city Sundown: Celebs Rumors

annus horribilis like songs that promote xenophobia, racism or just overall divisiveness in the interest of trolling — so here’s a round of Fudge Rounds for strange bedfellows like Jason Aldean and Kanye West. But it’s understandable if you might think that the real scourge of the last year was the plague of songs built on lazy interpolations, which manage to ruin perfectly fine oldies as well as introduce fresh rottenness into the world.

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.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Reading between the lines of country superstar Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” has mostly been up to media commentators and social media participants so far, but one country/Americana singer has taken up the duty of writing a satirical number that spells out some of what Aldean’s critics believe are undertones implicit highly contentious hit. A criticism that has come Aldean’s way has been that the ominous language of “Try That in a Small Town” echoes the coded or uncoded threats that have historically been associated with the South’s “sundown towns” — places where, in the most dangerous eras of segregation, people of color and other outsiders were advised to get out of before dark. Now the singer known as Adeem the Artist has made that interpretation of Aldean’s “See how far ya get down the road” lyrics explicit with a parody song posted on social media called “Sundown Town.” (Hear the song embedded in the artist’s tweet, below.)

On Wednesday, Sundance Institute named the fellows selected for its 2021 Producers Lab and Summit.