Oliver Anthony's viral hit "Rich Men South of Richmond" continues to inspire. And now it's crossing genres. An MC who is known on X as @TheMarineRapper was so moved by Anthony's song and universal lyrics, he put his own spin on it.

The boss has a video of our own dropping later today that echoes similar (editor's note: here it is), but this song is a reminder that contrary to what the media wants you to believe, it's not black vs white. It's elitists vs everyone else. Or, the rich men north of Richmond vs the middle-class men south of it.

Also, and I can't stress this enough, there need to be more acoustic guitar/singer-songwriter samples in hip-hop.

Lyrics:

This is for the women who birthed our,
Daughters and sons and they nurse our,
All of our family while we are traveling,
And trying to get our paychecks and work hard.

I don’t know how much longer I can take this,
Only looks like I got half of my paycheck,
How can I explain this all to a baby,
I know, I’ll read her this statement you gave me:,
Dear Mr. Lott, Know you’ve been working daily ’round the clock,
Gotta provide for the family you got,
But you laid off,
Sincerely, your boss,
PS I’m sorry.

Seeing how a passionate song can inspire another passionate song brings me to something I was thinking about over the weekend. John Rich (legit the reason I'm into country music) also does things on his own, and he dropped X about it.

This is why I hate when people say the "woke" music industry. The music industry is you, your guitar, and your hustle. Or in The Marine Rapper's case, his beat composer. It's a matter of naming your price. If you want billions of dollars and major stadium tours, then you may have to decide if not being allowed an opinion is a fair trade off. If you want to just make a living providing for your family by sharing music, f*ck the industry.

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard comes from Dave Chappelle's dad.

As Anthony says: "People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers. I don't want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don't want to play stadium shows, I don't want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they're being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bulls--t. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place."

Now we need to see Oliver Anthony and the Marine Rapper on stage together.

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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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