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 23, 2025 @ 7:01 am
Hank is still having issues related to being denied the opportunity to be a walk on backup lineman at his local Junior College…
August 23, 2025 @ 7:51 am
That may be why Hank gives the expression “one-track mind” a bad name. By now we can only infer that he hasn’t cracked open a book since high school and that he has no hobbies to distract him from the SCM comments section. From a mountain of accumulated evidence, one learns that his interest in actual country and roots music comes in at a distant second. Can’t he find another venue for his non-stop far-right venting?
In the meantime, let us pray that he and the Plug guy don’t join forces over their shared adoration of the current occupant of the White House. The nation and the world have enough problems as it is.
August 23, 2025 @ 9:06 am
Censorship in UnAmerican.
Since the abolition of slavery in the USA rural agricultural work, and the culture around it, has been made largely taboo for black folks in which to participate. It is considered beneath them by the “educated” class.
Blacks were made “urban” as part of post Civil War Reconstruction. Farm work is described as too much like slavery, and blacks have been conditioned to associate the two.
Real Country music is part of the culture around rural and agricultural work. These black “country” rappers won’t be found herding, hunting, and farming so they won’t be recognized by the aforementioned culture as “real” country, only as interlopers at best; or at worst as politically motivated saboteurs
Of course the racially obverse occurs as well. There are many rural whites who reject the culture of agriculture as being backward or uneducated, and hence who move to cities and fashion their speech to become “educated” liberals who are then encouraged to champion urban rappers as being the real country music, if just to spite traditionalists.
Underlying all of this is the terrible Imperial crime of slavery, in which only one per cent of Americans participated. But it cannot be rectified by allowing urban rap to be classed as country music based on some idea that blacks first created country music and hence absolutely, racially embody and define it.
August 24, 2025 @ 7:11 am
Being charitable, I choose to believe that somebody who in most other circumstances communicates at barstool-ranter level actually composed these lines, which if dubiously founded at least constitute something like a coherent argument. Also, no surprise, a conspiracy theory with (yawn) “liberals” at its core.
SCM not being the place to hash over how many Americans owned slaves. I’ll observe that I did not bring up the subject, and I’ll be as succinct as possible responding to it. But I will first address the “only one percent” fantasy.
Outside the South, in all but four border states, slavery was illegal before the Civil War, so we can remove as irrelevant that part of the population (the majority who did not claim ownership over fellow human beings) from the counting. Inside Southern states, on the other hand, a typical family in the wealthiest one percent possessed at least 200 slaves. Slave ownership, however, was widespread even among poor whites, who often had one or more.
According to the Census of 1860, 30.8 percent of the free white residents of the Confederacy (or what shortly would be) claimed ownership over other human beings. The “one percent of all Americans” figure was the 1940s invention of Southern historian and sometime apologist Allan Nevins. At least Nevins acknowledges that the Southern economy was existentially dependent upon slavery. In other words, it was not just a detail of traditional Southern life.
It’s the music industry, as Trigger has shown, that’s sought to bring the likes of Trump supporter Plug Guy into the country arena. The good corporate conservatives in Music City are interested in one thing: the acquisition of massive profits, which is why mainstream country just gets worse and worse. Rolling Stone — far past its prime and influence, fortunately — is tied closely to the music industry, on which it counts for its continued existence. Its views on these matters should not be taken with the credulity and literal-mindedness we see in evidence here.
Beyond that, Black people have the right to create and consume whatever music they like, as they did with jazz, blues, bebop, r&b, and whatever else had white right-wingers clutching their pearls at the time. (Their contemporary commentary on these genres is alternately hilarious and horrifying, and identical to what we hear about hip-hop these days from their descendants.) As a lifelong, liberal-leaning fan, I hope that corporate greed doesn’t transform traditional country, one of America’s grand contributions to the world, into what it isn’t. If it does, it will be with the cooperation, I’m afraid, of much of the “country” fan base. Which has the right to embrace whatever it wants. I just won’t be listening.
August 24, 2025 @ 10:09 am
Shut up, Jerome. My post wasn’t directed at you. It was in response to JF.
If Trigger wasn’t such a little censor it would have appeared before you even commented.
August 24, 2025 @ 10:21 am
Hank 33,
You started this comments section off with a political comment, and you continue to leave political comments. I have said this over and over, and to you specifically: this is not a political website. It is a country music website. I am not the United States government. I can censor whoever the hell I want here. My goal is not to have to censor anyone. But when you repeatedly run through the stop sign, and very specifically veer the conversation away from music and towards politics, I am going to put a stop to it.
Please respect this comments section, this community, and this website.
August 24, 2025 @ 12:00 pm
Thanks for eventually posting my “salient points.”
You run a good site.
August 24, 2025 @ 6:46 am
The left have nothing to do it. Why do you have to make it political? I didn’t vote for Trump… and I can’t stand BigXthaButtPlug. The shit he puts out is horrible and he’s not even in the realm of country. Neither is anything JellyRoll puts out. It’s crazy that they’re both considered artists or musicians in general. Just listen to some Turnpike Troubadors or some Wreckless Kelly and stop blaming the left for your hurt feelings.
August 25, 2025 @ 5:13 pm
agree
August 24, 2025 @ 9:52 am
I’m on the left. It’s not a left/right thing. It’s a coastal/inland thing. This shit sucks ass.
August 25, 2025 @ 8:28 am
agree.
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 23, 2025 @ 7:03 am
Good point and it could apply to many other institutions around us…
August 23, 2025 @ 8:49 pm
…”country music as an art form and country music as an establishment entity are two very different things with similar names.”
You’re late. I’ve been saying this on here for 12 years. That’s the reason for “C(c)ountry”.
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 24, 2025 @ 10:51 am
“How in God’s creation does this in any way benefit country music?”
Trig, some people don’t believe there is such a thing now. In the past, country music was a bunch of “white crackers stealing black music to make money.” Some people want to continue to use that stick to beat whatever threatens a completely arbitrary concept of identity for person, country, or genre.
Moreover, this dude is a fat slob of a criminal is for that very reason useful because forcing him into a situation will humiliate and shame whoever is in that situation. It’s like someone forcing you to accept housing a violent criminal in your own home. You have no right to your own space, no right to define it. You have to be humiliated and to buckle.
So, tell them to eff off. And when they insult you, just tell them to eff off again. Repeat until they go bother someone else.
Sometimes institutions get corrupted beyond repair. When that happens, it’s time to move on, create new institutions, and leave the corrupted ones to die.
August 22, 2025 @ 1:20 pm
I predict there will be at least 100 comments here.
August 22, 2025 @ 7:47 pm
+1 for your handle. Wouldn’t mind some new tunes from ol’ Leroy right about now. Hell, I think I’ll lock up the joint, head home, and drop the needle on some Scumbag Country, in fact…
August 23, 2025 @ 1:30 pm
lol, yea, it’s good to encounter another Hellbound Glory fan online.
August 25, 2025 @ 8:30 am
10 more comments to go. 🙂
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 26, 2025 @ 12:03 am
Wait. im confused. Why did you bring up some random WWE guy?
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 @ 4:22 pm
The underlying purpose is to “cuck” a certain group.
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 @ 4:24 pm
Or how about “There’s a lot to unpack here so bear with me.”
August 22, 2025 @ 4:21 pm
The thugs have arrived.
August 22, 2025 @ 4:26 pm
Bill Clinton got impeached for having sex in the white house. Gary Hart got kicked out of the democratic party for cheating on his wife. Remember when morals use to mean something? Now, Trump is a 34 time convicted felon and liable of sexual assault, paid hush money to a porn star, and people don’t care. They say every one has baggage. Baggage?
Use to be that behavior like this was frowned upon but now it is totally acceptable. You were a disgrace to the public, but not now .
From our leaders to our entertainers, it seems it’s okay to do terrible things now . Saying racist slurs, bullying people who are different, spousal abuse, gun violence, no body seems to care anymore.
When children are getting killed and starving in another country and people only care about one side when both sides are doing the killing?
What happened to us? Some people always blame the left, some people blame the right, instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they blame someone else.
The me too movement? Dead, why because 1 woman just one lied about her abuse, and now all women are considered liars now
Does not matter who you are, cruelty and bad behavior seem to be the popular thing now, it’s just baggage, when many of those things used to be against the law. But now because everything is being called woke, Trump got rid of the suicide hotline for trans youths, and Magas love it. Biden kicked 750,000 poor people off food stamps.
This is humane and moral? But both sides fox news and rolling stone always blaming the other side when both sides are to blame. Our leaders, our entertainers, our athletes all do horrible things like rape and our society thinks if it someone they don’t like, they are scum, but if it is some one they do like, they say they are only human and look what the other side does
Instead of excusing bad behavior, we should be rejecting all of it. Does not matter who does it. This slime ball of this article should be thrown in jail. No body is perfect, we all make mistakes, but our country doesn’t seem to care about continuous horrible behavior because it’s the Magas owning the libs, or the libs owning the Magas.
This is why I hate politics. One side hating the other so much, that they will let their side get away with bad behavior, just to own the other side.
I saw a video on YouTube, where an old couple said Jesus could come back, but only if he came back legally. Not a joke, or how Jesus is too woke, why because He cares about poor people?
So many people complaining about morals where as these same people don’t even know what morals are.
We are a society going down hill and if we don’t start setting higher standards for people to be a better person, then this whole country will go to hell
August 22, 2025 @ 5:02 pm
Rolling Stone is a bigger problem than X 1 and 2. That malignant tumor is deliberately trying to destroy country because it doesn’t fit their worldview.
All country artists should say “fuck Rolling Stone” at least once during every show.
August 22, 2025 @ 11:36 pm
“All country artists should say “fuck Rolling Stone” at least once during every show. ”
Remove the word “country”.
Now:
All artists should say “fuck Rolling Stone” at least once during every show.
August 24, 2025 @ 2:13 am
Fine by me.
August 22, 2025 @ 6:00 pm
Full disclosure, I’ve not read Rolling Stone’s article because I’m not laying out money just to learn more about BigXthaplug. Before yesterday I’d never heard his name, but I just listened to a few songs since he keeps popping up. Quite frankly, I think this is mostly a nothing burger. No one thinks his collabs with country artists makes the songs actual country music. It is a distinct hybrid like Walk This Way back in the day. No one was calling that purely rock (or rap for that matter). The reality is that country pop fans who grew up on all kinds of music are willing to mix and match their music.
Fans of “pure country” should be madder at folks like Wallen who are trojan horsing hip hop into country and because they are white dudes with a twang, they get a pass by the mainstream. Jason Aldean rapping on Dirt Road Anthem (and other songs) is infinitely more embarrassing and alarming for country music than anything BigX seems to be doing 14 years later. BigX’s foray and mark on country music will pass, like Beyonce’s. But there are folks who swear Wallen is the second coming for country music. That’s the concern folks should be focusing on.
August 22, 2025 @ 6:49 pm
“No one thinks his collabs with country artists makes the songs actual country music.”
This is incorrect, and it’s not just Rolling Stone that is making this assessment. He already has a #1 song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with Bailey Zimmerman. Next week, this album will be #1 on the Billboard Country Album chart. For months there have been articles about BigXthaPlug’s big country move. The industry, much of the public, and most definitely the media all consider this a country album, and BigXthaPlug as a country artist. This is not being considered a hybrid. It might be a one-off, but that hasn’t been established yet.
And though I agree that if you’re complaining about hip-hop’s encroachment into country, you’re a hypocrite if you don’t also bring up Morgan Wallen. But frankly, that topic is tired. Most true country fans rail on Morgan Wallen as well. But as terrible as Morgan Wallen may be, at least he came up through the ranks of the country system. BigXthaPlug, Beyonce and others with massive careers and millions of dollars coming into the genre immediately makes it more difficult for all of country music’s dedicated performers to get the attention they deserve. A lot of great albums released in country today. None of them got a feature in Rolling Stone. BigXthaPlug did.
August 22, 2025 @ 8:02 pm
Country Music, just like our society, politics, morality, culture, and economy, went to hell a long time ago. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for the next Charley Pride isn’t going to save it.
August 22, 2025 @ 8:43 pm
I’m a huge Ashley Monroe fan and even I was suprised by how good her new album is?
Are “we” just gonna ignore this generational country music talent?
August 22, 2025 @ 11:56 pm
So now let’s relax. We breathe in and out deeply. We remember that Zach Top is releasing a new album next week, that the album will be very successful and that the small country music world will look completely different then.
August 23, 2025 @ 5:04 am
There is one thing I just don’t understand. Please help me understand. Why are they calling things like this country? This has nothing to do with country music. I made a huge mistake and checked it out and he is rapping. There are fake drum beats and a few people singing pop stuff, but this is rap. Not country!!!!!
August 23, 2025 @ 5:21 am
Two words to counter this whole debacle:
Support Ameripolitan.
Don’t feed the coffers of the mainstream pretenders!
August 23, 2025 @ 5:25 am
Some 50+ years ago, when the second “brit” wave hit America, a flood of rockers and popheads showed off the country influence; Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Dire Straits, even Eric Clapton.
And that was fine; they never called it country, or themselves country artists. They recorded the tunes as a homage to what they listened to on their way up.
Going back today, comparing songs like “You Wear It Well” (Rod Stewart) and albums like Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection to the current top 100 country songs, the flamboyant brit boys sounds closer to Ernest Tubb and Merle Haggard than what the likes of Jelly Roll, Wallen and ExtraButtPlug does.
Whenever I hear a modern country song, I admit I’m not aware of it. It sounds like any other crap they play. Once I had hopes for the likes of Ryan Adams, Dale Watson etc, but they either fucked up or turned into a parody, or both.
Those I do like these days (Brennen Leigh among them), isn’t even close to become a big star, sadly.
August 23, 2025 @ 7:01 am
Personally, I find it disgusting and repulsive that I constantly have to see this naked, fat, tattooed belly and these hanging, wobbly man tits on country sites, even here. Without warning – click and boom – another picture of this disgustingly fat belly.
August 23, 2025 @ 8:05 am
It’s not a country album but it is inspired by it. BigX said it himself to be mad 🙂
August 23, 2025 @ 8:07 am
Music genres are marketing genres.
“Country” according to Billboard just means a certain demographic that music is sold to. They like bro country, they like Morgan Wallen, they like the Applebee’s guy, they like Jelly Roll, they might even like Beyonce.
It’s not the demographic that reads this blog.
August 23, 2025 @ 8:52 am
Wait they’re marketing this as a country album? I assumed it was a rap album that just country features.
August 23, 2025 @ 9:02 am
Country is the only genre that disrespects it’s fans enough to try and pass these novelty crossovers off as genuine examples of actual music. Pat Boone did an album of metal covers but no one tried to convince actual metal fans that Pat Boone was a rock star and they should buy his stuff. Country radio will definitely push this guy like he’s the next johnny cash. Maybe there’s a small silver lining though? If this is what mainstream country is offering it will keep forcing people to shut the radio off and seek out something better. Still sucks though.
August 23, 2025 @ 10:34 am
I believe a big part of why things have gone the way they have is we have very few people who only listen to one genre these days. I know I don’t. Country is my favorite so in my mind I’ve compartmentalized the bands and artists i consider real country and if i find myself listening to Wallen or Adcock, i dont consider myself listening to country but just music i enjoy listening to. I’ve never heard of BigXthaplug or turned on country radio in close to a year but country radio and mainstream is it’s own genre to itself. Real country still stands alone
August 23, 2025 @ 11:33 am
BigXthaButtPlug!? Hwat?!?
August 23, 2025 @ 12:03 pm
“As far as I’m concerned, BigXthaPlug can get the fuck out, and take Morgan Wallen, Gavin Adcock, and Jelly Roll with him.”
Amen, brother.
August 25, 2025 @ 10:52 pm
And Billy Ray Cyrus, Little Nas X abd Beyoncé too.
August 23, 2025 @ 2:42 pm
BigXThaPlug puts the “Outlaw” in Outlaw Country !!!!!!!!
August 23, 2025 @ 3:23 pm
“On second thought, 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.”
Well put, I’ve been thinking and saying the same here for awhile now. Kind of an accelerationist view.
I’d be kind of curious to see a sort of worldview Venn diagram of:
-The people pushing this guy as country.
-The CEO of a certain restaurant chain currently in the news.
– The political party who is “confused” about gender.
– The average Rolling Stone employee or writer.
I think you get what I’m saying. Not trying to start a political argument , but I am saying there’s most likely some serious overlap.
August 23, 2025 @ 3:55 pm
When I see this no talent hacks name I can’t help but read it as BigxthaButtplug. He deserves no better.
August 23, 2025 @ 5:05 pm
What then, are we to make of Gangstagrass? Love this band, who blend bluegrass and hip hop and consistently make unique and quality music. I think they stand for the proposition that there is a space in country music for hip hop to be incorporated into songs, if it’s done the right way.
August 23, 2025 @ 7:27 pm
Definitely agree that artists should be allowed to collaborate and experiment across genre lines. Just don’t call something that’s more hip-hop than not country, and do it with heart, not by simply trying to appeal to this biggest possible audience and the least common denominator. This BigXthaPlug album is the worst of both worlds.
August 23, 2025 @ 5:22 pm
I cant stand jelly roll,adcock ,post malone and any rapper country with ur drum machine i mean colt ford was the worst and they all leave just cant wait till jelly roll and post malone sell their rented nudie suits and go the fuck on
August 23, 2025 @ 7:10 pm
At six-three,400 pounds,only weight lifters could give BigXThaPlug a bear hug !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 23, 2025 @ 7:58 pm
On the related note that none of this is actual country music – did you catch the interview Aaron Lewis did with Tucker recently? He had a lot to say about the state of the music industry and specifically country music that was spot on. Seeing this article after hearing that interview is case in point. I feel like country music is the last bastion and some are hell bent on destroying it and/or leaving it unrecognizable.
August 23, 2025 @ 9:50 pm
Perhaps someday, an amazing new artist will emerge who’ll truly bring together disparate musical elements and genres, and create a work of genius that’s so good, it unites casual fans and purists alike. And, ideally, this artist won’t have a really moronic name, like Bigpoppaxduhplug, or (God help us all) Jelly Roll.
Like the scourge of rap-metal in the 1990s, this “trap country” or whatever the hell they’re calling it, is a fad. It’s essentially novelty music, just heavily contrived crap aimed at milking the lucrative “country” market. None of it will last, and in just a few years, it’ll seem as dated as Florida Georgia Line does right now.
And I’ll tell you something else, music fans. If you’re playing along with this “traditionalist boomer racist gatekeepers” vs. “fresh new sounds trying to drag country out of the cotton fields” bit, the industry wins, because it’s exactly what they want you to be doing. Keep it front and center, turn it into a big story, move more units.
August 23, 2025 @ 10:21 pm
There’s an irony how during the Bro-Country era, the media outside country was mocking the genre for the shallow, vapid nature of the music. Writer Jody Rosen coined the phrase in New York Magazine while mocking it. Even sports commentators started criticizing it regularly.
Now for some reason it seems society at large is embracing this, throwing out the “gatekeeping” charge at anyone who dares criticize what’s happening. I believe the Beyonce release has conditioned a lot of otherwise intelligent music listeners to feel like anyone who wants to make “country” music is owed that courtesy. Because God forbid someone clap back at them on social media for “gatekeeping.”
August 24, 2025 @ 5:11 pm
You have to wonder why these artists and their management teams care about the country music charts in the first place. It’s almost as if that’s the entire point, to gatecrash the country charts and scoop up country music awards by utilizing various country music elements, and calling the resulting work “country music”, when it’s obviously not. And in that context, it’s impossible to not be cynical about it, and see it as merely being an attempt to cash in on a lucrative market.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s been going on since Eddie Cantor was packing them in. However, it is sort of distressing when genuine fans of the genre are being labeled as racist gatekeepers when they reject and critique these inauthentic attempts to “take over” their scene. Country music fans are a bloc of fans who still pay for music, and that fact is exactly why you see these genre-bending artists trying to make inroads into the market. And I can see why it triggers (no pun intended) resentment.
August 23, 2025 @ 10:12 pm
A-fucking-men. Say no more. Time to move on…
August 24, 2025 @ 4:31 am
Snoop Dogg could probably pull off a smooth country-pop ballad if he cared to, because he got talent.
These guys?
None at all.
August 24, 2025 @ 7:42 am
SCREW AARON LEWIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 24, 2025 @ 10:31 am
BigXthaPlug is a contemptible joke and, as far as I’m concerned, best ignored or silently boycotted. Seriously, who needs this crap.
August 24, 2025 @ 3:08 pm
After reading this takedown last night and some of the comments, I decided to give this dude’s album a try last night.
First, I’m not a hip-hop expert. I mean, I listen to what I listen to when I want to listen to hip-hop, which is the shit I listened to in high school and college…think Fugees, Dr. Dre and Snoop, Tupac & Biggie, Eminem, Outkast, etc. That said, what I heard last night is some of the most god awful shit I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t believe Darius Rucker and his talent would even think to pair with some no-talent ass clown like this. I don’t even care about the weapons charge and whatever other run-ins with the law he’s had, that’s practically irrelevant to me.
My two cents, not that anyone gives a shit:
Rock ‘n’ roll is pretty much dead. There’s no new great band out there that’s dominating the charts and pop culture the way Nirvana did. There’s a lot of legacy acts out there that still sell out arenas like Metallica but there’s no early version of Metallica that’s popular these days. The Black Keys released an album earlier this month, no one cared. No one cares about Jack White these days.
Rock is dead.
And hip-hop isn’t far behind it. Give it another 10-15 years, we’ll see where it is…but everything that’s been done has been done. The last great voice is Kendrick Lamar who is exiting his prime but still carries cultural clout that hardly any other rapper can these days. Beyonce isn’t rap, but she’s past her prime and needed a way to re-invent herself…where’d she turn? Even if it wasn’t a country album (I know, Trig, I know) all she needed was the illusion that it was in order to get attention and think pieces written. Why’d Jelly Roll all of a sudden turn country? I’m willing to bet he knew he couldn’t make it as a hip-hop artist…a bad rapper in a dying art form? No chance.
So what’s the last bastion of popular music where critics and people are flocking to because the other two genres are dead and dying?
Country. Americana. Whatever you want to call it.
People like Trigger that have been paying attention and journaling this know what’s transpired over the past 10-15 years, fighting against bro-country and fighting for real country music. I mean, look at the name of the site.
The sudden interlopers are trying to make things what they’re not and make connections to other forms of music in order to gain viewers and readers…and clicks. And I have no idea why Ella Langley would make a song with this guy, or Darius or anyone else, really. They’re all too talented and can stand on their own.
Anyway, that’s why I think country is having a bit of a moment these days and why acts like this dildo are reaching out to mingle with country in some way. There was a time when hip-hop artists could reach mainstream (white) audiences in some way…it was simple, MTV. You’d have a Nirvana video one minute and you’d have a Naughty By Nature video the next. A Metallica video followed by a Tupac video.
That doesn’t exist anymore and there’s no way for this guy to cross over…except releasing an album with a bunch of features. Now Ella Langley’s fans are gonna give this guy a spin because she’s on the track. There was no way for Beyonce to have another mainstream cultural moment without the country “gimmick.” There’s no way for Jelly Roll to become as big as he has become (insert puns here) without turning to country.
It’s sad and it sucks but it is what it is. But that’s probably the best thing about country, to me. Country has never wanted to be front stage and center on the Billboard 100…and while there certainly have been country artists that have been front stage and center in the American zeitgeist at times, country has never begged for it. Country, by and large, is happy to be off to the side doing it’s thing and welcoming of anyone who wants to given a listen.
There are some that are upset at the perception that Morgan Wallen is a representation for country these days and that’s certainly understandable. There’s no reason to like that guy or his music. But the real ones know and that’s fine.
As far as this BigXthaPlug album, it’s fucking dogshit.
August 24, 2025 @ 3:29 pm
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for your thoughts.
I was listening through the BigXthaPlug album when I saw the headline from Rolling Stone, chased by his recent arrest. I hate to expend more energy on it. But it really is so bad, it deserves its own dedicated review.
August 24, 2025 @ 3:43 pm
Trigger,
I dunno why I decided to write all that. Probably a good distraction from chores around the house. But thanks!
I listened up to through Ella Langley song and didn’t want to finish listening to the whole thing. It’s terrible.
August 25, 2025 @ 9:01 am
Yeah I agree with this. I also directly relate to seeing all those different genres on MTV and VH1 before high school in the early 00’s. Modern Country Music is the closest thing to past arena rock acts. It’s not a good sign for an artform if more and more popular acts like BigXthaPlug are gaining popularity because it’s anti-art. That whole trap rap, mumble rap or whatever it’s called is a dumbed down form of rap and is subversive and anti-art – much like Lou Reed and that anti-art rock of the past. For some reason people are relating to something that show zero signs of talent – maybe it’s because in their own delusional minds it’s because anyone could make it so it gives them false hope that they too could be something.
August 25, 2025 @ 11:07 pm
The beast treatise on music I’ve ever read. Thanks.
August 25, 2025 @ 12:09 am
While it’s great that BigX voted for Trump, and I get the author’s outrage….the real culprit are the Nashville LEFTWING POS aka the SUITS in Nashville that are pushing all of this. They don’t want white men in country. Country is the LAST GENRE for white men. You guys need to understand this. What happened to rock n roll? Oh that’s right, white men with toxic masculinity ruled, so the left kicked them to the curb, and we only get the horrible sjw’s like Taylor Swift, or worse the trans Ethel Cain, who really IS a white privileged wealthy male but he’s now a “transwoman” & is promoted over everyone else.
And no, not racist, hate racism, but we have to acknowledge that this is going on, so that’s why we had Beyonce, Lil Nas X, etc and so many trying to retain relvancy going with them, and none of them are country.
And there are great people of all ethnicities that do country music…btw…but still the INDUSTRY filled with commies will only promote crap.
August 25, 2025 @ 10:02 am
Though I understand the cynicism, most of the suits in Nashville are not left wing, they’re right wing. But most importantly, they’re bean counters. And by inviting someone like BigXthaPlug into the fold, they get more beans to count, no different than when they invite White folks into the fold like Post Malone or Bebe Rexha.
The suits on Music Row will do whatever they can to make themselves more money, full stop. Some people think they purposely keep women down because they’re misogynists. No, it’s a cynical, financial calculation based on the fact that men sell more.
August 25, 2025 @ 9:59 pm
Agreed, sensation makes profits. So maybe some of the “purist/conservative” readers here should lay blame at the “corporations” they bemoan instead. Corporations owned by private equity and foreign ownwership…the same people who are the antithesis of the “working class”….
August 25, 2025 @ 1:57 pm
Spoken like a true 12 year old.
August 25, 2025 @ 11:12 pm
Sure, the Big Private Equity and Foreigne Owned Corporations (you know, the ones blue collar conservative types rail about) are the ones pushing out this tripe, all to make profits. And speaking of ” corporate types”, our dear leader is one of them. So its not the “libs” you need to worry about. And BTW 49.9 vs 48.3 is NO mandate on the culture or values of this country.
August 26, 2025 @ 8:31 am
…got to answer “yes” to that friendly address of mr. bigxthaplug on the album cover. an experiment that turned out rather enjoyable overall. bailey zimmerman and mr. plug are a match made in heaven. since it’s been mentioned, kathleen edwards’ new album “billionaire” is making me even more happy. 2025 is still riding high when it comes to country…and then some.
August 26, 2025 @ 8:39 am
YES! Theres at least 100 comments now! My prediction came true