History Main / CountryRap

* UrExample: This fusion has been traced back to before Hip Hop was even invented, as a lot of blues and country artists displayed vocal styles which were similar to rapping; in turn, various R&B and soul artists were influenced by country. One journalist traced the origins of Country Rap to Woody Guthrie. Some spoken-word songs by the Sons of the Pioneers also have rap-like elements, while Joe Tex (a soul artist who took some influence from country) is believed to have actually coined the term "rap" to describe his vocal style in the 1960s. Talking blues was another predecessor, as it involved half-spoken, half-sung vocal performances performed in rhyming couplets with a defined rhythm and a typically freeform and un-rhymed fifth line at the end of each bar over a minimalist but insistent backing track. Jerry Reed and Music/TheCharlieDanielsBand both released songs that were Ur-Examples to Country Rap. The term "country rap" itself is believed to have been coined by UGK to refer to their highly regional style of hip-hop that contained prominent gospel and blues elements and saw both of them rapping in a pronounced Texas drawl, though they ironically didn't have much actual country influence.

* UrExample: This fusion has been traced back to before Hip Hop was even invented, as a lot of blues and country artists displayed vocal styles which were similar to rapping; in turn, various R&B and soul artists were influenced by country. One journalist traced the origins of Country Rap to Woody Guthrie. Some spoken-word songs by the Sons of the Pioneers also have rap-like elements, while Joe Tex (a soul artist who took some influence from country) is believed to have actually coined the term "rap" to describe his vocal style in the 1960s. Talking blues was another predecessor, as it involved half-spoken, half-sung vocal performances performed in rhyming couplets with a defined rhythm and a typically freeform and un-rhymed fifth line at the end of each bar over a minimalist but insistent backing track. Jerry Reed and Music/TheCharlieDanielsBand both released songs that were UrExample's to Country Rap. The term "country rap" itself is believed to have been coined by UGK to refer to their highly regional style of hip-hop that contained prominent gospel and blues elements and saw both of them rapping in a pronounced Texas drawl, though they ironically didn't have much actual country influence.

This fusion has been traced back to before Hip Hop was even invented, as a lot of blues and country artists displayed vocal styles which were similar to rapping; in turn, various R&B and soul artists were influenced by country. One journalist traced the origins of Country Rap to Woody Guthrie. Some spoken-word songs by the Sons of the Pioneers also have rap-like elements, while Joe Tex (a soul artist who took some influence from country) is believed to have actually coined the term "rap" to describe his vocal style in the 1960s. Talking blues was another predecessor, as it involved half-spoken, half-sung vocal performances performed in rhyming couplets with a defined rhythm and a typically freeform and un-rhymed fifth line at the end of each bar over a minimalist but insistent backing track. The term "country rap" itself is believed to have been coined by UGK to refer to their highly regional style of hip-hop that contained prominent gospel and blues elements and saw both of them rapping in a pronounced Texas drawl, though they ironically didn't have much actual country influence.

* Music/LilNasX

* Music/{{Yelawolf}} -- also Hip Hop, RapRock and Country Rap

* Music/BlancoBrown, scored a top 20 hit in 2019 with "The Git Up".
* Music/{{Boondox}}, crossed with {{Horrorcore}} and RapRock
* Music/CowboyTroy, including his guest raps with Big and Rich

* Music/{{Yelawolf}}'s style tends to be a mix of Hip Hop, RapRock and Country Rap

* Music/BubbaSparxxx, particularly his hit single "Ugly", is considered one of the major inspirations of the modern Country Rap scene. It's worth noting that Bubba considers himself straight Hip Hop, and is not particularly a fan of the Country Rap scene in general, to the point of requesting not to be associated with it.
* Music/ColtFord

* Music/StitchMouth

* Music/{{Beyonce}}'s ''Music/CowboyCarter'' album is a Country album that bounces from pure Country to Country Rap, along with other genre mashups.

* Music/{{Boondox}}, crossed with {{horrorcore}}

* Music/BubbaSparxxx, particularly his hit single "Ugly", is considered one of the major inspirations of the modern country rap scene. It's worth noting that Bubba considers himself straight hip hop, and is not particularly a fan of the country rap scene in general, to the point of requesting not to be associated with it.

* Music/{{Yelawolf}}

* Music/FroggyFresh

* Music/NappyRoots
* Music/{{Nelly}} has been dabbling with this genre since his debut, and released a Country Rap EP in 2021.

* The Bellamy Brothers' 1987 single "Country Rap," which coincidentally shares its name with this trope. The song just missed the top 30 of the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles chart, and was just one way brothers Howard and David experimented with other styles and genres in their music; for instance, "Get into Reggae Cowboy" -- which used (guess what) reggae as its main beat -- became a top 20 country hit in 1982.

* Music/KidRock [[GenreMashup mixed]] this with other fusions.

* Country singer Music/NealMcCoy recorded a hip-hop version of ''Film/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' theme song for TheMovie.

* Music/SnoopDogg recorded a CountryRap called "My Medicine". It featured guest vocals by Music/WillieNelson and production by [[Music/HouseOfPain Everlast]].
* Music/TobyKeith's singles "Getcha Some" and "I Wanna Talk About Me" are examples, keeping country instrumentation but using quick, spoken lyrics.
* Music/JasonAldean's "Dirt Road Anthem" is a cover of a song co-written by Colt Ford. Yes, it keeps the rap part intact. And Jason took it to the extreme by remixing it with Ludacris.
** "The Only Way I Know", which features Music/EricChurch and Music/LukeBryan, is also a borderline example.
* While not a direct example, Montgomery Gentry's "If You Ever Stop Loving Me" has a turntable scratch in it.
* Some people argue that Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" was the first rap song. Think about it.
** Predated by CDB's "Uneasy Rider", which is ''entirely'' spoken with just a musical background as opposed to alternating sung/spoken parts.
** CDB ''loved'' this trope; other examples are "Legend of Wooly Swamp" and "Film/StrokerAce".
* Oddly, you can make a case that HollywoodCB country novelty hits from TheSeventies count as early examples of rap. Music/CWMcCall ("Film/{{Convoy}}") and Cledus Maggard ("The White Knight") both sustained minor careers centered on spoken pieces set to country music.
* Creator/TimWilson played it for laughs on "Hillbilly Homeboy".
* Music/BrotherAli's "Uncle Sam Goddamn" has a blues-influenced beat that helps it [[MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting criticize the U.S. government]] for its involvement in the slave and the crack cocaine trade and for its failure to provide for the poor.
* "Ready Set Roll" by Chase Rice has a rapid-fire rap in the second verse and overall strong hip-hop beat.
* Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine do some rapping in the second verse of "This Is How We Roll".
* Music/CledusTJudd has "Gone Funky", a parody of Music/AlanJackson's "Gone Country" that has three displaced country artists turning to rap (basically making it an inversion of the original). The chorus has a rap production to it as well.
* Travis Shredd is a Seattle area band that started when a music teacher was dared to mix country, metal, and rap. The novelty act has such songs as "Neighbor of the Beast" (about Satan living in the next trailer over in the trailer park) and "My Ex-wife's Lawyer is the Antichrist."

* Speaking of Music/JohnnyCash, he dabbled in this sometimes. One of his most famous songs was the novelty country rap song "A Boy Named Sue". A few years later he did a CoverVersion of a Joe Tex spoken word piece ("Look at Them Beans").
* There's also Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
* Music/JerryReed's music often had him just talking his way through the song, starting with his first Top 40 country hit, 1967's "Tupelo Mississippi Flash", and exemplified by his biggest hit, "When You're Hot, You're Hot" in 1971, which had a very R&B-influenced drum part.
* Hot Rod Lincoln is a very famous country rap song originally recorded by Charley Ryan and the Livingston Bros., but [[CoveredUp made famous by]] Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen[[note]]This was actually the second time it was covered. The first time was when Johnny Bond recorded the song.[[/note]]
* Music/TheMostUnwantedSong features an opera singer rapping about Western themes
--> ''Yo, yo, I'm a cowboy now''
* Music/LilNasX's 2019 viral hit "Old Town Road" became controversial due to ''Billboard'' choosing to pull it off the Hot Country Singles chart (and related component charts) after determining that it did not meet the requirements for the genre.
** Had "Old Town Road" continued to be allowed to chart country, speculation was that the song would have reached No. 1, after a remix featuring vocals from Billy Ray Cyrus charted in its one-and-only week at No. 19. Had that happened, several longstanding chart records would have been broken, namely that Lil Nas X would have become the youngest solo male artist, at 19 years and 11 months, to have a No. 1 on the chart (beating out Hunter Hayes, who at 21 years old set the record with "Wanted" in 2012). Also, the song would have become the first to top all three of ''Billboard'''s major charts -- Hot 100, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Country Songs -- since the Everly Brothers' "Bird Dog" in 1958, and given Cyrus his first No. 1 song (albeit as a featured artist) in nearly 27 years (after "Achy-Breaky Heart" topped the chart in 1992). While the version that would have gone to No. 1 (the Cyrus remix) clocked in at 2:37, the original version was just 1:53, and only a handful of country songs that reached No. 1 are shorter. [[note]](Incidentally, the last song to go No. 1 that ran less than 2 minutes was 1974's "That's the Way Love Goes" by Johnny Rodriguez.)[[/note]] As it was, "Old Town Road" became one of the first songs to gain widespread acceptance by audiences from hip-hop/R&B, country and mainstream pop music in more than 30 years; one of the last examples beforehand was country singer Earl Thomas Conley's duet with Anita Pointer (of the R&B group the Pointer Sisters) on "Too Many Times" in 1986.
* While not normally considered an artist ''in'' the genre, Music/{{Eminem}}'s white-trash Americana theming has led him to do more than a few songs in this genre. These range from the more SpaghettiWestern-style country like "Bad Meets Evil", "Bad Guys Always Die" and "Marshall Mathers", to parodic CircusSynths hoedowns like "Square Dance" and "We Made You", and bluesy country-rock like "Desperation", "Beautiful" and "Role Model".
* Yelawolf, a protégé of the above-mentioned Eminem.

Hip Hop and Country music have been fused in different variations since the 1980s - one of the more notable early efforts is The Music/BeastieBoys sampling from the ''Film/{{Deliverance}}'' soundtrack on their 1989 album ''Music/PaulsBoutique'', and Music/DeLaSoul using a sample from [[Music/GeorgeClinton Parliament]]'s "Little Ole Country Boy" for the chorus of "Potholes in My Lawn", in the same year. Some modern Country artists have incorporated Hip Hop influences into their music, and collaborated with popular rappers, and there are also artists devoted primarily or solely to Country Rap fusions.

* Music/BrotherAli's "Uncle Sam Goddamn" has a blues-influenced beat that helps it criticize the U.S. government for its involvement in the slave and the crack cocaine trade and for its failure to provide for the poor.

* Oddly, you can make a case that HollywoodCB country novelty hits from TheSeventies count as early examples of rap. C.W. [=McCall=] ("Film/{{Convoy}}") and Cledus Maggard ("The White Knight") both sustained minor careers centered on spoken pieces set to country music.

* Music/{{Nelly}} has been dabbling with this genre since teaming up with Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine at the beginning of TheNewTens, and released a Country Rap EP in 2021.

* [[Music/CWMcCall CW McCall]]'s "Film/{{Convoy}}" and "Wolf Creek Pass" are also arguably early examples of rap.

* While not normally considered an artist ''in'' the genre, Music/{{Eminem}}'s white-trash Americana theming has led him to do more than a few songs in this genre. These range from the more SpaghettiWestern-style country like "Bad Meets Evil", "Bad Guys Always Die" and "Marshall Mathers", to parodic CircusSynths hoedowns like "Square Dance" and "We Made You", bluesy country-rock like "Desperation" and "Beautiful".

* While not normally considered an artist ''in'' the genre, Music/{{Eminem}}'s white-trash Americana theming has led him to do more than a few songs in this genre. These range from the more SpaghettiWestern-style country like "Bad Meets Evil", "Bad Guys Always Die" and "Marshall Mathers", to parodic CircusSynths hoedowns like "Square Dance" and "We Made You", bluesy country-rock like "Desperation" and "Beautiful", and serious country-tinged ballads like "Love The Way You Lie" and "Stan".