Having broken into country music himself, Darius Rucker is opening up about Beyonce?'s last album Cowboy Carter. He's also opening up about racism in the genre.
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Speaking with USA Today, Rucker acknowledged that racism still exists in country music. However, he fired back against the narrative that most of the genre is racist. Instead, Rucker says racism exists in country music because it exists throughout the United States. He said, "It's still around... you still see it some places and I don't think that's ever going to go away... It's still there — it's not as prevalent as it was. It's not, it's not the majority of country music, but it's still there." He added, "It's still there because it's still in America."
Rucker is a big fan of Beyonce?'s entry into country music. He said that she helped introduce many new fans to the genre who might not have otherwise been interested. Rucker said he can't undersell how big it is. He said, "Huge. It was so big. I mean, I can't express enough how big what she did was because she brought so many eyes to the to the genre."
Darius Rucker Talks Country Music
He continued, "One of the things I love about what Beyonce? did is when I started making country music and having hits, I'd have African American women and men come up to me and go 'I love country music. I could never say it until now you're playing and I can say it. And she brought I think even more eyes to the to the genre and more people looking at it and more Black people going alright man, 'I like country music.' I always say I want country music to look more like America and I think she did a lot to make it go that way."
Meanwhile, Beyonce? said that she developed her album because she didn't feel welcomed in the genre.
"It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history," she wrote. "The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. Act ii is a result of challenging myself and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work."
