Country megastar Brad Paisley and the zany 40-something rapper/actor media mogul LL Cool J recently released the song “Accidental Racist" in which Paisley talks about his Confederate flag tee making him misunderstood, and in which LL Cool J raps “RIP Robert E. Lee / but I gotta thank Abraham Lincoln for freeing me”. Yes, it’s weird. Yes, it’s a boring song and as far as one can speak objectively about music, a bad song. But it also serves a perfect entry point to understand music, politics and that holy enigma: coolness. Because while the song deserves some derision for being musically bad, I think that country's perceived uncoolness allows us to unfairly attack the track on political grounds.
Most of the backlash directed towards Paisley and LL Cool J can be understood as falling into either an artistic realm or a political realm. The song sounds too twangy, drags on and Paisley should not try to croon like that. I understand the first type of criticism. But, says the Internet, Paisley and LL Cool J are also morally or ideologically bad for trying to “forget” the past, and Paisley specifically for playing the self-pitying white man with his new White Man’s Burden of guilt. I understand and agree with the first category of criticism but believe certainmedia outlets are too eager to attack the song on political grounds.
If we're concerned with ideology in music, there are some great anecdotes about the Ramones and friends dabbling in Nazi paraphernalia (one particularly salient example being Stiv Bators shaving a swastika into a fan’s pubic hair), and this illustrates well what Southern Pride is not about. Stiv, Dee Dee, Joey and Sid sought to cause a ruckus and upset the status quo by offending people. But Paisley so sincerely does not want to offend others. He imagines a world where he can be proud of his heritage without qualifications and explanations; it should be (in Paisley’s opinion) assumed that Dixie pride is a penchant for sweet tea and pick-up trucks, not nostalgia for the subjugation of black people.
Or, in a more contemporary vein, we can look at morality in the hip-hop tradition. Exactly 20 years ago, long before Macklemore’s brand of self-congratulatory progressivism came into vogue, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic was bumping misogyny and glorified violence through Walkmans and stereo systems across the nation. While certain tracks by certain artists (Common then, Kendrick Lamar now) can be seen as musically exposing the plight of the inner city, certain Dre songs, plenty of Eminem cuts and NWA tracks, knowingly spread immorality.
So I have to wonder how much the political backlash directed at Paisley and LL Cool J has to do with old-fashioned lameness. Young, urban, educated taste-makers tend to have only contempt and derision for country. But Lena Dunham and Tumblr and HuffPo are the last things on the mind of any country fan. There’s something liberating about that emphasis on relationships, gravel roads and warm summer nights. So before you deride Paisley for his good intentioned accidental racism, consider your opinion of punk rock and gangsta rap. While the punks intentionally appropriate Nazi imagery, and gangsta rap at the very least knowingly glorifies violence and misogyny, Paisley and Cool J are not only accidentally racist, but are trying to go out of their way to not be racist. Because the aesthetic "cool" of, say, punk or rap, shouldn't exempt it from the kind of criticism Paisley is taking.