Alabama-born artist and underground member of Eminem’s Shady Records, Yelawolf has been cutting out his own lane in the hip hop culture. As a white man with a southern accent, his music is very eclectic and features sounds and flows that belong to 2000’s rap, country, folk, rock, and R&B music. He found a way to take something from all of these genres to form what he dubs as either ‘trunk music’ or ‘Slumerican’, making projects mostly for the southern, poverty stricken demographic. As his style of music suggests, Yelawolf, at some points, seems to be confused about his own identity, and torn between creating songs for the streets and making songs for the ‘moonshine brewing’ backwoods.
A Real Artist
Say whatever you want about his music or ideals, but Yelawolf has spent his whole career bringing an element of craftsmanship to his work in a time of superficial music and ghostwriting teams. He started out by writing poetry at an early age and soon adapted his spoken word to be put over hip hop beats. His focus on lyricism and cadence caught the eye of the legend, Eminem, who signed him in 2011, and has been constantly evolving ever since. Each album tells a story of a different chapter in Yelawolf’s life. His early projects like , “Radioactive” and “Trunk Muzic 0-60” feature a verse-killing, almost ‘white-trash’ attitude, with later projects like “Love Story” and “Ghetto Cowboy” that feature emotional, introspective lyrics with some singing. A quote from him that best describes his role as an artist came from his song “Catfish Billy 2” and it states, “I am not making hip hop for the hip hop award shows or the Gram lights [Grammy’s].”
Disses From Within Shady Records
Recently, long time collaborator of Eminem and Yelawolf and voice of reason in the hip hop community, Royce Da 5’9, had some words for the artist regarding racism and his affiliation with Trump-supporting artists. In his single “Overcomer” with Westside Gunn, Royce calls Yelawolf a ‘culture vulture’ and raps, “Yelawolf this is your first and your last pass, I ain’t gon’ put it on blast, your punk ass know what this about, You think it’s ’bout being loud or tryna be hostile… ‘Till you get found face down on the ground outside of Kid Rock house, Though you a vulture pundit, I hope you get sober from this, Men lie, women lie, so do numbers…” He also added to that thought by stating, “We got some white people that come in and use that, and then go and do very evil things behind closed doors—very evil, racist things behind closed doors. They make comments and stuff like that.”
Recognizing a Hateful History
It is easy to classify Yelawolf as a racist because he’s a white, Alabama-native covered in tattoos who rides Harleys, aligns with Trump supporters, and used to rep the confederate flag. However, Yelawolf has done everything in his power to not be seen as a racist. After realizing what the confederate flag was actually viewed as, he released an eight minute free-verse called “To Whom It May Concern“, basically disowning the south and their use of the flag in an extremely passionate way. The song tells the story of how he wanted to reinvigorate the south from their darker past by adopting their symbols, but came to realize that its history was built on hate and should not be continued.
All in all, in this time of struggle and social revolt in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, Yelawolf can be seen as controversial to the cause, or another artist trying to bridge the gap white and black music.
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