Aug. 31, 2026
Ne-Yo Went Country? Inside Highway 79 | The Cool Check-In
Ne-Yo goes country-inspired on his tenth album, Highway 79
Ne-Yo just went independent, planted a flag in Nashville, and dropped his most surprising album yet. Highway 79 — his tenth studio album, out now via Compound Entertainment — pairs his R&B pedigree with genuine Nashville songwriting royalty (Luke Laird, Charles Kelley of Lady A, BRELAND, Rhett Akins, Chuck Harmony, Tayla Parx). He's careful to call it "country-inspired," not a country album, and the title itself is personal: a nod to his 1979 birth year and to Highway 79, a real road through his native Arkansas.
In this Cool Check-In, we get into:
- How Ne-Yo went from a #184 Billboard debut with 2022's Self Explanatory to a #1 R&B-chart album by leaving the major-label system entirely
- Why an R&B legend recording in Nashville with Lady A's Charles Kelley isn't as random as it sounds
- What "inspired by country" actually sounds like on the record
Whether you've been following Ne-Yo since "So Sick" or you just heard he's out here line-dancing to "Ms. Tundra," this one's worth the check-in.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@50_For_50
More from the show: https://www.50for50.net/
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/50-for-50-life-music-friendship/id1857746432
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ADmN7bp4fXQzAZsnSuFQj
WEBVTT
00:10.112 --> 00:19.496
[SPEAKER_01]: I were back in the episode of the cool check-in, Mike and I are gonna talk about an artist who we did a full 50 for 50 episode on already.
00:20.316 --> 00:23.377
[SPEAKER_01]: My man's name, my man's recording name is Neil.
00:23.677 --> 00:23.937
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
00:25.178 --> 00:27.959
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just came out with a new album, not too long ago.
00:28.639 --> 00:35.202
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is an interesting lane for him in that it was very much produced
00:36.222 --> 00:45.004
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a country album has lots of country pieces to it, though Neo himself would not go out now and say that it's a country album.
00:45.044 --> 00:48.645
[SPEAKER_01]: He thinks he'd be doing a disservice to the genre.
00:48.685 --> 00:53.766
[SPEAKER_01]: He said it was a flat-out country album, but it is an album that you turned me on to.
00:54.426 --> 01:00.228
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have listened to it eventually because I like Neo, but you know, his last few albums weren't fantastic.
01:00.288 --> 01:03.848
[SPEAKER_01]: So he used to be like a day one guy for me.
01:03.889 --> 01:04.309
[SPEAKER_01]: He puts up
01:06.650 --> 01:06.890
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
01:07.610 --> 01:17.980
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my hesitation was that it was maybe more of the same like his previous album from I think four years ago, which was completely fine, but I always felt like it wasn't.
01:19.637 --> 01:37.423
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, it was fine, but it wasn't like, it was just like another Neo record, it didn't have like a thing to like really grab me the way that is early stuff grabbed me and he's always got to like chase whatever the hip hop artist of the month is to throw a line on there and I'm like, I don't care about that stuff.
01:37.463 --> 01:38.824
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to hear you sing.
01:38.864 --> 01:39.924
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear you sing.
01:40.204 --> 01:41.065
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
01:42.165 --> 01:44.866
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the album is called Highway 79 and
01:48.263 --> 01:54.046
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess the title comes from one his birth year.
01:54.126 --> 02:02.110
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's a few years younger than us and also to an actual highway 79.
02:02.871 --> 02:08.014
[SPEAKER_01]: A real road that runs through Arkansas, where he, I think it was born.
02:08.794 --> 02:09.734
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it was born.
02:10.695 --> 02:12.956
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's where the country tie in happens.
02:13.176 --> 02:16.118
[SPEAKER_01]: He recorded the whole thing in Nashville.
02:16.849 --> 02:17.131
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
02:17.613 --> 02:21.571
[SPEAKER_01]: He worked with Luke Laird.
02:23.980 --> 02:24.960
[SPEAKER_01]: Charles Kelly.
02:24.980 --> 02:27.442
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know these people by the way, I'm assuming.
02:27.462 --> 02:34.007
[SPEAKER_00]: I know Charles Kelly, because Charles Kelly is a member of Lady Antebellum on against Lady A's.
02:34.047 --> 02:35.548
[SPEAKER_00]: Lady A, they're now called.
02:37.369 --> 02:44.434
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess I'm looking up Luke Laird right now and he's written for like Carrie Underwood in Blake Shelton.
02:46.395 --> 02:51.298
[SPEAKER_00]: Also Lady A, but also like John Legend, Darious Rucker.
02:52.368 --> 02:55.950
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you know, sort of well renowned songwriter.
02:57.210 --> 03:14.319
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there was a, like this, this was not just a project or he was like, I'm gonna try and create a country album he actually had real influences helping him produce something that he wanted to be a little bit more genuine, which I think was a really good move.
03:15.119 --> 03:15.359
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
03:21.643 --> 03:23.405
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what song I immediately thought about?
03:24.246 --> 03:24.646
[SPEAKER_01]: What's that?
03:25.447 --> 03:26.708
[SPEAKER_01]: She is with Tim McGraw.
03:27.669 --> 03:28.250
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, that's right.
03:28.270 --> 03:30.172
[SPEAKER_00]: I forgot he did a record with Tim McGraw.
03:30.192 --> 03:32.234
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think that's a really nice song.
03:32.615 --> 03:33.335
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a pretty song.
03:33.596 --> 03:33.876
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
03:34.417 --> 03:38.861
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, okay, I can see it because we've heard it before.
03:38.881 --> 03:39.762
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
03:40.802 --> 04:02.397
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what a lot of people wonder is how much of a gimmick it is to change genres to sell albums to chase something, whereas can he could he just make a great R&B album and be in the same place and he decided to change the genre a little bit.
04:03.091 --> 04:16.038
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, the assumption is that he did it for commercial purposes, which, I mean, is valid because the type of R&B music that made him popular isn't invoking anymore.
04:17.110 --> 04:21.771
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and, you know, Neil made his bones as a songwriter.
04:22.051 --> 04:22.251
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
04:22.571 --> 04:26.933
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, as a lyricist and R&B right now don't have no songwriting.
04:27.313 --> 04:32.934
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's all like garbage lyrics about like drugs and sex, basically.
04:33.594 --> 04:36.315
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, like there's no real storytelling and R&B anymore.
04:37.115 --> 04:41.036
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so the genre pivot for him kind of makes sense.
04:42.296 --> 04:44.437
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, because if you want to like,
04:45.714 --> 04:47.595
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I guess he could have gone two ways, right?
04:47.615 --> 04:59.382
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have made like a classic neo album, or he could have stretched out a little bit and made what how he's 79 is, which is kind of a classic neo album, but with a little bit more twang in it.
04:59.662 --> 05:01.143
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
05:01.243 --> 05:08.768
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's fair to wonder whether it's genuine or not, and to him.
05:10.267 --> 05:15.888
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, growing up in Arkansas, you know, he's, he's always talked about influences in his life.
05:16.688 --> 05:24.890
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're, he said the reason why he can write great songs for women is because he had so many great influences from his childhood who were women.
05:25.170 --> 05:28.050
[SPEAKER_01]: So he, he felt that he could, he could do that.
05:28.410 --> 05:33.151
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's quite possible that he had some of those influences in country as well.
05:33.171 --> 05:36.392
[SPEAKER_01]: But I guess my question to you is, let's say that he didn't.
05:40.021 --> 05:42.182
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you make the album that you want to make.
05:42.462 --> 05:43.062
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
05:43.582 --> 05:47.683
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think as, you know, we're the Pino Gallery, right?
05:47.803 --> 05:57.086
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very easy to speculate on why somebody did something and what somebody's influences were or weren't.
05:57.126 --> 05:58.666
[SPEAKER_00]: When reality is, we don't know.
05:59.026 --> 05:59.707
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
06:00.027 --> 06:05.528
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, more in terms of the general public and not speaking specifically to the two of us,
06:09.092 --> 06:29.700
[SPEAKER_00]: uh uh you know people want to be reductive right and be like oh well here's this armbees singer how could he possibly know what country music is when a reality is like a lot of these country dudes grew up listening to me oh you know um and listening to you know armbees music and you know it's not like
06:30.905 --> 06:35.589
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, like it goes back to being like reductive, like our be singers, black people, whatever.
06:35.669 --> 06:56.706
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not one dimensional and there is nothing, there shouldn't be anything like super unique about somebody making like a R&B record and then a rock record or an R&B record and the jazz record or an R&B record and then a country record or doing like laminaritian putting all those genres on one album because we all contain like different, it's not just like a
07:00.389 --> 07:28.155
[SPEAKER_01]: That was also something I thought about, which was Lionel Richie and Darius Rucker stuck on you because that's one of my favorite songs and it is a remake of Lionel's normal version but I love Darius Rucker on that song and whenever you think of someone who was able to cross over, he was someone who was able to cross over and he himself, you know, he went from
07:29.216 --> 07:34.778
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, barband with hoody, he did an R and B album, then he did country.
07:34.798 --> 07:37.579
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's like crossed over all of these different genres.
07:37.999 --> 07:38.279
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
07:38.599 --> 07:48.642
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, he has essentially been able to have a very healthy career because he's kind of understood maybe when he's worn out his welcome.
07:49.664 --> 07:52.086
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, or is just able to be versatile, right?
07:52.567 --> 07:56.311
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think, you know, Darius is a great singer.
07:56.851 --> 08:06.080
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, again, like, particularly in his situation, which is, you know, being a black person growing up in an environment.
08:07.357 --> 08:23.746
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, that is not specifically like urban or whatever, you know, whatever terminology you want to use, like he was able to soak up all sorts of different influences, like he got soul music from like his parents and then, you know, ended up in a rock band, but also like roping us out.
08:23.766 --> 08:24.826
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a country influence.
08:24.846 --> 08:31.290
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, you know, again, like we is very easy to like put people in a box, but
08:32.658 --> 08:40.484
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that it, you know, it might help us all to like understand that we don't all just come from one place.
08:40.524 --> 08:42.225
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we all contain multitudes, right?
08:42.265 --> 08:47.369
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, wherever that road takes us is, you know, completely valid in legitimate.
08:47.849 --> 08:50.071
[SPEAKER_01]: Has anyone ever told you you look like Darius Rucker?
08:50.832 --> 08:51.093
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
08:54.036 --> 08:58.901
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I've gotten at various different times in sizes.
08:59.041 --> 09:00.262
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gotten Darius Rucker.
09:00.302 --> 09:01.804
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gotten Malcolm Jamal Warner.
09:01.924 --> 09:03.265
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gotten all sorts of people.
09:03.285 --> 09:05.468
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, people like to say black people look like each other.
09:07.109 --> 09:08.531
[SPEAKER_00]: I have definitely heard Darius Rucker.
09:08.771 --> 09:13.655
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you have a resemblance to Darius or I don't think that's like, yeah, yeah, I'm found that.
09:13.675 --> 09:14.876
[SPEAKER_01]: Darius brothers are good looking guy.
09:14.896 --> 09:15.637
[SPEAKER_01]: You hand some dude.
09:17.138 --> 09:28.487
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't, I, I didn't mean to disrespect him by saying he knows when, you know, he's overstays welcome, but had he continued to make hoody in the blowfish records time and time again.
09:28.547 --> 09:29.267
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't going to work.
09:29.828 --> 09:31.969
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, people were tired of that sound.
09:32.190 --> 09:32.410
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
09:34.212 --> 09:43.318
[SPEAKER_01]: Darius Rucker, I saw him, you know, these viral videos, you don't know when they were published or whatever, but I saw him in a video, this probably on Twitter, maybe he was on Instagram.
09:44.119 --> 09:46.100
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're about to interview him.
09:47.201 --> 09:51.584
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the background is Mo Money, Mo Problems.
09:52.564 --> 09:55.166
[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes, he's talked to the interviewer.
09:55.206 --> 10:00.750
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know if the interview has started yet, but he's like, you know, they talk about us on this song.
10:01.918 --> 10:08.301
[SPEAKER_01]: And as he says that, Mace goes, stay humble, stay low, blow like hoodie.
10:08.361 --> 10:14.705
[SPEAKER_01]: And he mows that, mows that and the person who was interviewing him had no idea and was just like, mine is blowed.
10:15.185 --> 10:16.846
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm curious.
10:16.866 --> 10:19.687
[SPEAKER_01]: To see Darious in 2026, man, I like that dude.
10:20.468 --> 10:20.848
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.
10:22.140 --> 10:38.003
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so this album is good and I would say to folks who maybe thought it was a little gimmicky not sure what if it's worth it's worth listening to it's maybe Neo's best album and I don't know how long like it like from a full album perspective.
10:39.244 --> 10:41.426
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a really good piece of work.
10:41.546 --> 10:45.328
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, he's just not as famous as he was 20 years ago.
10:45.428 --> 10:48.509
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's probably not going to be a giant success.
10:48.629 --> 10:58.335
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it kind of allows him to keep doing what it looks like he loves to be to do, which is record live and perform live.
10:58.695 --> 11:02.177
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's who is he doing something?
11:02.197 --> 11:02.737
[SPEAKER_00]: He's on tour.
11:02.757 --> 11:03.897
[SPEAKER_00]: I think with A-Con.
11:04.078 --> 11:05.578
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the A-Con or T-Pane.
11:05.778 --> 11:06.579
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember which.
11:08.378 --> 11:09.019
[SPEAKER_01]: eight continent.
11:09.700 --> 11:10.161
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.
11:10.421 --> 11:14.026
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, dude.
11:14.247 --> 11:16.130
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't explain a con in 2009.
11:16.270 --> 11:17.311
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't explain them in 2026.
11:19.020 --> 11:24.061
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you explain why the Michael Jackson estate wanted to work with Acon so much?
11:24.922 --> 11:27.022
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm going to work with Acon.
11:27.562 --> 11:27.822
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
11:28.283 --> 11:33.344
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Michael, they were working together before Mike passed.
11:34.904 --> 11:38.965
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean, Mike wanted to be plugged into whatever was going on in popular culture around that time.
11:39.446 --> 11:40.666
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do think Acon
11:42.870 --> 11:47.753
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't the most talented fella in the world, but knew how to write very simple catchy songs.
11:48.434 --> 11:50.395
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's kind of where Mike said was that.
11:51.215 --> 11:55.338
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I mean, that hold my hands long as I had.
11:56.098 --> 11:57.739
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's fine, totally fine.
11:57.779 --> 11:58.039
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
11:58.940 --> 12:02.122
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so are there current day artists?
12:03.042 --> 12:09.166
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, obviously we don't know their background in music necessarily, some of them we do.
12:11.852 --> 12:16.874
[SPEAKER_01]: could Mary J. Blige sing a country album and you'd be like, I want to listen to that.
12:17.674 --> 12:17.855
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:18.975 --> 12:19.675
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, else.
12:21.676 --> 12:23.877
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and not even like a country album.
12:23.957 --> 12:27.819
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I just think like Mary J.
12:27.979 --> 12:36.062
[SPEAKER_00]: If Mary J was to a stop using auto tune, which I think has been like all over her last couple of albums for no reason because Mary J can sing a buttoff,
12:38.303 --> 12:45.233
[SPEAKER_00]: and get with some good songwriters and just make like a, and stop trying to like chase trends.
12:45.733 --> 12:48.457
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she can make a rich, there's a really good album inside of her.
12:50.168 --> 13:15.887
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody else who is kind of like people we listen to growing up who you think could do something like that could genre switch could like change lanes like I don't imagine because of the style, but you know, we just talked about man of the woods just in timber like I was just about to say I personally didn't necessarily like that album though I do like songs on that album.
13:16.587 --> 13:19.689
[SPEAKER_01]: it was a site of a pivot for him, obviously.
13:20.110 --> 13:26.835
[SPEAKER_01]: But someone like usher, I don't know that usher could do anything other than what he's been doing to be true to himself.
13:28.832 --> 13:52.414
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you might be right, I don't know that usher is ever really had like an artistic voice, really like usher's always missing in other people songs, so I think the difference between him and somebody like Neo is, you know, Neo's a songwriter, like most and foremost, where his usher is more like a song stylist, you know, and I think.
13:53.550 --> 13:58.452
[SPEAKER_00]: like being able to jump genres like benefits Neo in a way that it would not benefit usher.
14:00.853 --> 14:17.641
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, if Justin, who I think is also like not a great songwriter, but if he got with like really strong songwriters and just made like a grown-up like 45-year-old man album, I think it would be good.
14:20.587 --> 14:27.729
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you and I've talked about this, you don't think cowboy Carter is necessarily a country album.
14:29.030 --> 14:43.575
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a big success, you know, I heard was, was cowboy Carter, but Beyonce did, like she didn't put out, you know, living, what was, what was her first album called?
14:44.378 --> 14:47.179
[SPEAKER_01]: loving dating love.
14:47.239 --> 14:49.901
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't the 2020's version of dangerously in love.
14:49.921 --> 15:02.607
[SPEAKER_01]: It was different much different right so she saw that and and so you know it almost seems like If you do want to kind of reinvent or something and you know we're going to talk about
15:03.602 --> 15:16.332
[SPEAKER_01]: Madonna, the kind of the queen of reincarnation in our next big episode, but I do wonder like, you know, some people, it seems like it would be a challenge and something that that would be beneficial.
15:16.352 --> 15:28.903
[SPEAKER_01]: But the others, it would seem, you know, not genuine fake, probably not the right move and how do people know, if you're an artist in 2026, how do you know with the way that music has changed, whether or not that would work?
15:29.752 --> 15:44.076
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and I do think that there is a racial element to some of that, like, Miley can do whatever the hell she wants to do, like, she can be a pop star, she can be a country star, she can do hip-hop records, she can do whatever, she can do like rock and roll.
15:44.997 --> 15:55.700
[SPEAKER_00]: And Kudos to Miley, I think Miley Cyrus is very talented, but it is a little weird to me, like I understand it, but it also doesn't make sense when a black artist kind of,
15:56.873 --> 16:03.175
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Beyonce is criticized for being versatile in the same way.
16:04.056 --> 16:06.177
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, I definitely agree with that.
16:06.297 --> 16:08.017
[SPEAKER_01]: She's just going to get more chances, too.
16:08.858 --> 16:09.078
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
16:10.627 --> 16:34.589
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you have trying to think of other artists who could cross over, but it is interesting because you know, you said that some of it is racial and the only ones I think of crossing over are actually black artists because and it comes from the vocal aspect of it, like the ones that I want to hear and I think it's because of the the vocal aspect of it.
16:35.446 --> 16:40.050
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, same, they're black artists are R&B artists.
16:40.210 --> 16:43.113
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's to me Justin Timberlake isn't R&B artists.
16:43.933 --> 16:56.965
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but you also think like post Malone who was like a trap rapper and then started making country records, it is kind of like, but you know, whatever I maybe that's his experience maybe that isn't, I don't know.
16:57.505 --> 16:59.647
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, like I feel like
17:01.683 --> 17:03.986
[SPEAKER_00]: like we all contain like so much.
17:04.066 --> 17:09.873
[SPEAKER_00]: And really, country music, the best country music is just like good song, right?
17:10.053 --> 17:10.233
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:10.434 --> 17:15.960
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's, you know, like there's a ton of country music out there that's just like beer trucks chicks.
17:16.381 --> 17:17.522
[SPEAKER_00]: And that shit is terrible.
17:17.723 --> 17:17.903
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:19.005 --> 17:35.952
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but do you think about somebody like Chris Stapleton, um, you know, who's a great songwriter and a great singer and writes like songs with like meaning and maturity and you know, it's not even he's he's just like a regular singer with a country with a cowboy hat on.
17:36.212 --> 17:36.392
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:36.753 --> 17:37.193
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
17:37.233 --> 17:44.576
[SPEAKER_00]: So anybody could make that record if they wrote the right songs or got with the right collaborators to write the right songs, right?
17:45.016 --> 18:03.056
[SPEAKER_01]: I just wonder if we're going to see more of it as our favorite R&B artists kind of age out of what you say is not really R&B anymore is not really the same R&B that they became famous with if the genre in of itself and the fans
18:03.917 --> 18:07.860
[SPEAKER_01]: are kind of pushing you out like how do you still do the things that you want to do.
18:07.900 --> 18:09.581
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of it's a very interesting thing.
18:09.601 --> 18:22.950
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not something that, you know, you and I have seen, but I wonder about the artists from the 40s and the 50s, like how did they see the changing of music, you know, and how did they feel like they had fit in.
18:22.990 --> 18:24.411
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an interesting discussion too.
18:24.711 --> 18:27.994
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think there's always like whenever something is
18:29.383 --> 18:41.794
[SPEAKER_00]: becomes popular in like pushes something out like there's the the desire to change like you know when disco is popular in the late 70s all these soul singers and you know a couple of rock singers too or like let's do disco records.
18:41.854 --> 18:49.961
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, when beat it got popular every all the arm be artists were like okay we can put a loud ask guitars and I've understood that now.
18:52.043 --> 18:53.544
[SPEAKER_00]: You know when hip hop blew up.
18:54.718 --> 18:57.760
[SPEAKER_00]: all of these people were like, oh, let's time to get a guest rapper.
18:58.040 --> 18:58.260
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
18:58.700 --> 19:01.882
[SPEAKER_00]: On our record, so it's like, everybody's kind of like jumping trends.
19:02.522 --> 19:07.124
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, right now, what's popping on the charts is country music.
19:09.525 --> 19:19.330
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that, you know, there is an element of folks who miss substantial, like, lyrical content in music.
19:21.091 --> 19:21.892
[SPEAKER_00]: And also miss
19:23.032 --> 19:34.971
[SPEAKER_00]: hearing people like sing as opposed to, you know, again, like an R&B would a lot of people are doing right now, which is not really like, it's not singing in like the full-floated like,
19:35.964 --> 19:36.704
[SPEAKER_00]: emotive sense.
19:38.045 --> 19:40.766
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more like robotic and kind of like monotone sounding.
19:41.206 --> 19:53.291
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think, you know, there's an element of people that really want that and there's a way to do that and potentially find a new audience and potentially like re-establish yourself as a person on the charts.
19:54.011 --> 19:57.913
[SPEAKER_00]: And it feels like that way right now is like to do something country related.
19:59.233 --> 20:03.095
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we'll have to just have to keep an eye on to see what our faiths are doing next.
20:05.050 --> 20:31.864
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's really hard to even predict because you think of some of the folks who are very experimental, sometimes those experiments fail and then they go back to square one and like, you know, it'd be great if they all worked and then you could just continue to experiment and people would invest in and give you money to do this stuff, but you do have to fit inside of the business plans and such.
20:33.345 --> 20:36.048
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, go listen to the Neo album, y'all.
20:36.088 --> 20:36.709
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth yours.
20:36.869 --> 20:37.430
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty good.
20:37.510 --> 20:37.810
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen.
20:38.531 --> 20:39.612
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.
20:40.153 --> 20:43.257
[SPEAKER_01]: For Mike, I'm WG 50 for 50.net.
20:43.497 --> 20:45.840
[SPEAKER_01]: See you when we see you piece piece out.
00:10.112 --> 00:19.496
[SPEAKER_01]: I were back in the episode of the cool check-in, Mike and I are gonna talk about an artist who we did a full 50 for 50 episode on already.
00:20.316 --> 00:23.377
[SPEAKER_01]: My man's name, my man's recording name is Neil.
00:23.677 --> 00:23.937
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
00:25.178 --> 00:27.959
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just came out with a new album, not too long ago.
00:28.639 --> 00:35.202
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is an interesting lane for him in that it was very much produced
00:36.222 --> 00:45.004
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a country album has lots of country pieces to it, though Neo himself would not go out now and say that it's a country album.
00:45.044 --> 00:48.645
[SPEAKER_01]: He thinks he'd be doing a disservice to the genre.
00:48.685 --> 00:53.766
[SPEAKER_01]: He said it was a flat-out country album, but it is an album that you turned me on to.
00:54.426 --> 01:00.228
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have listened to it eventually because I like Neo, but you know, his last few albums weren't fantastic.
01:00.288 --> 01:03.848
[SPEAKER_01]: So he used to be like a day one guy for me.
01:03.889 --> 01:04.309
[SPEAKER_01]: He puts up
01:06.650 --> 01:06.890
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
01:07.610 --> 01:17.980
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my hesitation was that it was maybe more of the same like his previous album from I think four years ago, which was completely fine, but I always felt like it wasn't.
01:19.637 --> 01:37.423
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, it was fine, but it wasn't like, it was just like another Neo record, it didn't have like a thing to like really grab me the way that is early stuff grabbed me and he's always got to like chase whatever the hip hop artist of the month is to throw a line on there and I'm like, I don't care about that stuff.
01:37.463 --> 01:38.824
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to hear you sing.
01:38.864 --> 01:39.924
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear you sing.
01:40.204 --> 01:41.065
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
01:42.165 --> 01:44.866
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the album is called Highway 79 and
01:48.263 --> 01:54.046
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess the title comes from one his birth year.
01:54.126 --> 02:02.110
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's a few years younger than us and also to an actual highway 79.
02:02.871 --> 02:08.014
[SPEAKER_01]: A real road that runs through Arkansas, where he, I think it was born.
02:08.794 --> 02:09.734
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it was born.
02:10.695 --> 02:12.956
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's where the country tie in happens.
02:13.176 --> 02:16.118
[SPEAKER_01]: He recorded the whole thing in Nashville.
02:16.849 --> 02:17.131
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
02:17.613 --> 02:21.571
[SPEAKER_01]: He worked with Luke Laird.
02:23.980 --> 02:24.960
[SPEAKER_01]: Charles Kelly.
02:24.980 --> 02:27.442
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know these people by the way, I'm assuming.
02:27.462 --> 02:34.007
[SPEAKER_00]: I know Charles Kelly, because Charles Kelly is a member of Lady Antebellum on against Lady A's.
02:34.047 --> 02:35.548
[SPEAKER_00]: Lady A, they're now called.
02:37.369 --> 02:44.434
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess I'm looking up Luke Laird right now and he's written for like Carrie Underwood in Blake Shelton.
02:46.395 --> 02:51.298
[SPEAKER_00]: Also Lady A, but also like John Legend, Darious Rucker.
02:52.368 --> 02:55.950
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you know, sort of well renowned songwriter.
02:57.210 --> 03:14.319
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there was a, like this, this was not just a project or he was like, I'm gonna try and create a country album he actually had real influences helping him produce something that he wanted to be a little bit more genuine, which I think was a really good move.
03:15.119 --> 03:15.359
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
03:21.643 --> 03:23.405
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what song I immediately thought about?
03:24.246 --> 03:24.646
[SPEAKER_01]: What's that?
03:25.447 --> 03:26.708
[SPEAKER_01]: She is with Tim McGraw.
03:27.669 --> 03:28.250
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, that's right.
03:28.270 --> 03:30.172
[SPEAKER_00]: I forgot he did a record with Tim McGraw.
03:30.192 --> 03:32.234
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think that's a really nice song.
03:32.615 --> 03:33.335
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a pretty song.
03:33.596 --> 03:33.876
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
03:34.417 --> 03:38.861
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, okay, I can see it because we've heard it before.
03:38.881 --> 03:39.762
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
03:40.802 --> 04:02.397
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what a lot of people wonder is how much of a gimmick it is to change genres to sell albums to chase something, whereas can he could he just make a great R&B album and be in the same place and he decided to change the genre a little bit.
04:03.091 --> 04:16.038
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, the assumption is that he did it for commercial purposes, which, I mean, is valid because the type of R&B music that made him popular isn't invoking anymore.
04:17.110 --> 04:21.771
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and, you know, Neil made his bones as a songwriter.
04:22.051 --> 04:22.251
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
04:22.571 --> 04:26.933
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, as a lyricist and R&B right now don't have no songwriting.
04:27.313 --> 04:32.934
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's all like garbage lyrics about like drugs and sex, basically.
04:33.594 --> 04:36.315
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, like there's no real storytelling and R&B anymore.
04:37.115 --> 04:41.036
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so the genre pivot for him kind of makes sense.
04:42.296 --> 04:44.437
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, because if you want to like,
04:45.714 --> 04:47.595
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I guess he could have gone two ways, right?
04:47.615 --> 04:59.382
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have made like a classic neo album, or he could have stretched out a little bit and made what how he's 79 is, which is kind of a classic neo album, but with a little bit more twang in it.
04:59.662 --> 05:01.143
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
05:01.243 --> 05:08.768
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's fair to wonder whether it's genuine or not, and to him.
05:10.267 --> 05:15.888
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, growing up in Arkansas, you know, he's, he's always talked about influences in his life.
05:16.688 --> 05:24.890
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're, he said the reason why he can write great songs for women is because he had so many great influences from his childhood who were women.
05:25.170 --> 05:28.050
[SPEAKER_01]: So he, he felt that he could, he could do that.
05:28.410 --> 05:33.151
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's quite possible that he had some of those influences in country as well.
05:33.171 --> 05:36.392
[SPEAKER_01]: But I guess my question to you is, let's say that he didn't.
05:40.021 --> 05:42.182
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you make the album that you want to make.
05:42.462 --> 05:43.062
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
05:43.582 --> 05:47.683
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think as, you know, we're the Pino Gallery, right?
05:47.803 --> 05:57.086
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very easy to speculate on why somebody did something and what somebody's influences were or weren't.
05:57.126 --> 05:58.666
[SPEAKER_00]: When reality is, we don't know.
05:59.026 --> 05:59.707
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
06:00.027 --> 06:05.528
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, more in terms of the general public and not speaking specifically to the two of us,
06:09.092 --> 06:29.700
[SPEAKER_00]: uh uh you know people want to be reductive right and be like oh well here's this armbees singer how could he possibly know what country music is when a reality is like a lot of these country dudes grew up listening to me oh you know um and listening to you know armbees music and you know it's not like
06:30.905 --> 06:35.589
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, like it goes back to being like reductive, like our be singers, black people, whatever.
06:35.669 --> 06:56.706
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not one dimensional and there is nothing, there shouldn't be anything like super unique about somebody making like a R&B record and then a rock record or an R&B record and the jazz record or an R&B record and then a country record or doing like laminaritian putting all those genres on one album because we all contain like different, it's not just like a
07:00.389 --> 07:28.155
[SPEAKER_01]: That was also something I thought about, which was Lionel Richie and Darius Rucker stuck on you because that's one of my favorite songs and it is a remake of Lionel's normal version but I love Darius Rucker on that song and whenever you think of someone who was able to cross over, he was someone who was able to cross over and he himself, you know, he went from
07:29.216 --> 07:34.778
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, barband with hoody, he did an R and B album, then he did country.
07:34.798 --> 07:37.579
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's like crossed over all of these different genres.
07:37.999 --> 07:38.279
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
07:38.599 --> 07:48.642
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, he has essentially been able to have a very healthy career because he's kind of understood maybe when he's worn out his welcome.
07:49.664 --> 07:52.086
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, or is just able to be versatile, right?
07:52.567 --> 07:56.311
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think, you know, Darius is a great singer.
07:56.851 --> 08:06.080
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, again, like, particularly in his situation, which is, you know, being a black person growing up in an environment.
08:07.357 --> 08:23.746
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, that is not specifically like urban or whatever, you know, whatever terminology you want to use, like he was able to soak up all sorts of different influences, like he got soul music from like his parents and then, you know, ended up in a rock band, but also like roping us out.
08:23.766 --> 08:24.826
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a country influence.
08:24.846 --> 08:31.290
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, you know, again, like we is very easy to like put people in a box, but
08:32.658 --> 08:40.484
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that it, you know, it might help us all to like understand that we don't all just come from one place.
08:40.524 --> 08:42.225
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we all contain multitudes, right?
08:42.265 --> 08:47.369
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, wherever that road takes us is, you know, completely valid in legitimate.
08:47.849 --> 08:50.071
[SPEAKER_01]: Has anyone ever told you you look like Darius Rucker?
08:50.832 --> 08:51.093
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
08:54.036 --> 08:58.901
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I've gotten at various different times in sizes.
08:59.041 --> 09:00.262
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gotten Darius Rucker.
09:00.302 --> 09:01.804
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gotten Malcolm Jamal Warner.
09:01.924 --> 09:03.265
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gotten all sorts of people.
09:03.285 --> 09:05.468
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, people like to say black people look like each other.
09:07.109 --> 09:08.531
[SPEAKER_00]: I have definitely heard Darius Rucker.
09:08.771 --> 09:13.655
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you have a resemblance to Darius or I don't think that's like, yeah, yeah, I'm found that.
09:13.675 --> 09:14.876
[SPEAKER_01]: Darius brothers are good looking guy.
09:14.896 --> 09:15.637
[SPEAKER_01]: You hand some dude.
09:17.138 --> 09:28.487
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't, I, I didn't mean to disrespect him by saying he knows when, you know, he's overstays welcome, but had he continued to make hoody in the blowfish records time and time again.
09:28.547 --> 09:29.267
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't going to work.
09:29.828 --> 09:31.969
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, people were tired of that sound.
09:32.190 --> 09:32.410
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
09:34.212 --> 09:43.318
[SPEAKER_01]: Darius Rucker, I saw him, you know, these viral videos, you don't know when they were published or whatever, but I saw him in a video, this probably on Twitter, maybe he was on Instagram.
09:44.119 --> 09:46.100
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're about to interview him.
09:47.201 --> 09:51.584
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the background is Mo Money, Mo Problems.
09:52.564 --> 09:55.166
[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes, he's talked to the interviewer.
09:55.206 --> 10:00.750
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know if the interview has started yet, but he's like, you know, they talk about us on this song.
10:01.918 --> 10:08.301
[SPEAKER_01]: And as he says that, Mace goes, stay humble, stay low, blow like hoodie.
10:08.361 --> 10:14.705
[SPEAKER_01]: And he mows that, mows that and the person who was interviewing him had no idea and was just like, mine is blowed.
10:15.185 --> 10:16.846
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm curious.
10:16.866 --> 10:19.687
[SPEAKER_01]: To see Darious in 2026, man, I like that dude.
10:20.468 --> 10:20.848
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.
10:22.140 --> 10:38.003
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so this album is good and I would say to folks who maybe thought it was a little gimmicky not sure what if it's worth it's worth listening to it's maybe Neo's best album and I don't know how long like it like from a full album perspective.
10:39.244 --> 10:41.426
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a really good piece of work.
10:41.546 --> 10:45.328
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, he's just not as famous as he was 20 years ago.
10:45.428 --> 10:48.509
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's probably not going to be a giant success.
10:48.629 --> 10:58.335
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it kind of allows him to keep doing what it looks like he loves to be to do, which is record live and perform live.
10:58.695 --> 11:02.177
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's who is he doing something?
11:02.197 --> 11:02.737
[SPEAKER_00]: He's on tour.
11:02.757 --> 11:03.897
[SPEAKER_00]: I think with A-Con.
11:04.078 --> 11:05.578
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the A-Con or T-Pane.
11:05.778 --> 11:06.579
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember which.
11:08.378 --> 11:09.019
[SPEAKER_01]: eight continent.
11:09.700 --> 11:10.161
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.
11:10.421 --> 11:14.026
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, dude.
11:14.247 --> 11:16.130
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't explain a con in 2009.
11:16.270 --> 11:17.311
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't explain them in 2026.
11:19.020 --> 11:24.061
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you explain why the Michael Jackson estate wanted to work with Acon so much?
11:24.922 --> 11:27.022
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm going to work with Acon.
11:27.562 --> 11:27.822
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
11:28.283 --> 11:33.344
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Michael, they were working together before Mike passed.
11:34.904 --> 11:38.965
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean, Mike wanted to be plugged into whatever was going on in popular culture around that time.
11:39.446 --> 11:40.666
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do think Acon
11:42.870 --> 11:47.753
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't the most talented fella in the world, but knew how to write very simple catchy songs.
11:48.434 --> 11:50.395
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's kind of where Mike said was that.
11:51.215 --> 11:55.338
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I mean, that hold my hands long as I had.
11:56.098 --> 11:57.739
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's fine, totally fine.
11:57.779 --> 11:58.039
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
11:58.940 --> 12:02.122
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so are there current day artists?
12:03.042 --> 12:09.166
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, obviously we don't know their background in music necessarily, some of them we do.
12:11.852 --> 12:16.874
[SPEAKER_01]: could Mary J. Blige sing a country album and you'd be like, I want to listen to that.
12:17.674 --> 12:17.855
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:18.975 --> 12:19.675
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, else.
12:21.676 --> 12:23.877
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and not even like a country album.
12:23.957 --> 12:27.819
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I just think like Mary J.
12:27.979 --> 12:36.062
[SPEAKER_00]: If Mary J was to a stop using auto tune, which I think has been like all over her last couple of albums for no reason because Mary J can sing a buttoff,
12:38.303 --> 12:45.233
[SPEAKER_00]: and get with some good songwriters and just make like a, and stop trying to like chase trends.
12:45.733 --> 12:48.457
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she can make a rich, there's a really good album inside of her.
12:50.168 --> 13:15.887
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody else who is kind of like people we listen to growing up who you think could do something like that could genre switch could like change lanes like I don't imagine because of the style, but you know, we just talked about man of the woods just in timber like I was just about to say I personally didn't necessarily like that album though I do like songs on that album.
13:16.587 --> 13:19.689
[SPEAKER_01]: it was a site of a pivot for him, obviously.
13:20.110 --> 13:26.835
[SPEAKER_01]: But someone like usher, I don't know that usher could do anything other than what he's been doing to be true to himself.
13:28.832 --> 13:52.414
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you might be right, I don't know that usher is ever really had like an artistic voice, really like usher's always missing in other people songs, so I think the difference between him and somebody like Neo is, you know, Neo's a songwriter, like most and foremost, where his usher is more like a song stylist, you know, and I think.
13:53.550 --> 13:58.452
[SPEAKER_00]: like being able to jump genres like benefits Neo in a way that it would not benefit usher.
14:00.853 --> 14:17.641
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, if Justin, who I think is also like not a great songwriter, but if he got with like really strong songwriters and just made like a grown-up like 45-year-old man album, I think it would be good.
14:20.587 --> 14:27.729
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you and I've talked about this, you don't think cowboy Carter is necessarily a country album.
14:29.030 --> 14:43.575
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a big success, you know, I heard was, was cowboy Carter, but Beyonce did, like she didn't put out, you know, living, what was, what was her first album called?
14:44.378 --> 14:47.179
[SPEAKER_01]: loving dating love.
14:47.239 --> 14:49.901
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't the 2020's version of dangerously in love.
14:49.921 --> 15:02.607
[SPEAKER_01]: It was different much different right so she saw that and and so you know it almost seems like If you do want to kind of reinvent or something and you know we're going to talk about
15:03.602 --> 15:16.332
[SPEAKER_01]: Madonna, the kind of the queen of reincarnation in our next big episode, but I do wonder like, you know, some people, it seems like it would be a challenge and something that that would be beneficial.
15:16.352 --> 15:28.903
[SPEAKER_01]: But the others, it would seem, you know, not genuine fake, probably not the right move and how do people know, if you're an artist in 2026, how do you know with the way that music has changed, whether or not that would work?
15:29.752 --> 15:44.076
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and I do think that there is a racial element to some of that, like, Miley can do whatever the hell she wants to do, like, she can be a pop star, she can be a country star, she can do hip-hop records, she can do whatever, she can do like rock and roll.
15:44.997 --> 15:55.700
[SPEAKER_00]: And Kudos to Miley, I think Miley Cyrus is very talented, but it is a little weird to me, like I understand it, but it also doesn't make sense when a black artist kind of,
15:56.873 --> 16:03.175
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Beyonce is criticized for being versatile in the same way.
16:04.056 --> 16:06.177
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, I definitely agree with that.
16:06.297 --> 16:08.017
[SPEAKER_01]: She's just going to get more chances, too.
16:08.858 --> 16:09.078
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
16:10.627 --> 16:34.589
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you have trying to think of other artists who could cross over, but it is interesting because you know, you said that some of it is racial and the only ones I think of crossing over are actually black artists because and it comes from the vocal aspect of it, like the ones that I want to hear and I think it's because of the the vocal aspect of it.
16:35.446 --> 16:40.050
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, same, they're black artists are R&B artists.
16:40.210 --> 16:43.113
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's to me Justin Timberlake isn't R&B artists.
16:43.933 --> 16:56.965
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but you also think like post Malone who was like a trap rapper and then started making country records, it is kind of like, but you know, whatever I maybe that's his experience maybe that isn't, I don't know.
16:57.505 --> 16:59.647
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, like I feel like
17:01.683 --> 17:03.986
[SPEAKER_00]: like we all contain like so much.
17:04.066 --> 17:09.873
[SPEAKER_00]: And really, country music, the best country music is just like good song, right?
17:10.053 --> 17:10.233
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:10.434 --> 17:15.960
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's, you know, like there's a ton of country music out there that's just like beer trucks chicks.
17:16.381 --> 17:17.522
[SPEAKER_00]: And that shit is terrible.
17:17.723 --> 17:17.903
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:19.005 --> 17:35.952
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but do you think about somebody like Chris Stapleton, um, you know, who's a great songwriter and a great singer and writes like songs with like meaning and maturity and you know, it's not even he's he's just like a regular singer with a country with a cowboy hat on.
17:36.212 --> 17:36.392
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
17:36.753 --> 17:37.193
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
17:37.233 --> 17:44.576
[SPEAKER_00]: So anybody could make that record if they wrote the right songs or got with the right collaborators to write the right songs, right?
17:45.016 --> 18:03.056
[SPEAKER_01]: I just wonder if we're going to see more of it as our favorite R&B artists kind of age out of what you say is not really R&B anymore is not really the same R&B that they became famous with if the genre in of itself and the fans
18:03.917 --> 18:07.860
[SPEAKER_01]: are kind of pushing you out like how do you still do the things that you want to do.
18:07.900 --> 18:09.581
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of it's a very interesting thing.
18:09.601 --> 18:22.950
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not something that, you know, you and I have seen, but I wonder about the artists from the 40s and the 50s, like how did they see the changing of music, you know, and how did they feel like they had fit in.
18:22.990 --> 18:24.411
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an interesting discussion too.
18:24.711 --> 18:27.994
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think there's always like whenever something is
18:29.383 --> 18:41.794
[SPEAKER_00]: becomes popular in like pushes something out like there's the the desire to change like you know when disco is popular in the late 70s all these soul singers and you know a couple of rock singers too or like let's do disco records.
18:41.854 --> 18:49.961
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, when beat it got popular every all the arm be artists were like okay we can put a loud ask guitars and I've understood that now.
18:52.043 --> 18:53.544
[SPEAKER_00]: You know when hip hop blew up.
18:54.718 --> 18:57.760
[SPEAKER_00]: all of these people were like, oh, let's time to get a guest rapper.
18:58.040 --> 18:58.260
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
18:58.700 --> 19:01.882
[SPEAKER_00]: On our record, so it's like, everybody's kind of like jumping trends.
19:02.522 --> 19:07.124
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, right now, what's popping on the charts is country music.
19:09.525 --> 19:19.330
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that, you know, there is an element of folks who miss substantial, like, lyrical content in music.
19:21.091 --> 19:21.892
[SPEAKER_00]: And also miss
19:23.032 --> 19:34.971
[SPEAKER_00]: hearing people like sing as opposed to, you know, again, like an R&B would a lot of people are doing right now, which is not really like, it's not singing in like the full-floated like,
19:35.964 --> 19:36.704
[SPEAKER_00]: emotive sense.
19:38.045 --> 19:40.766
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more like robotic and kind of like monotone sounding.
19:41.206 --> 19:53.291
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think, you know, there's an element of people that really want that and there's a way to do that and potentially find a new audience and potentially like re-establish yourself as a person on the charts.
19:54.011 --> 19:57.913
[SPEAKER_00]: And it feels like that way right now is like to do something country related.
19:59.233 --> 20:03.095
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we'll have to just have to keep an eye on to see what our faiths are doing next.
20:05.050 --> 20:31.864
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's really hard to even predict because you think of some of the folks who are very experimental, sometimes those experiments fail and then they go back to square one and like, you know, it'd be great if they all worked and then you could just continue to experiment and people would invest in and give you money to do this stuff, but you do have to fit inside of the business plans and such.
20:33.345 --> 20:36.048
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, go listen to the Neo album, y'all.
20:36.088 --> 20:36.709
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth yours.
20:36.869 --> 20:37.430
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty good.
20:37.510 --> 20:37.810
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen.
20:38.531 --> 20:39.612
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.
20:40.153 --> 20:43.257
[SPEAKER_01]: For Mike, I'm WG 50 for 50.net.
20:43.497 --> 20:45.840
[SPEAKER_01]: See you when we see you piece piece out.