Song Review – Yelawolf’s “Shadows” feat. Joshua Hedley
“Country music artists talking about, ‘I’m in VIP. Shake it for me.’ Shit like that. It’s bad man.” — Yelawolf
Halloween is the holiday where we turn fear and horror into fun. But for so many, especially in the forgotten and abandoned backwaters of the crumbling American South, it’s Halloween every day, particularly for youth surrounded by addiction and violence, who are thrusted prematurely into the adult world and ironically find themselves as the most mature and responsible individual they know—the only compass pointing towards right and wrong in a sideways and devolving reality being the one instilled in them by birth.
Many youth never escape this cycle of poverty and addiction, slowly succumbing to the bad habits they’re exposed to from impressional ages to the point where they can’t see right for wrong anymore through the layers of habitual behavior placed upon them, stifling the audience with their moral compass until they become the perpetrators of bad examples to their own children.
Yelawolf’s last album Love Story was a hip-hop record that employed strong influences of country music into the mix, and created a model for how country and rap could actually interact and not result in an acrid experience by watering down both influences instead of enhancing them through the combined inertia of sister narratives. Of course the “country + rap = crap” crowd will never completely acknowledge this exercise could ever result in a sum positive, but unlike Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean, Yelawolf is not claiming to be performing country. This is hip-hop that happens to include country in its cadre, and the result could be catastrophic for stadium country by showing folks how this conjoining can be accomplished creatively.
With the first two songs off of Yelawof’s impending new record Trial By Fire, he proves that his fusion of rap and country wasn’t just a one-off affair on Love Story, but is the style he wants to establish his legacy around. The first song “Daylight” frankly illustrated the weakness of Yelawolf and hip-hop in general in how it leans too heavily on self-referential, and self-ingratiating chest pounding that has no place in any music of class, despite whatever creative accolades the performance deserves. But his second effort “Shadows” finds Yelawolf getting back to the heart of what made Love Story so compelling, ripping its narrative straight from Yelawolf’s own experience, and articulating it in a manner that is so authentic it’s hard not to succumb to the pull of it regardless of genre allegiances.
Helping Yelawolf in this effort is the criminally overlooked talents of Joshua Hedley—a mainstay of the lower Broadway honky-tonk scene in Nashville, and a regular collaborator with many of east Nashville’s best and brightest. Contributing the country chorus to “Shadows,” this adds yet another element of authenticity and talent to the track, and points the listener’s nose in the direction of understanding that societal breakdown and its effect on youth is not just a rural or urban problem, or a black or white problem, but an epidemic that can affect any area or individual where the safety net has been stripped away, often through the infection of addiction which in recent years has become the greatest killer of us all, even overtaking automobile accidents.
Yelawolf was one of the few that escaped the cycle of poverty, addiction, and violence, and now through little help from the mainstream industry, has constructed an independent empire. He was one of the few who learned from the mistakes of his caretakers, but only due to the self-awareness that broke through the layers of learned behavior when he saw himself becoming one of the same monsters he was so scared of in his youth, while his tattoos and scars prove his story isn’t just vicarious escapism, but the tales of someone who was the victim, like so many youth, of living through a Halloween nightmare every day perpetrated by the people who were supposed to protect him.
READ – Yelawolf on Mixing Hip-Hop with Mainstream Country: “It’s Bad Man.”
Memory is the human mechanism that helps us learn and grow, while also being a rich place of positive emotions through recollection. But for many, the mental scars they hold are their greatest burdens, and only through sheer willpower can they hope to break the cycle of bad choices that many times span generations.
BwareDWare94
October 30, 2016 @ 6:16 pm
I want to like Yelawolf because good hip hop is incredible, but I just have a hard time with his voice. I’m hoping it grows on me or I can adjust to it like people adjust to Geddy Lee’s voice.
Jed
October 30, 2016 @ 6:47 pm
I had the same experience with lil Wayne but after learning about his life story and hardships and then listening to the stories he tells his style grew on me. You might have the same experience with Yelawolf especially because Trigger so eloquently describes some of the life experiences that impact his song writing.
Sam Cody
October 30, 2016 @ 9:08 pm
I’ve been waiting 48 years for Geddy Lee’s voice to grown on me. I don’t see it happening anytime soon…
Trainwreck92
October 31, 2016 @ 2:54 pm
Same here, I like a few Rush songs, but the few I like are in spite of Geddy Lee’s voice, which is a shame because they are such talented musicians.
WestTexasRain
October 30, 2016 @ 7:16 pm
Yellawolf shows how country and rap mix should be done take notes Colt Ford. They should consider the country rap fusion Alternative Rap not country music.
JohnWayneTwitty
October 30, 2016 @ 10:07 pm
Colt Ford is an embarassment to music in general and, frankly, America
Blackwater
October 30, 2016 @ 8:49 pm
Giving this junk any due or anything like it is not “Saving Country Music”… and please spare me the flimsy arguments that it is.
Che
October 30, 2016 @ 9:03 pm
That’s some of the worst shit that I have heard in a long time.
Animalmuther
October 31, 2016 @ 7:42 am
I agree. I gave this garbage about a minute…and it was a strain. SCM should never try and conflate country and rap, if this review is in fact what they are stretching for. It works for rock sometimes (to wit, it is often speculated that the first “rap” song to hit the billboard charts was Aerosmiths “Walk this Way” back in the 70’s), but I digress. By trying to legitimize this C-Rap, SCM is going against its credo of trying to rescue country from the likes of Luke Bryan, Aldean, Upchurch and Colt Ford, purveyors of Bro Country and the Neo Outlaw Country (Waylon and Tompall are rolling in their graves).
Trigger
October 31, 2016 @ 8:09 am
You know, I would hope that the 300-400 articles I have published on this website specifically criticizing the confluence of country and rap would at least buy me the patience from readers to say, “Okay, wait a second. If Trig is trying to tell us that Yelawolf is important, let’s at least trying to understand what he’s saying.”
The reason I’m not condoning country rap by highlighting this song is because it’s not country rap. It’s hip-hip, with country influences. That’s what I’m calling it, and that’s what Yelawolf is calling in. In fact, a song like this is a bigger affront to the popularity of country rap than all those 300-400 articles I’ve written in the past. Read Yelawolf’s own words on this matter, which I included and linked to in this review. Yelawolf feels obligated to help DESTROY the mixing of mainstream country and hip-hop coming from folks like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean. That is what he’s set out to do with his music. And this is why it’s germane to the effort to save country music.
I understand this is kind of a complex and convoluted issue. And I totally understand why some are looking at it a bit sideways coming from Saving Country Music. But folks have to just trust me a little bit here. I’m not even recommending anyone go out and listen to Yelawolf. All I’m saying is that it is important, and specifically to the country rap issue.
Slumerican
October 31, 2016 @ 10:51 am
Thing of it is…in all of Yelas awesomeness, Waylon Jennings grandson Struggle Jennings is one of the guys on tour with him. I got to experience this concert couple nights ago it was fucking gettin it! You have to understand Yelawolf and where he’s from. He’s truly an artist trying to bridge music that he/we grew up with and integrate it with hip hop.
BwareDWare94
November 2, 2016 @ 12:13 pm
You guys need to hear a collaboration that Jamey Johnson did years ago with an underground hip hop artist named Alexander King. It’s called “Orange Man” and you can find it through a google search. If that doesn’t convince you that country and hip hop can fuse into good music, if only as a one-off and not necessarily in an album format, then nothing will.
Phylli
October 30, 2016 @ 9:12 pm
I love all his music he’s fuckingettinit!!!!!!
JohnWayneTwitty
October 30, 2016 @ 10:03 pm
If you’re going to mash genres, do it THIS way, not the FGL, Luke Bryan, Chris Lane, Sam Hunt, Blake Shelton, et all way.
Of course, this song has real lyrics rather than “hey teenage drunk girl, ride my 40 year old dick on a tailgate in a cornfield” with a computer banjo playing a loop..
Eddie666
October 31, 2016 @ 12:29 am
Country and rap should never mix. They have nothing to do with each other. I don’t even consider rap to be music.
I’m sure it’s really new and creative for hipsters. But for me it’s just shit, that will not stand the test of time.
Elliot
October 31, 2016 @ 3:41 am
That’s just a close-minded response. Good rap, like good country, comes from pain and truth and when executed well can be great. like country today there is a lot of shitty generic rap but also like country there is a tremendous history (although not nearly as long) that includes tremendous music that encapsulates honest experiences that many can relate to. Good music, regardless of genre, makes you feel something real while listening to it. Yeah many people might not directly relate to the themes of rap it is just ridiculous to write off the genre as a whole.
Eddie666
October 31, 2016 @ 6:44 am
Yeah sure, it’s amazing, whatever. Let me put it this way; I can’t see them playing this at my local watering hole!!!
Elliot
October 31, 2016 @ 7:21 am
And that doesn’t in any way diminish rap. Just because one group of people don’t care for it doesn’t mean it’s any less of a genre.
Eddie666
October 31, 2016 @ 7:32 am
It’s called saving country music. If some metal band used a fiddle in a song, i stil wouldn’t call it country! Nothing against metal though! I grew up on the stuff. Up the irons!
Trigger
October 31, 2016 @ 7:50 am
Eddie666,
I’m not calling this country. Yelawolf is not calling this country. Josh Hedley is not calling this country. This is a hip-hop song. Yelawolf is a hip-hop artist. That’s why I didn’t give it a grade, because I’m not a hip-hop reviewer. The only people trying to call it country are the ones complaining about it. But I believe that Yelawolf’s music could have major implications in the country music space. To put it in perspective, we’ve been talking about all the influence Sturgill Simpson has had on mainstream country recently. Sturgill is struggling to get to 200,000 “likes” on Facebook. Yelawof has over 2 million, with no radio play either. This song/video got just as many views in 48 hours as the latest from Jason Aldean.
As Blackwater alluded to above, I’ve gone on lengthy diatribes of why Yelawolf is important to the effort to save country music, and I believe that very strongly. I also understand that this theory takes a lot of effort to understand the nuance and detail of the issue, and is probably not for everyone to sit and try to dissect. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have implications in country, or that anyone is calling this country.
Eddie666
October 31, 2016 @ 8:18 am
fair enough trigger, it’s your website, your rules, I ain’t going to agrue with you. Let’s agree to disagree then.
Jack Williams
October 31, 2016 @ 6:21 am
For Hipsters? Won’t stand the test of time? Rap been around for 40 years now. It’s only about 20 years younger than rock and roll. And it’s around the world.
Lil Dale (2015 savin country music comentar of the yeer)
October 31, 2016 @ 5:25 am
RAP. IS. CRAP.
Craig
October 31, 2016 @ 5:26 am
Contemporary rap is a muscular music developed by people who felt disempowered. It’s like a musical pit bull. You might get kicked around by pretty much everything on a daily basis, but when you’re walking with that pit bull people show some respect. Ten years ago I used to laugh at the local kids in the trucks with the lift kits and Dixie flags blasting DMX. My wife and I would joke about cognitive dissonance, but we’d also say that it was just a matter of time before an honest to God country musician began incorporating rap – not as a gimmick, but as a real musical device. Because there’s not much distance to travel between ‘the north end of a chicken flying south’ and Yelawolf’s post Love Story stuff. Nobody should be surprised that the ‘poor white’ element of the country genre that used to take the form of low comedy and sexual innuendo is now morphing into the vehicle of rap and hip-hop. People sing what they know, how they know.
I’m a country music traditionalist. As that, I have to admit that there is a traditional precedent for rap within the composition of the country music genre.
Yelawolf is an honest musician. He’s country white trash and he knows it and he sings it how he knows how to sing it. He knows that his roots are country but his upbringing is rap and metal. And like everyone else who thinks a little about who they are he’s trying to figure out how to be true to his roots and his upbringing at the same time. If he’s not your thing, fine, but he’s talented and honest and apples to apples he’s got as much musical talent as Strugill – and I believe that over time he and like artists will have a large influence on country music. Not to ‘take over’, but certainly to influence. A real argument can be made that a song like Shadows (and even ‘Daylight’, which I like better) is ‘traditional’ country.
Elliot
October 31, 2016 @ 7:25 am
Good music is good music, regardless of the genre. And it all comes from a place of truth which means that as long as a song is truthful to the artist that makes it, it can incorporate just about any genre of music and still be considered traditional as long as the artist stays truthful to themselves.
I don’t know if that makes sense but I don’t know how else to describe it
Kross
October 31, 2016 @ 6:06 am
no, just no
RD
October 31, 2016 @ 8:04 am
Rap or hip hop, or whatever you want to call it, is not fit for decent folks. If I come to know that a person listens to that garbage, at a minimum, I keep them at arm’s length and don’t let them around my kids. Generally, I excommunicate them from my life. Why not just go all the way and put disc in your lip or eat your neighbor?
Eddie666
October 31, 2016 @ 8:14 am
Haha, that’s made my day! I thought i was the only one!
JD
October 31, 2016 @ 10:52 am
Too bad your so small minded
Trainwreck92
October 31, 2016 @ 2:51 pm
Jesus Christ, your hatred of a genre of music always leaves me astounded, RD. Do you care to explain why listening to a certain genre of music makes a person unfit to be in your life? What makes you liken fans of rap to cannibalistic tribesmen? My guess would be deep-seated racism, but I don’t like to blindly accuse strangers on the internet of bigotry. It’s just music, man.
Jacob Ware
October 31, 2016 @ 5:50 pm
“Disc in your lip”, you won’t say that in public why say it here. As a general rule if your not man enough to say it to someone’s face but you’ll say in in secret, then you’re probably not “decent folks”. I don’t care about the musical comments, that’s just opinion. The racist shit though, you ain’t nothing but a punk.
Benny Lee
October 31, 2016 @ 8:33 am
Got through the whole song, which is more than I can say for most bro trash. Still don’t like it, but I can at least recognize something of substance is being attempted.
justin casey
October 31, 2016 @ 9:28 am
i love traditional country but i listen to a bit of everything from george strait to kendrick lamar i like quite a bit of yelawolf’s stuff (especially his last album love story) and this is ok i can see it growing on me
Charlie
October 31, 2016 @ 11:44 am
I don’t get it, but it’s not my leg you have to hump.
Corncaster
October 31, 2016 @ 1:26 pm
In an interview, Michael Atha (“Yelawolf”) said this about fatherhood:
“You begin to watch little bits of you start to grow out of your kids. That’s what a man is supposed to be. I’m separated, which makes things extremely difficult, but I’ll always be a good partner for my kids. People fuck up and let their woman determine the relationship with their kids. That’s a big problem.”
A “good partner for my kids.”
Trevor Curtis
November 1, 2016 @ 2:25 pm
Ya know, as someone who has two stepdaughters dealing with children whose fathers were not the right man for him, what exactly was the point of this quote? Don’t like him because of the style of music he plays, or something he says in the article? Good on you and your closemindedness. But I won’t pass judgement on someone because he didn’t use the right term in one sentence. And I agree with his sentence. Both of my stepdaughters kids don’t have relationships with the fathers because the shitheads won’t step up and at least try and help out or take care of things. If you’re living in the same town, and can’t help out with things like child care, food or money, then yeah, the woman gets to determine the relationship. Like Chris Titus says:step up or step aside.
Jacob Ware
October 31, 2016 @ 5:42 pm
If you listen to country music exclusively your gonna hate this song. But if you have eclectic tastes, it’s really a pretty good song. You may have created it (scm), but it wouldn’t exist in it’s its current form without the readers. This doesn’t belong on SCM and this is the stuff to avoid if we want to keep things moving in the direction they are going. Also it’s very obvious that yelawolfs rap Voice is very forced, not terrible but obviously not the way he was raised to speak.
I would like to apologize for personal attacks I have engaged in recently. This isn’t a personal thing. You are moving farther toward the middle and have made more than a few hypocritical statements. But your just a person, your not a musician, your not a novelist, your not an activist, your not the leader of a movement, your just some guy who liked Hank 3, and started a blog.
I apologize for believing you could be something more. When that CMT job comes around don’t think about us, just do what’s right for you.
Dennis
November 1, 2016 @ 10:18 am
I agree with Jacob. I think Trigger needs to get over himself.
We can’t be right all the time and I think he has missed the mark on this one.
Yelawolf has nothing to do with saving country music and there is really no way to justify that.
I wonder if Trigger and some of his followers know what real country music is.
I believe this will be the last time I visit this site…
Trigger
November 1, 2016 @ 12:05 pm
Dennis,
“Yelawolf has nothing to do with saving country music and there is really no way to justify that.”
I can understand why some would take this perspective, especially on this topic because of the complexity of it. But just understand that in my opinion, he has everything to do with saving country music.
I hope you continue reading.
And by the way, I’m a little perplexed why there isn’t more attention being paid to Josh Hedley’s involvement in this. I’m guessing that it’s because folks don’t know who Josh Hedley is. But I don’t see anyone in country music trying to rectify that.
Eddie666
November 1, 2016 @ 1:46 pm
I am very thankful to trigger for the website and the fantastic music he has introduced me to! I think you guys are to full on, you don’t have to like everything he reviews. It’s fun to discuss music and different tastes. So what if he’s into yelawolf, no one is perfect! Keep on rolling trigger, you’re doing a fine job!
PennsWoods
October 31, 2016 @ 8:17 pm
Have you seen this Vice article yet, trig? Came across it a few weeks back and saw you got a shout out. Unfortunately, the author doesn’t put the effort in to distinguish between yelawolf and hick hop. He even dismisses yelawolf’s attempts to draw a distinction. Yelawolf then called him a “kindergarten journalist” haha
http://www.vice.com/read/i-met-the-rappers-trying-to-legitimize-hick-hop-and-one-of-them-licked-me-v23n07
Trigger
October 31, 2016 @ 9:07 pm
No, I had not seen that. Thanks for the link. I did some stuff with the author of that article, Zach Goldbaum, for a Vice TV documentary that I think may come out later this year. We spoke specifically about Yelawolf and Mikel Knight. I did think he made a good point when he said, “Yelawolf is not a country rapper but instead a hip-hop artist who stands out in a crowded field by infusing his music with southern rock and stories about rural America.” That is also the point I’m trying to make, and the point Yelawolf is trying to make.
Folks have to know that when I post an article like this, I know there’s going to be blowback and misunderstanding. But as that Vice article speaks to, there’s something much much deeper going on here, and something that is affecting country and hip-hop in profound ways. Just like Bro-Country, the CMA’s, country radio, or anything else, we can sit back and flamethrow it and act like it doesn’t matter, which ultimately is a conceit. Or we can engage with it, attempt to understand it, and if necessary, attempt to either reform it or be a proactive force in the discussion about it. Not only do I think Yelawolf is doing something creative, I think he’s the most dangerous individual to country rap at the moment.
Dixie Sun
October 31, 2016 @ 8:55 pm
I’ve been to many live shows of all different genres, but the yelawolf show I recently went to was some of the most outlaw shit I’ve ever witnessed. Yelawolf may not be a country artist, but him and his band were the living embodiment of what outlaw country is. As someone who loves legit outlaw country it was refreshing to see. Never thought I would find that at a hip hop show. Good on Yelawolf.
musiccityman
October 31, 2016 @ 9:05 pm
Josh Hedley is a freakin AWESOME traditional singer/fiddle player. I hope he puts out his own EP or LP soon. Mite change some folks minds about the value of this Yelawolf collaberation.
Trevor Curtis
November 1, 2016 @ 2:38 pm
The people dissing Trigger for posting it are just as bad as the assholes booing Shooter Jennings at Warped Tour tne years ago. Shame it was an amazing show. How many country acts closing song has a theremin solo?
HITS In The Sticks
November 2, 2016 @ 1:33 pm
This is a interesting music fusion. “Shadows” is a pleasing song. Do you think that these kind of artist collaborations, regardless genre, are going to be a trend in future in Country Music?
Trigger
November 2, 2016 @ 1:57 pm
The trend already came and went. It was called “Bro-Country.”
Leonard Rice
November 7, 2016 @ 3:28 pm
Josh Hedley is the real deal -https://soundcloud.com/joshua-hedley-62208490/dont-waste-your-tears