If lyrics could kill.
A musician performing as Adeem the Artist left the internet in hysterics after posting a pithy parody of country superstar Jason Aldean’s divisive ditty “Try That in A Small Town” — a song that has come under fire for so-called “pro-lynching” lyrics.
The 35-year-old Knoxville, Tennessee, musician, whose real name is Adeem Maria, titled his takedown “Sundown Town.” He annihilates Aldean’s anthem with cutting lines such as: “We got no protests or civil unrest/Never took no goddamn COVID test and we can all read but we don’t do it/Driving trucks valued higher than a new Corvette/Yeah, we all wear boots and we love to shoot and we move for the cops to stop people like you.”
Aldean’s original has taken a brutal beating from online critics for allegedly promoting racism and violence.
The troublesome tune was released in May, but was thrust into the spotlight after the recent release of its music video.
The “Small Town” video features footage from BLM demonstrations and other protests, and depicts Aldean posing in front of an American flag draped over the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee.
The city is known for a 1946 race riot that almost resulted in the death of Thurgood Marshall, later the first black Supreme Court justice, and for the 1927 lynching of 18-year-old Henry Choate.
Parodist Maria isn’t the first artist to clap back at the controversial crooner, who’s been condemned by celebrities including country icon Sheryl Crow and the hosts of “The View” — with Sunny Hostin going so far as to accuse Aldean of embracing “KKK”-esque imagery.
Meanwhile, social media users have been calling the country singer a “violent bigot” and a “a racist who writes barely concealed lynching songs.”
“Small Town” was even pulled from Country Music Television amid the virulent backlash.
The parody Maria posted to Twitter currently boasts over 385,000 views online. The artist also posted the song to TikTok,
“Please share it around & enjoy! I love COUNTRY MUSIC! & how inclusive it is,” he snarks in his tweet.
“Now it’s true that I am ignorant on most of this, a couple folks for some reason called me a bigot” Maria sings in his country lilt. “Better never, ever let the sun go down … or the guns come out.”
Aldean has since defended his creation, writing in an Instagram story: “In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.
“There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it — and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage — and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music — this one goes too far,” the “Dirt Road Anthem” singer added.
“‘Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences,” he went on.
BBR Music labelmate Blanco Brown came to his colleague’s defense yesterday, Billboard reported, tweeting to fans that he doesn’t believe Aldean is a racist — just a bad songwriter.
“I hate the words to that song but I don’t believe he’s a racist, one of the first to check on me in my time of need!” Brown, referring to his 2020 motorcycle accident, tweeted.
“Just bad song writing,” Brown added.
Other defenders have called the outcry hypocritical, observing that critics regularly celebrate rap and hip-hop music, genres often accused of glorifying violence and mistreatment of women.
“The left-wing outrage mob wants to convince you its motivation is to curb violent rhetoric wherever it stands, including in musical form, or else it will encourage real violence in our society,” wrote Post columnist Adam B. Coleman. “But if that’s true, why are they so muted when it comes to hip-hop music?”
He theorized, “They don’t say anything about hip-hop because they’re fine with the exaggerated imagery of black people being violent and proudly degenerate.”