Try That In A Small Town!

MAGA singer makes racial dog whistles in song.

Jason Aldean, a famed country music star is a staunch supporter of Washed Up 45. He and his wife Brittney have been known to attract controversy.

While in Cincinnati, he dismissed the allegations of racism and encouraged his fans and supporters to continue listening to his music video.

The musician's latest song has drawn backlash and fierce defense. 

The Republicans have rendered their agenda to the American people useless. So instead of building on the promises of lowering inflation, bringing down debt and focusing on principled conservatism, they revert to conspiracy theories and culture wars.

Alden releases a song called "Try That In A Small Town" and it received backlash. It was pulled from CMT after protests and some saying it has racial undertones.

The song was released May 18 of this year with the music video to accompany it dropping on July 14. The lyrics have been controversial as many have interpreted them as being pro-lynching, something that Aldean denied in a statement he shared on Twitter after learning his video was yanked from the country music cable channel.

Aldean is seen performing in the music video in front of a courthouse that was a site of a famous lynching as images are projected onto the facade of the building.

“As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91-where so many lost their lives- and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy,” he added. “NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”

“Try That in a Small Town” has lyrics that include, “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face, stomp on the flag and light it up, yeah, ya think you’re tough, well, try that in a small town, see how far ya make it down the road.” In another part of the song, Aldean sings, “got a gun that my granddad gave me, they say one day they’re gonna round up, well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck.”

Aldean said that the song “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 continued, “My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about.”

Other musicians have responded to the song. Sheryl Crow criticized both the song and Aldean on Twitter, claiming that "even people in small towns are sick of violence". She went on to accuse Aldean of "promoting violence" and state that the song "is not American or small town-like. It's just lame." Adeem the Artist recorded and posted on Twitter a parody titled "Sundown Town", satirizing the song's viewpoints: "we root for the cops to stop people like you". However, fellow country singer Travis Tritt wrote in support of Aldean that "IMO, this song isn’t promoting violence as some have suggested", and that it represents the viewpoint of many Americans who are opposed to the escalating violence of certain activist groups. In more support for Aldean, singer Parker McCollum retweeted a post, originally by political commentator Matt Walsh, highlighting the hypocrisy of those who say the song promotes violence while being silent when "nearly every rap song for the past 30 years has directly and enthusiastically glorified murder, drug dealing, robbery and every other violent crime".

Responding to criticism, Aldean wrote on Twitter that the song "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." Of the video, he said, "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."

Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley began playing the song at their campaign events, with Ramaswamy saying he wanted to help get it to number one on the Billboard chart.