but rather those who act simply and unobtrusively according to Christian ethics. These are often the very people who do not show off their Christianity. – Whether in showbiz, in politics or in everyday life.
August 19, 2025 @ 4:44 pm
Agree with CountryKnight. The idea that Confederate Flags are all over the place in country music is a canard presented by music media outside of country who only know country shows and festivals as a hypothetical.
If you want to find who still flies Confederate Flags or uses the N-word in country music, it’s the country rap community. It’s Upchurch and Jelly Roll. That’s the irony of folks from outside of country thinking that injecting hip-hop in country music will make it somehow less racist.
August 19, 2025 @ 6:19 pm
One is accepted and non punishable, one is a cancellation. If george strait appeared on stage tomorrow with a confederate flag I do think his career would be over with.
I support flying the confederate flag at all events, and in your home and garage. I think it should be proudly displayed and I support its usage.
The n word in rap is ignorant, dumb and is just silly. Kendrick and others have gotten pissed when white crowds have rapped along with the lyrics. Don’t write n word into your lyrics if you don’t want people singing along. It’s silly there is a word, so evil, that only one group can ever say it. If it was so evil no one would say it.
The flag though, that’s my flag. I support all it stands for.
August 19, 2025 @ 7:13 pm
Hank III was basically cancelled because of the Democrat Parties’ coordinated political attack on Confederate flags and statues. Before that, he had a successful career and flew the flag, like many others have.
It is us or them, They have made that quite clear.
No Quarter.
August 19, 2025 @ 7:32 pm
This website grew out of a Hank3 blog. Hank3 was never cancelled. There was never really an effort to attempt to cancel Hank3. His dogs died, he was forced to moved from his home, and he’s probably dealing with a lot of emotional stuff at the moment that has made him step back from the music business. We’ll see how the world handles him if he ever returns. But if Jelly Roll can be exposed for using the N-word three times and it’s not even the most popular article on this website, let alone in country music, something tells me he’ll be okay, if only because the country music beat is beyond dead.
August 20, 2025 @ 10:16 am
Hank III hasn’t had an album in over ten years, a time frame that exactly coincides with Obama’s coordinated attacks on Confederate flags and statues.
Not all cancellation is aired publicaly.
August 20, 2025 @ 12:20 pm
Why do you censor Jelly Roll’s ties to Prince Harry?
It is a big giveaway as to who is Jelly Roll.
Prince Harry also hobnobbed with Kanye and Diddy over a decade ago.
August 20, 2025 @ 1:44 pm
Not censoring anything. But it’s a dumb comment. They appeared in a promo video together.
August 20, 2025 @ 1:58 pm
What kind of security clearance does Jelly Roll have to touch a royal’s neck with a tattoo gun?
Woke Prince Harry is married to a black woman. If his pal, Jelly Roll is shown to use the N word, it will embarrass the British Crown. Hence, no one will touch it.
That should answer your question.
August 19, 2025 @ 6:11 pm
Most pointless article in a long time.
Jelly Roll saying the n word is such a nothingburger its insane.
Upchurch is a schizophrenic drama queen, that’s the real story here. The drama involving him is wild. While stupid in its own right, its definitely more news worthy than Jelly Roll saying a word normal people use every single day and is in uncountable mainstream songs.
Surprised SCM is commenting on the country rap dumpster fire.
August 19, 2025 @ 6:54 pm
A lot of people are having a problem here holding two thoughts in their head at the same time. Jelly Roll saying the N-word was a story seven months ago, or six weeks ago when it went viral for the second time. The story now is why people are still holding Morgan Wallen to account for saying it once and it became one of the biggest stories in country music in the last ten years, and yet are 100% completely ignoring when Jelly Roll said it three times, two years after Morgan Wallen said it. The answer tells you a lot about the media covering country music, and their underlying motivations.
This is probably the most important article SCM will post all year. And the fact that people can’t get over the idea that this is some sort of artifact of cancel culture is the reason they can’t rationally work through this.
August 19, 2025 @ 7:57 pm
Which is kind of bizarre amongst itself given how country music is more popular now than it’s ever been. It’s massive. We, not rock and not rap have the biggest stars or many of them at least. Superstars come to us to gain cool points not the other way around. I thought the bubble would have burst already, but it’s still a chart topping genre. Morgan’s latest seems to be seen as his least fan loved since his debut, but it’s still a huge success, the biggest hit album of the year, 11 weeks at number 1.
Speaks to larger discussion about media in 2025, the decline of the legacy medias influence, the importance and complete domination of social media in news of all kinds including music and arts, and how artists gain influence in our new world. While it would be nice if The NY Times had a dedicated country music writer ala Grady, or you SCM which I know Trigger would never do, but look at the big stars of the moment. Jordan, Morgan, Bailey, Ella, Megan, Zach, Luke, none of them became who they are because the Times suddenly noticed them. They blew up because of Grady or Whiskey Riff or TikTok.
Speaks to how out of touch the legacy outlets are with our scene and movement. They catch the artists when they’ve already broken big not on the way up like SCM tries to.
Radio still plays a role in our scene, but its role is severely lessened. Bobby bones gets guests probably more out of habit and that he’s friends with everyone in Nashville rather than it being a marketing strategy. Megan appears on Bobby bones show but does she really need to? Not really. And people like Morgan and Zach or Luke don’t have to at all.
August 20, 2025 @ 2:51 am
People having a problem holding 2 thoughts in their heads at the same time is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Thank you for bringing awareness to the hypocrisy on this issue. Very much appreciated.
August 21, 2025 @ 7:42 am
I see what you’re saying Trigger. The discrepancy between how the two stories are covered has mostly got to do with the cultural vibe-shift away from the wokescolding. Morgan Wallen was talked about for saying the no-no word two years ago because it was two years ago. Different cultural vibe.
It’s just that this kind of drama and what it means at large about the industry has been covered already and this article has been written before, just about different people.
August 21, 2025 @ 8:08 am
Sure, but if this was Jason Aldean, do we really think there would be zero reporting on this? What if it was Blake Shelton or Luke Bryan, or Luke Combs? I guarantee it would at least be a story. Somebody would report on it. The fact that there are zero reports substantiates that the fix is in when it comes to Jelly Roll and the media.
August 19, 2025 @ 6:22 pm
“The Palace called, Jelly Roll can use the N word all he wants.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NpQ_lKsC5M
August 19, 2025 @ 8:11 pm
I hate the word police stuff, but I hate jelly roll more. He deserves to be banned from everything. No more awards shows, no more podcasts and certainly no more of his songs being played anywhere I’m forced to hear them. I’m more than willing to make that sacrifice. Jelly Roll needs to be held accountable and he shouldn’t be allowed to continue to annoy and disgust me by waddling in front of every camera he sees. Enough is enough. I
August 19, 2025 @ 8:36 pm
Trigger, why are you inviting this drama? The use of the word in hip-hop culture is miles apart from using the word in its historical unexcusable context. It was the rap community that popularized the overuse of the word throughout the 80’s until currently. It’s well known that a large part of the sales are due to white kids and their parents supporting the genre. As a kid who grew up in the 80s, 90s and beyond, I can assure you, that none of us ever censored ourselves when singing along, either by ourselves, or at a part with a mixed race group to Snoop, NWA, Jay Z etc…nor did we censor the extremely sexist and misogynistic lyrics that were so pervasive in the culture. No one in hip hop has ever had to answer for the sick way they spoke about our daughters and our women. Ice cube is considered an American icon. Emenim spoke on behalf of our last presidential candidate. Let’s stop pretending that the deterioration of our nation’s morality wasn’t hugely affected by hip-hop culture and the glorification of violence, sexism, racism, materialism, but by a few corny white dorks emulating the music they grew up on.
August 19, 2025 @ 11:11 pm
This comment is either pure genius, or terribly confused. Not sure which one.
But I’m not inviting any drama. This is one of those moments where I want to be on the record. What happens in the present is kind of irrelevant. It’s all about what happens in the future. At some point, the rest of the music world will wake up to this matter. That is when the importance of this article will reveal itself.
August 20, 2025 @ 7:59 am
At this current moment, since the Wallen story is already in the books, the only thing that could change is the level of outrage directed towards JR. I understand you are comparing the response of these two situations, but there is no going back on the feeding frenzy that consumed Wallen. The difference in attention could simply be outrage fatigue…it wouldn’t be the first time. Also, I can imagine someone like MW and his spoiled frat boy image, is much more rewarding to topple than the redemption story we’ve been fed about JR.
August 20, 2025 @ 8:25 am
No, the Morgan Wallen situation is not “in the books” whatsoever. It is still active and ongoing. There have been dozens and dozens of stories about it or that mention it since this Jelly Roll footage has been out there, both in the last 7 months when it first emerged, and in the last six weeks when it came out in a big viral Reddit post again. It was brought up dozens of times alone after Hayley Williams released her song “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party” two weeks that calls Morgan Wallen out.
As I said in another comment above, outrage fatigue might play a very minor role in this. But that doesn’t explain why ZERO outlets have picked this up. You can’t tell me that if this was Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, whomever, this wouldn’t be the biggest story in America right now. It’s not even possible to put into words the statistical anomaly that would have to exist for so much coverage to be given over Morgan Wallen’s moment, and to have ZERO coverage of this. THE FIX IS IN. And 24 hours after this article was posted and there’s still not a peep from anyone verifies this.
August 20, 2025 @ 4:37 pm
Ice Cube? How about Ice-T? He made his name with a song about killing cops, and what has he played on TV for almost twenty years?
August 20, 2025 @ 10:57 pm
I’ve never found using “cop killer” as an argument against Ice-T persuasive. It was partly influenced by “Psycho Killer” by the Talking heads, and called a “protest song” by Ice-T himself.
Johnny Cash sang songs where he shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Another one where he murdered his partner and ran from the law under the influence of cocaine. Bob Marley and Eric Clapton sang about shooting the sheriff. These are stories, works of fiction.
I’m not a fan of a lot of the content of gangster rap or glorification of that lifestyle. But “cop killer” emerged from incidents of police brutality and is written from the perspective of a man sick of seeing his people treated more harshly because of their race.
Agree with that or not, Ice-T did not do anything white artists haven’t done for centuries, and written about in plays and books before that. It’s a story, from the point of view of a character. Using it as some sort of “gotcha” against rap is an overplayed card.
August 20, 2025 @ 3:45 am
Idiocracy.
Nice catch, Trig.
August 20, 2025 @ 4:07 am
Everybody step back, take a deep breath, and don’t give a shit.
August 20, 2025 @ 4:34 am
Just read a story about Wallen donating $500,000 to restore historic ball fields in Nashville to help youth of the area.
Writer couldn’t finish article without bringing up TMZ video. Crazy!
August 20, 2025 @ 7:22 am
Exactly. But there’s zero stories about Jelly Roll except this one?
August 20, 2025 @ 6:16 am
He manages to get away with it largely because he’s an industry plant — a carefully curated figure strategically positioned to act as a Trojan horse. His presence serves a broader agenda: to pry open the doors of a historically American institution, long viewed by segments of the activist left as too culturally homogenous, or “too YT.” It’s part of a larger effort to gradually reengineer the institution from within, allowing hip hop and pop acts to gain footholds under the guise of inclusion, while subtly reshaping its cultural identity.
August 20, 2025 @ 7:22 am
Though this comment veers too far in the direction of conspiracy theory, it’s much more true than the comments proclaiming this is a nontroversy that nobody should care about, foolishly casting this information off as an effort at cancel culture.
In the leaked audio from Jelly Roll, he not only says the N-word three times, one of the major themes of his conversation with Upchurch is how he’s surreptitiously infiltrated mainstream Nashville, and how the folks in the country rap community should be praising him for it. “‘Yo, Jelly Roll snuck in the back door on these bitches dog” is how Jelly Roll characterizes it himself.
There is nobody who has received more positive press, perhaps in this history of country music, than Jelly Roll has in the last three years. With the publishing of this article, there is now no more plausible deniability by the rest of American media as to why they’re not reporting on this story. They are actively shielding Jelly Roll from the same exact criticism that resulted in thousands and thousands of articles about Morgan Wallen that literally continue to this day, and in the last couple of weeks due to the Hayley Williams song.
This is a media story. That is why it was categorized under the radio/media tab. The fact that they refused to report on this situation was a story. Now that they’ve been made aware and are still ignoring it, we REALLY have a story. And it’s one they will find very very difficult to live down.
August 20, 2025 @ 9:55 am
Yes, I realize my theory may sound far-fetched to some. That said, I believe Jelly Roll is being used as a patsy in this situation. I don’t think he is capable of coming up with such a scheme on his own, but that doesn’t make my point any less valid. The culture war is real, and one of the most effective ways to weaken America is by undermining its cultural institutions—particularly those associated with traditional American values.
August 20, 2025 @ 12:31 pm
Bingo, Kross
An industry plant.
Reconstruction.never ended.
Actually, slavery never ended.
August 20, 2025 @ 6:59 am
The word in of itself is horrific to me but these young kids and now adults of all colors use it like it’s nothing. I find that to be bizarre but it’s in the culture whether we like it or understand it. Similar to the overuse of the f-word or getting facial tattoos.
August 20, 2025 @ 7:23 am
How it is bizarre?
It is a common word in the most popular genre for young people.
It isn’t hidden in some underground genre.
A culture becomes what it consumes.
August 20, 2025 @ 9:30 am
This is so weird on so many levels. The first thing that came to my mind reading it, besides the absurdity of this word having so much the character of a moral panic around it, was the term “dry snitching.” This was a concept I learned doing time. It’s when you’re not outright telling on somebody, but you’re in a sly underhanded way trying to affect the same outcome. That’s what this article is doing. Look guys he said Voldemort and nobody has canceled him! Isn’t that interesting? Why hasn’t he been canceled. It’s like you’re inviting it. So aside from just having the values of a pearl clutching raging lib, you also want to help the regime enforce its totalitarian thought control program. Just leave well enough alone.
August 20, 2025 @ 9:51 am
This is a patently incorrect assessment of what happened here.
First, the article goes in-depth into why it is wrong to assume that Morgan Wallen was racist for being caught using the N-word, and why it’s wrong to assume that of Jelly Roll. It goes deep contextualizing the uses of this word. An attempt to “snitch” on Jelly Roll in hopes of inadvertently cancelling him would never do that, espe. since it’s also explained how Morgan Wallen was never cancelled, despite the attempts. Nobody is calling for the cancellation of Jelly Roll here. This is something being assigned to this article based on assumptions. What is being pointed out here is the rabid hypocrisy by the media, who chooses who it attempts to publicly admonish, and who it doesn’t.
August 20, 2025 @ 9:31 am
As someone who used to follow Upchurch’s music for years I can comfortably say Ryan has used the N word many times. The whole Jelly Roll “beef” was nothing more than Ryan trying to get some attention as his albums haven’t been doing good the past several years. He lost relevance around 2020. I’m not even a Jelly Roll fan, is just Ryan’s hypocrisy is pretty blatant. As others in this thread have said Ryan has become a drama queen, and that’s putting it mildly. This whole situation is nothing more than Ryan trying to smear Jelly Roll out of jealousy and attempting to frame it as “exposing him for what he is.”
August 20, 2025 @ 9:47 am
The beef with Jelly Roll and Upchurch really is of very minor concern here. It’s simply the context for where the video came from. And frankly, the N-word is also a secondary concern. It’s the hypocrisy, how Jelly Roll also admits he “sunck in the back door,” and the media is clearly shielding him.
August 20, 2025 @ 9:50 am
Which is a bizarre thing to say since the cancel culture involving Morgan is so widely apparent. Bobby bones said he wasn’t going to play his music, music streaming services removed his music from playlists and his music was “hidden” to a certain extent when searching. Nearly
Every label and outlet in Nashville made a statement about the incident and condemned him. People like rissi palmer, Brittany Spencer and Rhiannon Giddens, as well as the Black Opry, Kelsey ballerini, Jason Isbell, Mickey guyton all tried to use their weight and pull to get the industry at large to cancel him completely and ban him from playing at the opry.
Maybe the most glaring and obvious example of this was from 2021-2024 when he is the face of the genre, the most popular and successful artist in our genre, and by a wide margin, but he would be shut out from awards and not give the entertainer of the year award or country artist of the year award. You may dislike his music, but the idea that he didn’t deserve those awards is absurd. There’s no one even close in terms of success right now at least in our genre. Everyone knows in 2021 and 2022 he was the entertainer of the year and country artist of the year. And he continues to be. Yet awards shows didn’t invite him and he wasn’t given any awards. Like at all.
We can debate the punishment he should have received but part, or a big part of the reason for the anti cancellation backlash to the backlash was that the punishment he faced was so wildly extreme for what he did. At most I think his label should have had a talk with him and he should have probably taken a break and enrolled in rehab.
But the fact that what actually happened was so extreme and so out of step with his actual “crime” rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way. And absolutely fueled fans to stream him more.
Ultimately, individuals like Jason Isbell and Rissi Palmer and Rhiannon giddens had they had their way would have had Morgan completely canceled as in label dropping him, banned from all venues, etc. All this goes well beyond just trying to get him to address the incident, they wanted him gone, banned and completely broken.
Morgan took the high road as he laid out in Don’t Think Jesus. He could have gone after these people publicly and by name and we all would have cheered. Jason Isbell is a serially cheating drug user and abusive asshole. The fact he went after Morgan because Morgan was morally corrupt is both laughable and actual libel. Same for a lot of the accusers.
The problem was when woke Nashville insiders and artists and labels and Bobby bones felt that they were reflecting their Audience by condemning Morgan the audience itself while not excited by Morgan’s actions also didn’t believe that it was okay to completely excise him from society. People love his music. A lot. In a way few country artists ever have been loved.
And ultimately I think that’s what motivating most of this. They are pissed off he’s successful to a degree they themselves will never be. Rissi Palmer, and Jason Isbell will be footnotes in country music history. Isbell may get a mention in the hall of fame. But Morgan will get a whole wing. It’s his era. It’s Morgan’s era. It’s his complete dominance of the genre and this time period. Isbell doesn’t even measure on the map in terms of public fervor. Mickey guyton believes she is owed an audience or people bowing down to her because i am black woman hear me roar. The difference is Morgan earned that. He earned it through the songs, and his team and his art. Rhiannon giddens is a footnote.
It’s rage and resentment that a white straight man is the most important and successful country artist in decades and is so dominant that even his least loved album in the run, stays atop the charts for months on end.
In short they themselves, are the racists they claim we all are. They hyper focus on diversity, race, dei and diversity hiring at the expense of talent. They want lyrics to hyper focus on socially conscious concepts when the majority of listeners don’t want to hear about politics at all regardless of who is talking about it. They hate the fact a white male is so successful and loved and is the face of the genre. They are virulent bigots and racists.
And I for one hope they never fucking get work in our industry ever again.
August 20, 2025 @ 12:50 pm
“And I for one hope they never fucking get work in our industry ever again”
Isn’t this just reverse cancel culture? You want to run artists out of country that you don’t agree with politcally. Same thing.
August 20, 2025 @ 10:16 am
Omfg it’s a slang word with many different meanings to be completely honest I dont even think that people actually use it to call a person a black human i think and in my experience in 46 years in Florida it us used as a hey man what’s up or a my bro or friend or as a description of a a human ofbany color shape or form in no way being used as a hate word like most of you Karen’s would assume it’s pathetic how you ignorant laim ass people sit on your laptops all day and oi c k out people for using a word what about the word cunt isn’t that a more disrespectful word or bastard or where wouldn’t you agree that I wouldn’t hear someone e referring to a person as a whole and getting condemned for it losing their fame and fortune but a word with so many different meanings like the word shit or ass it is not used as a hate word for blacks in general if at all where I live
August 20, 2025 @ 10:32 am
Part of me wants to ignore this, simply because Upchurch wants me to care
Literally every time I see him come up, it’s him being a completely unlikable, petty, vindictive, asshole
What Jelly Roll did was wrong, but I don’t think Upchurch himself actually cares that he said the N-word, he just thinks the media and general public will. He wouldn’t have been sharing any of this if he didn’t have a bone to pick with JR for much stupider reasons
At this point, it wouldn’t surprise at all if Upchurch was also saying that word, but is just much more careful about hiding it
And the end of the day, JR probably does need to take accountability for his actions, but under the circumstances, I still hate Upchurch significantly more, as I find him to be a generally much worse person
August 20, 2025 @ 11:11 am
There are no good actors in this story, including Upchurch. However, I do find it very, very telling that both Upchurch and Adam Calhoun both believed that the releasing of the video would be very damaging to Jelly Roll. Because why wouldn’t it be? The media would take the story of a major country star clearly using the N-word and run with it. But they didn’t. Not even one single story. It’s not even that it was talked about here and there, but deemed ultimately insignificant. There’s nothing. At this point—especially 24 hours after my article about it—this is a scandal of the highest order. THere is no doubt that there is an active campaign to suppress what’s going on here to shield Jelly Roll. That’s what’s going on. And every editor who is deciding to not report on this story at some point is going to have to answer for this. And I will say that at some point, it will come out. And the narrative some will paint is that “country music” actively worked to suppress it. That why I have no choice but to in good concise to report on it.
August 20, 2025 @ 11:37 am
I can only wonder if the media not reporting on it is simply due to many realizing how much of a nothing burger it would ultimately be. Morgan Wallen said it, there was social media outrage, the world moved on and he is still (unfortunately) one of if not the biggest artist in the country genre right now. Plus it’s 2025, not 2022 when “woke outrage” was still cool and possibly people now realize that. Please note that’s not me defending Jelly using the word, merely me reading the current 2025 culture.
August 20, 2025 @ 11:52 am
As I’ve said in some other comments, I acknowledge that the cultural “vibe shift” might play a minor role here in how these matters are handled. But I can’t imagine if Jason Aldean was found using the N-word three times on video that the media would absolutely ignore it, and that goes for really any prominent White dude. I’m just not buying that. Sure, certain outlets might forgo it these days. Many would still run with it. They would see the opportunity to take down a major country music star, unless they have so bought into the rehabilitated persona of Jelly Roll and helped build up that perception where they’re worried about cutting their own legs off by reporting this story. That’s what’s actually going on here. The media has been so instrumental and complicit in pushing the Jelly Roll narrative, they can’t bring themselves to hold him to account for anything.
Also, the media has not moved on from Morgan Wallen whatsoever. His alleged racism is still being brought up in media stories on a daily basis, including today. It was a big story after Hayley Williams released her song “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party” that calls out Morgan Wallen for being racist. The Morgan Wallen incident was arguably the biggest story in all of country since the Dixie Chicks scandal, and it’s still very much ongoing.
August 20, 2025 @ 2:40 pm
Isn’t causing controversy part of being an “artist” nowadays?
August 20, 2025 @ 6:24 pm
If you’re talentless it is,Steven.
August 21, 2025 @ 11:11 am
Oh my god offensive vowels and consonants say it aint so. fragile generation much?
August 21, 2025 @ 11:34 am
Or maybe … and just hear me out. Maybe, the offensive part is also the fact that one artist got eviscerated for saying a word, and another artist—who has already been roundly criticized as being in the media’s back pocket—doesn’t even have a single article written about it.
August 23, 2025 @ 11:07 am
THE PROBLEM: “Very similar to Morgan Wallen, this moment probably has much more to do with an individual very heavily influenced by hip-hop music speaking in the parlance of hip-hop.”
THE SOLUTION: The country genre should find some gatekeepers and self respect and stop allowing these guys to peddle their hip-hop/pop garbage in a genre in which they objectively don’t belong. Then, SCM and other legitimate country music media wouldn’t be forced to continue discussing the inanities of hip-hop culture. I don’t read any hip-hop media, but I’m guessing they don’t spend a lot of time covering Zach Top, just like I’m sure that Zach Top doesn’t get a lot spins on hip-hop radio.
That said, Trigger makes a good point in identifying the unequal media response to Jelly Roll and Wallen’s hip-hop-inspired verbal infractions. I enjoyed Wallen’s temporary cancellation and would similarly enjoy at least a temporary respite from Jelly Roll being, as Trigger says, “everywhere.”
August 25, 2025 @ 7:11 am
Can you imagine if there had been cameras and mikes everywhere back in Hank’s day?