Hip Hop Artist Jason Derulo Is Working on a “Big” Country Project
Hip hop/R&B artist Jason Derulo—known for such squalid hits as “Swalla” and “Get Ugly”—is working on a quote/unquote “big” country music project with a current country artist. This is the news coming from numerous sources, including Derulo himself who was accosted by TMZ at LAX earlier this week after rumors of the project surfaced.
“So I’m doing a country project,” Derulo confirmed. “I can’t announce exactly what it is yet. But I’m excited … I’m excited about it because I do love country music. I just won my first country music award. And I got the bug, man. I got the bug. So I’m doing a bigger project that I can’t mention what it is exactly yet … So it’s a project with me and another country act. So it’s not just me.”
The so-called country award Jason Derulo recently won was a CMT Award for Performance of the Year for “Want to Want Me” with Luke Bryan from a CMT Crossroads episode. Derulo has also worked with Thomas Rhett in the past, and is also said to be a part of Hank Williams Jr.’s Monday Night Football theme reboot.
For years Jason Derulo has been hinting he may do some work in country, but to hear the project is on the way, and way more than just a song or two is troubling for those concerned that the lines between country and other genres is becoming more blurred than ever before. With Sam Hunt’s decidedly not country-sounding summer anthem “Body Like a Backroad” becoming the longest-running #1 single in country music history, it opens up the possibility of even more performers migrating to the greener pastures of country from other genres, and not worrying if the music sounds country or not.
Obviously we’ll have to see just how “country” the Jason Derulo country project turns out to be, and who will be his chief collaborator. For all we know, it will be more country-sounding than most of what ends up on country radio. But it’s a bad precedent to let artists from other genres so easily waltz into country, especially if the music has no kinship to country’s roots. Thousands of country music artists struggle in obscurity throughout their careers with little recognition, and when a performer such as Jason Derulo arrives in the genre as a massive celebrity and is even bestowed industry awards, it steals the spotlight away from worthy artists needing attention to launch sustainable careers, including country music’s under-appreciated females.
You don’t see country artists winning hip hop awards.
Let the speculation begin of who Jason Derulo’s chief collaborator is.
Stringbuzz
August 3, 2017 @ 8:21 am
I’m thinking he’ll be on the new Sturgill album..
jtrpdx
August 3, 2017 @ 9:22 am
There is a new Sturgill album?
Someguy
August 3, 2017 @ 6:46 pm
He said he had “new shit coming out” at the show I saw last month.
albert
August 4, 2017 @ 3:00 pm
” new shit coming out ” ……it usually is
Stork
August 4, 2017 @ 5:19 am
I think sturgill’s new album may have pop sensibilities. He’s been covering Rihanna’s “desperado” on the road and it’s actually pretty good. Who knows if it includes Jason Derulo, but I wouldn’t be surprised anymore.
Mark Grondin
August 3, 2017 @ 8:23 am
This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest for two main reasons. One, Jason Derulo actually has put his toe in pop country before on his last album ‘Everything Is 4’, where for some reason he got Keith Urban and Stevie Wonder on the same song (it did not turn out well, as if the obvious needed to be stated).
And two, Jason Derulo is widely considered one of the more experimental mainstream R&B acts right now – he has a bad habit of throwing plenty of genres and sounds at the wall and seeing whatever manages to stick. Frankly, I’d be more surprised if he managed any sort of cohesion on a pure country sound before diving into something else, which means I’m much of a mind to wait and see what happens here.
Hell, I’d put more money on Kesha having country cuts on her album next week than Jason Derulo – and at least there’s some evidence she knows roughly she’s doing in the genre.
Jack
August 3, 2017 @ 4:03 pm
I’m not the biggest fan of Kesha but I thought I’d point out that she actually does have a country song on her next album. I can’t remember the name of the song but her mother (a country songwriter) wrote it and Kesha is recording it as a duet with Dolly Parton
Jake
August 4, 2017 @ 5:56 am
I believe the song is going to be “Old Flames Can’t Hold A Candle To You.” Kesha’s mother wrote the song and Dolly recorded it for an album back in 1980. Interesting to see how they will work the duet with Dolly in there and what country elements ultimately make it to Kesha’s version.
Joel
August 7, 2017 @ 7:49 pm
Wonder no longer, this is the version she released back in the day. I’m sure it will be remixed a bit though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcRe79l4ifo
bamstrait
August 3, 2017 @ 8:24 am
He will definitely revolutionize country music. It will be as though everything leading up to this point will be forgotten. George Jones, Johnny, Hank, George Strait; they will all fade in to darkness. Never will a country music star shine brighter than Jason. He will have his own wing in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
How will I ever sleep waiting for this to happen.
Cilla
August 3, 2017 @ 8:32 am
STOP the madness. Keep asking when COUNTRY MUSIC gets to be COUNTRY MUSIC in the 21st century. More Pop Country WILL NOT help this Genre! Jason Derulo doesn’t get played on hip-hop or straight up R&B radio. He is a pop artist who wants SAM HUNT status. LMOL. STOP THE MADNESS.
Phil Oxford
August 3, 2017 @ 8:45 am
Obviously we can’t judge this until we hear it, but I’ll say this on a more general note … I’m sick and tired of country music being everybody’s bitch. It’s almost like these ignorant interlopers view a country project in the same way they do an acoustic album.
Brett
August 3, 2017 @ 8:46 am
Country music has officially been saved! The answer has been right there all along. Can’t wait to hear artists singing their own names in auto-tune before each song.
I miss Stevie Gaines
August 3, 2017 @ 8:46 am
Wondering if this squalid hit maker will have any lap or pedal steel on the big project? “giggle snort”
albert
August 3, 2017 @ 9:01 am
….as the great Bill Monroe once said ..” That ain’t no part of nuthin’ ”
hell ….ever since Taylor Swift was called a country artist nothing should surprise us about anything that happens in the music biz.
I will say this . There was a time when you could turn on commercial AM radio stations and hear Kenny Rogers , Joni Mitchell , The Bee Gees , The Four Tops , Dianna Ross , John Cash ,Hall and Oates , Steely Dan , Bruce , Journey and John Denver ….ALL ON THE SAME STATION ! The difference of course is that these artists weren’t trying to be each other. They each had a defined
style/genre they worked in and radio not only respected but embraced that fact .
Now it seems that everyone wants to imitate someone from another genre…particularly the mainstream country performers . This trend , as we’ve witnessed , breeds musical mediocrity and the watered down ‘product’ we hear today . It seems that desperation and a lack of creative vision have become the defining characteristics of much popular culture from movies to presidents… but specifically music and its peddlers . And that , of course , as our friend Donald would say ,is truly ..sad !
The Senator
August 3, 2017 @ 10:26 am
Phenomenal post. One can be musically cosmopolitan without losing their own identity and ideals.
The people who run the corporate monogenre would prefer to mass produce indistinguishable, disposable nothingness they can promote and cycle out on a timed schedule, though.
albert
August 3, 2017 @ 4:28 pm
I think the real mystery is ….why would anyone with any degree of cred/success in any other genre even think about crawling into the cesspool ( a sewage reservoir usually underground ) that is mainstream ‘ country ‘ music right now ? The fact that they might want to is an unabashed cry for help is it not ? ( I’m looking at you Steven Tyler ) . The easy answer , of course , is $$$$ . But is there really any serious $$$$ in ‘ country ‘ music if your name isn’t Stapleton or Hunt ?
Stringbuzz
August 4, 2017 @ 7:48 am
Eric Church last take, was over $25M this year.
albert
August 4, 2017 @ 12:09 pm
….sign me up ….where do I start bro-in’ ?
Dennixx
August 3, 2017 @ 9:30 am
Well, this should save country music.
I will call it country rap or CRAP for short.
Jon
August 3, 2017 @ 3:47 pm
You would have been on the cutting edge in maybe 2005 with that joke.
But it’s still not wrong.
Charlie
August 3, 2017 @ 9:35 am
It’s just something else I don’t have to listen to. I’m over being outraged at shit like this. There’s just too much cash swirling around Nashville to think that every asshole with a refurb Macbook and a bootleg copy of Fruity Loops won’t get swept up in it.
Kevin Smith
August 3, 2017 @ 9:39 am
Well one thing for sure, it’ll give Trigger lots of rich material to grouse about. And you think country music is misogynistic now.Maybe Derulo will team up with David Allan Coe and they can explore a ” country ” version of Swalla!
l
Tom
August 3, 2017 @ 9:48 am
Jason can fuck off
A.K.A. City
August 3, 2017 @ 10:00 am
Jason Derulo is a pop artist. Definitely not hip-hop, and while some of his songs are in R&B style, he is a most accurately described as “pop.” Given that, it’s natural for him to collaborate with other pop artists such as Sam Hunt.
gtrman86
August 3, 2017 @ 11:22 am
I’ve never heard of this guy before but he can certainly go fuck himself as far as I’m concerned!
CountryKnight
August 3, 2017 @ 11:50 am
Lord have mercy on a country boy’s ears.
Corncaster
August 3, 2017 @ 1:18 pm
His “Trumpets” video is pretty funny, though.
“it’s a bad precedent to let artists from other genres so easily waltz into country, especially if the music has no kinship to country’s roots”
Hmm.
Did black musicians say the same thing when Jimmie Rodgers brought himself, and yodeling, to the blues? I don’t know, maybe they did. But even if they did, the parallel isn’t real. Blues at that time didn’t have 50 years of recorded history behind it yet. But now it’s been 50 years of recorded blues. Would uptight arch-traditionalist Wynton Marsalis complain today about “cultural appropriation” if Anner Bylsma, the Dutch cellist, recorded an album of Son House covers? I’m guessing a big fat No.
Why? Because “quality.” If Derulo makes a country record and it’s high-quality, there should be no complaint. Derulo’s an American, isn’t he? Aren’t we all?
In the end, quality is all that matters.
Someguy
August 3, 2017 @ 6:53 pm
100% agreement. I don’t care if he’s never left a major city in his life. If the music is quality, I will buy it. Ever hear “love in 3/4 time” by Ray Charles? Good music is all that matters.
Stringbuzz
August 4, 2017 @ 7:49 am
Excellent Ray Charles reference!!!
Jack Williams
August 4, 2017 @ 8:11 am
Did black musicians say the same thing when Jimmie Rodgers brought himself, and yodeling, to the blues?
Howlin’ Wolf and B.B. were fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWgZVX4yPeI
Jacob W.
August 3, 2017 @ 1:22 pm
All I heard was turnpike was releasing in october.
CountryCharm
August 3, 2017 @ 1:46 pm
Haha well if there is money there to be made he would be a fool not to. Justin Timberlake is heading this way too and will probably do really well. Stapleton will write him a few songs.
Everett
August 3, 2017 @ 3:44 pm
I say give him a chance. He did work with Luke Bryan, so already lost credibility, but Darius Rucker also got a lot of flack for changing from Hootie & the Blowfish, a band that I actually enjoy, and turned Country. Yet I have his debut album, and was actually pretty good. Then you have Aaron Lewis, lead singer of hard rock band, Staind, and he did some good stuff. Kid Rock wasn’t the best, but he did some good sort of Country. Maybe he does like Country beyond Luke Bryan. Country is my favorite genre, but I still love old school rap. Why can’t a rap artist also like country? Give him a chance, it will probably be deplorable, but let’s wait and see.
TheKillerRocksOn
August 3, 2017 @ 5:48 pm
ya boy Tim Mcgraw went top 10 country and pop with Nelly.. This shiznit outta be bangin’
Willie Potter
August 3, 2017 @ 5:55 pm
“In the end, quality is all that matters.”
Outstanding post Corncaster.
Every word.
Big Cat
August 3, 2017 @ 6:26 pm
99% of the puzzle is who buys the music. Figure that riddle out and you’ll actually “save” something. Until then let’s find good new music together
Desperado Destry
August 3, 2017 @ 7:43 pm
Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like ever since Taylor Swift, Scott Borchetta, and Big Machine Records country music has been a free for all. Yes, I know country music had some problems before them, but they opened the door wide for this pop country, bro country, rap country, anything goes country garbage! What’s sad is that country music is an American tradition and if we don’t start standing up to save that tradition we’re gonna lose it.
Ulysses McCaskill
August 4, 2017 @ 3:30 am
The quote at the very top of this page sadly applies very much to the situation we find ourselves in today.
Dave
August 5, 2017 @ 8:36 am
The website should be changed from Saving Country Music to Country Music No Longer Exists. My dislike of Sam Hunt and other R&B singers using the country genre as their platform is past the nuclear stage.
Justin
August 5, 2017 @ 12:28 pm
Hip/Hop Country by an African-American…still more country than Sam Hunt?
Erik North
August 5, 2017 @ 7:45 pm
Just speaking for myself, the idea of Jason Derulo doing an actual “country” album of any kind is, if we are so fortunate, probably going to go over the same way Steven Tyler’s did: bomb so catastrophically and make him look like the sight gag he is.