BigXthaPlug Becomes Big Embarrassment for Country on His Release Day
On a stellar release day for country music that has seen Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country stun with Horizons, the welcomed return of Kathleen Edwards with her new album Billionaire, Asleep At The Wheel rekindle Western Swing gold with Riding High In Texas, along with releases from Will Hoge, Robert Jon & The Wreck, James Dupré and more, who is it that popular music media and country media specifically is obsessed over? It’s this felonious, garbage rapper BigXthaPlug, and his carpetbagging bullshit “country” album.
“BigXthaPlug Is Where Country Is Now. That’s a Good Thing,” is what Rolling Stone is declaring, like they have any clue what the hell is even happening in country music at the moment. And lo and behold, as elite media is praising this piece of shit to the hilt because they hate country and country fans—and believe BigXthaPlug will undermine country music’s core values—this dude is locked in the slammer once again on a weapons charge.
The already multiple-convicted BigXthaPlug is currently in jail in Dallas on unlawful possession of a firearm, as well as a weed charge. As far as the weed goes, screw that. Nobody should be arrested or detained for pot. But the rapper’s first run-in with the law was an aggravated robbery charge. Then he got arrested again in 2022 and violated his probation due to weapons charges and drugs. He was also arrested in February of this year for, you guessed it, having a illegal firearm and drugs.
This is the fourth time BigXthaPlug has been arrested on weapons charges, and the second time this year, along with the aggravated burglary charge. Morgan Wallen, eat your heart out. And so much for the “Oh, I found redemption through rap and country music” fallacy. The dude literally couldn’t make it an hour after the release of his dumb album without getting arrested for the same exact things he’s been arrest for twice previous.
What are we doing here? Why are we deeming that this is what country music needs? Why is this the guy we’re letting into the fold while so many much more deserving and actual country artists can’t get a crumb from this industry? Remember Lil Nas X and “Old Town Road”? He just got arrested for assaulting a police officer. This is a real great crowd we’re inviting into country music.
And no, this isn’t about BigXthaPlug being Black, or even being a rapper. We already have enough bad apples in country. As far as I’m concerned, BigXthaPlug can get the fuck out, and take Morgan Wallen, Gavin Adcock, and Jelly Roll with him. That’s right, Jelly Roll who just got exposed on camera using the N-Word three times, and the same assholes who are pushing BigXthaPlug as what country music needs to “evolve” are the same ones refusing to report on it, because once again, Jelly Roll fits their agenda of undermining country music by infiltrating it with “sonic diversity.”
“Oh but Trig, he’s from Texas!” Who gives a shit? So am I. That doesn’t somehow confer your bad rap the blessing of being deemed “country.” And yeah, it’s nauseating that Ella Langely is out there collaborating with him even though she’s supposed to be some traditional country maven, and Charley Crockett felt the need to defend his ass when twisting off on Morgan Wallen and Gavin Adcock.
“Yeah Trig, but Merle Haggard was a felon.” Yeah, but he was also country, and actually did rehabilitate himself. BigXthaPlug is a millionaire and can’t even figure out how to hire a fall guy for his piece and stash. Three times you’ve been arrested for this, THREE TIMES, after already being sent to the pokey as a kid?
And I’m sure the conspiracy theorists are already hypothesizing this is all a PR ruse to goose his album sales. But it’s too late. BigXthaPlug is already going to be getting nominated for CMA Awards and stuff. Country music couldn’t be giving him a bigger bear hug with a bunch of big stars appearing on his album. But guess what country music, you’re getting played, just like Jelly Roll who said on tape how proud he was to have “snuck in the back door on these bitches” in between the N-words.
On second though, let BigXthaPlug be a big superstar in mainstream country. Why not? Let him metastasize deep in the heart of the industry and eat their asshole out like a malignant tapeworm.
What an embarrassment all around.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:13 pm
The left sure love their drug mascots.
The industry is just rebranding “gangsta rap” as real “outlaw country.”
Meanwhile, liberals pearl clutch over Adcock’s reckless driving.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:47 pm
BigXthaPlug endorsed Trump for President, though I don’t take for granted the low information folks who are pushing him at major publications have no idea about this. They just like it because it’s not country.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:54 pm
Another comment with absolutely no discernible meaning whatsoever…
August 22, 2025 @ 2:43 pm
Hank, WTF is wrong with you?
August 22, 2025 @ 12:24 pm
I’m so baffled how this gets industry backing and many more traditional leaning artists like Ella, Darius, and Luke Combs line up to work with him, and yet super talented Chapel Hart remain on the sidelines. I personally welcome everyone to come and play country music, seeing they’re playing country music.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:35 pm
Darius needs face tattoos and a gun charge to advance in the industry.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:28 pm
There was an iconic Chinese restaurant in my area called The Great Wall for years. Actually it might still be around, I just don’t live as close as I used to. Anyway, another restaurant called Great Wall opened in a town not too far away. A friend of mine asked the original guy if he’d opened a second restaurant; he said he hadn’t, and that he would look into it because nobody else should be using that name so close to his restaurant.
Next time my friend was in there, the owner reported that he had investigated the new place, and that it was okay because his restaurant was called The Great Wall and the new place was called Great Wall Buffet. What seemed like a subtle difference to us was a huge difference to him.
I tell this story because I think it’s probably time to fully embrace the idea that country music as an art form and country music as an establishment entity are two very different things with similar names.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:21 pm
That is a wise observation, Tom. It’s the difference — in display across most genres — between two approaches:
The first’s foremost interest is in making profits from marketing whatever product sells to occupants of the lowest common denominator, which is to say those who don’t care about art and may not be entirely familiar with the concept. They’re just looking for earworms. That’s okay, of course, if that’s what you want. The other, smaller faction consists of those whose purpose is to generate music its colleagues and serious listeners will admire. Debate between the camps is bound to be futile, as we’ve just seen.
Not, of course, that the second group wouldn’t like to get rich if it could figure out how to do so and continue to live with itself. Wealth is just not an overriding ambition.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:56 pm
This discussion was broached in the article about Charley Crockett calling out Morgan Wallen and Gavin Adcock. It’s also why the Grammy’s new Best Traditional Album category is so critical.
Right now we’re living in two very distinct eras in country music. The first is one where there is unprecedented growth and appeal in traditional country, singer/songwriters, and more independent-oriented performers who are taking away massive market share from the mainstream.
Then on the other side, you have the mainstream that is removing all pretenses of what country is and what it’s supposed to be, and virtually ceasing attempting to develop talent from within. Instead, it’s importing talent from outside the genre like Post Malone and BigXthaPlug, and placing it at the very top of the genre. When the next chart comes out, this BigXthaPlug album will be #1 in country, beating Morgan Wallen. And it’s 100% a hip-hop album, at least when it comes to BigXthaPlug’s performances, and he’s 100% a hip-hop artist.
In 2023, story was the rise of the independent side of country, and mainstream country working to embrace those roots to keep up. Now we’re in a very serious moment of mainstream regression built off the rise of imported talent into the genre. It is a moment that is worth taking as seriously as Bro-Country.
It’s time to raise a black flag.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:44 pm
The music industry could care less about core values, morals or country music roots. They want money, and they’re more than happy to sell off what makes country good to the highest bidder. We all know this, it’s no surprise.
What is a surprise is the people backing these sorts of moves on country. We should be paying attention to them and the damage they are doing. Namely producers, writers and other musicians.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:58 pm
These cross-genre collaborations are cash cows, and that’s why they continue. But just like Bro-Country, when the music has little or no substance behind it, you’re setting yourself up for a massive crash and backlash, especially when you’re betting your future on someone like BigXthaPlug.
August 22, 2025 @ 12:48 pm
To my knowledge, I haven’t heard Wallen, Jelly Roll, Adcock, or BigXThaPlug or any of the others. This is a serious question. What is it about their music that supposedly makes it country? Is it the lyrics? Is there twang somewhere in the songs? Steel guitar or a fiddle? I just don’t get it. I guess I should listen, but I don’t want to do so. I expect unserious answers such as ‘’nothing’’ and jokes, and that’s okay, but serious answers. If they exist.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:14 pm
Doug, this is like trying to figure out the meaning of life. I hear ya brother. And it’s not just the 20-something’s that think this stuff is country. My sister spent hundreds of dollars taking her family of 5 (kids in their 20’s) to a Morgan Wallnut stadium show with no view of the stage. They watched the show on the video screen. And when they hear my speaker kicking out some Turnpike, all I get is – what is this awful hillbilly music? It’s like they live in an alternative universe. Yet they think WE live in the alternative universe.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:17 pm
That’s the thing. The only thing that makes it country music is the Industry and mass media telling us it is country music.
The more despairing thing is that the masses have not only accepted it as country music, they are eating it up.
The long term demonization and shaming of rural/non-urban culture and life –aided substantially by the financial wreckage wrought by globalization– has created an inferiority- complexing, white-guilting, self-loathing fan base for it.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:44 pm
I get that. It’s country because the artists and/or media say it is, but does their music have any elements at all that are of the country realm? I’ve read that the Beyonce song at least had a banjo. I’m not saying that makes it country, but at least it’s something. Haha! I like Caamp and they have a few songs with a banjo, but Caamp aren’t marketed as country. I’ll focus on just one of the many. Other than calling it country, is there anything, however minimal, about the XPlug guy’s music that is country?
August 22, 2025 @ 1:55 pm
If it was about the banjo and/or inclusion, Rhiannon Giddens would be getting airplay and probably (rightfully) be a mainstream country star.
August 22, 2025 @ 2:02 pm
This BigXthaPlug album symbolizes where a straight up hip-hop artist can release a straight up hip-hop album, include some country artist cameos on it, and it literally becomes something the entire industry embraces and pushes forward. The reason I included the Rolling Stone quote is because this is how the industry and the media look at it now: This IS country music right now. They’re declaring it. And unfortunately, there’s enough dupes out there that will believe it, embrace it, and champion it, because they’re being told that’s the right thing to do.
August 22, 2025 @ 2:50 pm
So it’s marketed as a country album because a few supposedly country artists share vocals on some tracks. Thank you. If I begrudgingly listen to the song with BigX and Luke Combs, I’ll get the idea, yes?
August 22, 2025 @ 12:54 pm
The whole “seperate the art from the artist” argument requires there to be actual art to begin with. Other than that I have no other comments. Totally agree.
August 22, 2025 @ 2:07 pm
A lot of folks on Facebook chirping, “Yeah but the Outlaws got arrested too.”
Maybe there’s a slight difference here on how they were actually playing country music, and this guy is playing hip-hop. George Jones was not celebrated for his errant ways in his era. “No Show Jones” wasn’t a term of endearment. But people put up with it because he had a one-in-a-million voice. BigXthaPlug is a hip-hop artist with multiplatinum records and millions of dollars before he even showed up to country. Why is this the guy the entire industry needs to embrace, with Luke Combs and Thomas Rhett appearing on his album? Like someone said above, why not do this for Chapel Heart, or hell, even for Ella Langley? Are hip-hop starts, and the hip-hop industry going to embrace a country star and push them to the top of their industry? How in God’s creation does this in any way benefit country music?
August 22, 2025 @ 2:18 pm
I don’t understand it. What befuddles me even more is that there seems to be a meritocracy in the rap world where soundcloud rappers can make it big from uploading their own songs and make millions. To me it all sounds like garbage indecipherable from the aspiring rap artists. As far as how it benefits Country music, my guess is that it gives the Country Music label industry control over a popular black artist which in turn gives them a slice of that market share and a feeling that they are being inclusive – in the same way the Joe Rogan and Kill Tony comedy sphere embraced David Lucas – a piss poor comedian.
Johnny Paycheck worked his criminal past into his recordings with the name ‘Paycheck’ for writing bad checks, and going to prison for a year ’11 Months and 29 Days’. His talent is obvious.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:20 pm
I predict there will be at least 100 comments here.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:23 pm
Trigger, what do you really think! OMG LMAO
August 22, 2025 @ 1:32 pm
Thought (six-nine,500-pound WWE “superstar”) Nelson “Viscera,” “Big Daddy V,”etc., Frazier,Jr. died Feb.18,2014 at age 43.WHO’S this porker ?
August 22, 2025 @ 1:34 pm
Plus,unlike Morgan (and apparently,Jelly Roll and some other Caucasian Country stars),Plugger can get away with saying the “N” word !!!!!!!!!!!!
August 22, 2025 @ 1:36 pm
Boy endorsed Forty-Five and Forty-Seven for President.NO WONDER Country accepts him !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 22, 2025 @ 1:38 pm
How ’bout letting ol’ boy here in ? I’m cover boy handsome (at age 72),can write good lyrics and have NEVER been arrested !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 22, 2025 @ 2:37 pm
Country music being “cool” in mainstream pop culture will last as long as all their other fads, which is to say not very. Then it will be uncool again the next buzzy thing will have to deal with this bs. I give it another 18 months.
August 22, 2025 @ 3:06 pm
Yeah, country music has veered off into “fads” before but a semblance of its previous identity remained. What we have now is not only any semblance, but all resemblance to what it has always been being systematically removed. A top-down insistence that this is the entirely new, and only acceptable identity.
I don’t believe you can look at this in the vacuum of musical trends (fads). There is something bigger, more global going on here.
August 22, 2025 @ 3:03 pm
Pretty pissed off about Ella making a fool out of me for a quick cash grab. I was one of the minority voices on here saying she’s going to be alright, good voice, pretty damn country, just needs to write better songs…. How was I supposed to know I should have said she just needs to not collab with a steaming pile of shit like this…..
August 22, 2025 @ 3:48 pm
A name like BigXthaPlug says it all.
No standards leads to these outcomes.
August 22, 2025 @ 3:58 pm
Ella doesn’t have any say in this.
Talk to her well meaning label, whom surely have her best interest at heart.
August 22, 2025 @ 4:05 pm
Whenever I see a headline that contains phrases like, “here’s why it’s a good thing” or “here’s why it matters”, I automatically assume the author is about to unload one of the most midwit takes you’ve ever read.
August 22, 2025 @ 4:21 pm
The thugs have arrived.