Matt Connarton Unleashed: Oliver Anthony "Rich Men North of Richmond" song and backlash analysis

But I also wanted to do the Oliver Anthony thing. Let's see the Oliver Anthony thing. I can save this for another day. We might have time for both. So Oliver Anthony, do you know who Oliver Anthony has? You remember we talked about him? He did that song, uh Richmond, North of Richmond, And now I have I have a radio edit of this song. What I would like to do now? Oliver Anthony. He kind of became famous sort of overnight because what happened is a lot of right wing podcast and online media personalities like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh, you know, the whole Daily Wire crew and whatnot.

They really got behind this song so and really kind of championed this song, and a lot of conservatives love the song. Now there's some backlash though at all, for Anthony because he didn't like that. He says he didn't like that the song was actually featured at the Republican debate because he said, wait a minute, those those people on that debate stage there, there's some of the same people I'm talking about. This has nothing to do with party. My song isn't about a particular political party. I'm talking about everybody in Washington, both Republicans and Democrats.

So now he's getting some backlash from some of the conservatives who supported him. But what I would like to do, I have not listened to this song all the way through. Now. Regular listeners might recall a number of weeks ago, there was a big controversy around the song Try That in a Small Town by Jason Aldeen, and I intentionally avoided listening to that song because I wanted to play it on the show and give you my live in the moment, unvarnish if you will reaction to it and get feedback from the audience and get your thoughts and whatnot.

And luckily though, DJ Steve was in the Facebook live chat that day and said, Hey, Matt, heads up there. You'll want the radio edit because Jason Aldeen actually says the sword in the song, so I had to find the radio edit. This song also has the S word in it, but there is a radio edit available, so I have not. Now I've heard more of this song than I had heard of the Jason Aldeen song before I played it on the show. But I've avoided listening to this song all the way through for the same reason. I'm going to play the song all the way through the radio edit of course, right here live on the air, and give you my my reaction to it, and get your reaction, and of course anybody in the audience who wants to react or has any thoughts on it.

I've heard only the very beginning of the song. I have heard a tiny bit of it. I had to hear enough of it to make sure it was a legitimate radio edit. Fortunately, the first s bomb is very early in the song, so I didn't have to get very far in the song to hear. Okay, they did the reversal on that to make the swear go away good, So this is a legitimate radio edit. So so you haven't heard the song, right, I don't think though, okay, So I'm gonna play it right now. The radio edit of Richmond North of Richmond by Oliver Anthony and h And I'll tell you what I think.

And uh, well, let's it. I'll tell you what I think and we'll hear what you all think. Here here we go. I've been selling my soul working home day over time hours for bullish. Hey, so I can sit out here and waste my live away drag back home and trown my troubles away. It's a damn shame what the Hord's gotten to for people like me, people like you. Wish I could just wake up and it not be true, but it is. Oh, it is living in the new world with a hold soul. The rich man nor the Richmond Lord knows it all.

Just wanna have total control, want to know what you think, want to know what you do, and they don't think you know. But then whole like you do, your dollar hate dish and it's taxing on him, calls the red man on the rich man.

Rich politicians look out from miners and not just miners on an island somewhere. Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothing that heat and the hole be milking welfare. God, if you're five foot three and your three hundred pounds taxes holding not with pay or your bags of five drownds dumb and they're putting themselves since feet in the ground is hold this damn country does is keep on kicking them down. Lord, It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to the people like me, people like you.

Ish I could just wake up and it not be true, but it is all it is living in the blue world with an hold soul. These rich men hold for Richmond. Lord knows, they all just wanna have total control. I want to know what you want, to know what you do, and then I'll thank you. Know, but I know that you do because your dollar hangs ation and it's texting. No hand calls a d S man, not a d span. I've been selling my soul, working all day, over time hard for boldish pay. What do you think that was the first time for me listening to it all the way through, and I'm glad I've I've actually looked up some stuff about this guy.

I can see what he's saying. Uh, there's some stuff in there that I think is kind of uncomfortable for me because he's doing like some there's some notat shaming in there's some great about however, that being said, when you actually, when I'm reading this man, what he is saying, he's saying that the rich, the rich, it's the rich who hurt the poor. And I'm sorry, that's true, that's very true. The elitists did never have to worry about their healthcare. The elitists don't worry about food on their table.

And yeah, They'll pay as craptastic as they can for a salary to make sure that they keep pattenting those dollars. They gotta pay for those little yats, they gotta pay for those stily clothes. They could give two craps about the rest of us, as long as their cough is a get in fult so in the in the in the vein of what he intended for it. I cannot disagree with this man. I think that, and I can support what he's saying. I well, one thing, I yeah, One thing I cannot support is he kind of he kind of uh at one point, and it's it's with the fat shaming comment.

He's sort of it it almost. And part of my thinking about this might be a little bit tainted by some of what I was reading and hearing about the song before actually listening to it. But he sounds like he kind of takes a swipe at people who are unwelfare and I and I don't like that. Yeah, but but but he he sounds like he's doing it more combined with fat shaming, like he doesn't do they the old Ronald Reagan welfare queen. Uh nonsense, so right, And that's what I was saying, that's part of the song that I have the discomfort with.

Yeah, the over if I take a broad view of what he's singing about, well, he's singing about a lot of the same stuff that I've been talking about from podiums for the last few months, about, Yeah, how we don't get we get cut off in our healthcare. People are poor because they they're poor because they can only afford their medicines. After that they're broke. They're made medically poor. How many people have bankruptcies, lose their houses because of medicine? What he just from that one perspective.

To me, if I look at it in that vein, I one hundred percent agree with the guy. But I mean there's a lot of what he says it's absolutely true, and especially I gotta say in some southern areas. When I was in Kentucky, the world was very different, and I'm sure that it still is. From the north, you know, maybe it's a different world. The pay scales are different. I worked in a sweatshop sewing factory. We got told we weren't getting paychecks because the fax machine messed up the numbers. Because ninety percent of the people in that room.

Didn't know how a fax machine worked, what it does, never even saw one, you know. I saw a lot a slimy, slimy stuff in Kentucky that would never get pulled off here. Yeah, but they get away with it in the backwood there, at least they did when I was there. I'm speaking from my own personal experience, right, I don't know what that world is like now. Maybe because we're all connected now with computers, maybe it's become different. Oh, I'm sure I felt on the job application that literally asked me if I was married, and if I had children, how many.

It wanted my height, it wanted my weight. This was a gas station job. So I remember what I said about the Jason Aldean song when I played that live on the air, I said, just now taking the video out of it, just a song itself. And there by the way, there is no video for the well, no, actually I think there is a video for the song. But it's a simple This is a simplaint But you know, the Jason Aldean song, of course, has this whole big produced video and there's controversy about the video, but the song itself.

What I said about the song itself, because people were saying it was racist and whatnot. I said, this song taken by itself, I don't believe as racist, but I can see why if you are racist, you would like this song. I would say about this song Richmond North of Richmond, if you are a I don't think the song is promoting a particular ideology, and apparently, from what Oliver Anthony is saying, that was absolutely not his intention. However, I can see why conservatives. Why is something like you know, the Daily Wire crew, like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh and all of them.

I can see why they got behind the song because there's some you know, it's it's it's kind of a populist. It's become sort of this populist anthem, and there's different kinds of populism, and it's kind of a right leaning sounding populism. So I can see why they got behind the song. But there's a couple of interesting controversies that actually have come out. So one is is what I said, he was upset that the song was used during during that debate. And by the way, for anyone who says, because I know some people are saying, well, then why did he approve it?

He probably didn't. They never usually do. Well, here's the thing though, because some people say, well, wouldn't he wouldn't He have had to have at least given his approval for them to use the song. But here's the thing. Well, yeah, there's a bit of a history of people using songs and political campaigns without approval. But the other thing is this guy got very famous, very fast, and very rich. Well I don't know if he's rich looking at the numbers. Oh okay, oh yeah, but yeah, but he got very famous, very fast, and he probably I'm sure he has a team already that had to be hastily put together who he probably has a management team who said, well, of course you can use the song, and it wasn't necessarily his decision.

But so that's one controversy. So now he's coming out and saying, no, they're part of the problem. They're the people I'm singing about. It's not it's not just about one party. But the other controversy is now he's also being accused of faking his accent because of a video of an interview that he did where he talks about diversity. This is what's got the Daily Wire crew all upset. He talks about diversity, and he talks about how diversity is a strength and it's one of the things that is great about America and we should celebrate diversity.

Well, not everyone at the Daily Wire is on board with that message, as you might imagine. Not everyone's a fan of this diversity of which he speaks. Now, some people are also saying to him, I've seen I've seen online people saying, you know, well this this guy clearly got used. I actually saw it might have even been on this because I got this radio edit from YouTube. It might even be on here. Somebody said, you got used, dude, basically saying that he got used by the Daily Wire and these other online conservatives who made this song their anthem, and now they're mad at him because they feel betrayed by him because he's not really with them.

He's not with any particular party. But but I think it's possible. And again I say this from a little bit of a different perspective than most people probably have because of you know, I come from a music industry background. I think it's possible that this guy used the system to get himself famous. And if and if I'm right, if this was intentional on his part. Bravo, well played, because this guy, no matter who likes a song or who doesn't, and whatever backlash he's facing, this guy not only did he get famous almost overnight with the song, but he's figured out how to keep his name in the news with all the backlash.

I mean, it's fantastic. If it If it did all happen by accident, that's great too. But that's impressive. I mean, this is all I'm amazed. And here this is from Newsweek. By the way, he's supposedly making forty grand a day on this could be yeah, I mean, it's a it's a viral law sensation certainly is uh. This is from Newsweek. Oliver Anthony's meteoric rise to fame in the country music world has come with increased scrutiny, this time focusing on his accent. Last month, Anthony was an unknown country music hopeful, but thanks to an endorsement from controversial podcaster Joe Rogan, I didn't even realize it started with Joe Rogan.

He went viral overnight with this hit song, rich Men North of Richmond. A video of him singing the song was uploaded to YouTube on August seven and has received thirty four million views with more than a one hundred thirty thousand comments at the time of the writing. It won press from many well known conservatives for highlighting topics such as QAnon and Jeffrey Epstein. I didn't catch a QAnon reference in there. I did catch the Jeffrey Epstein reference. He talks about miners on an island. The song also takes aim at taxation, welfare cheats, obesity, and makes references makes reference to sex trafficking.

Well, that's yeah, that's the jeff Jeffrey Epstein part. Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Green even dubbed the song the Anthem of Forgotten Americans, but his newfound fans have already started to turn on the singer after comments he made during a Fox interview. Anthony described blue collar workers as quote the melting pot of the world unquote, and championed diversity, saying, quote, that's what makes us strong. We need to learn to harness that and appreciate it and not use it as a political tool to keep everyone separate from each other unquote, he said, which earned the wrath of some conservatives on Twitter.

Why is he talking about deserted diversity. That's that's so, it's it's weird. How that's pretty mild stuff. You know, you you you would you would think he said, by the way, I you know, I love black lives matter, and you know, all he said was, you know, diversity and we're the melting pot of the world and we should celebrate that. That's pretty mild. I'm looking at some of the comments that are being made. So I told you this guy was a plant. Yeah, promoting what is this promoted algorithm promoted algorithm boosted based red bearded hillbilly song guy was faking his accent and says diversity is our strength.

Why is he saying diversity? It says here. There's more from Newsweek, It says now. His detractors have claimed the Farmville, Virginia native has been faking his accent and pointed to the Fox News interview with Griff Jenkins as proof. They claimed his accent was not Southern, even though his singing style would suggest otherwise. In Virginia, God, that is so ignorant. Come on, now, you can sing however you want. It's art. You know what it's your If it's it's his song, you can sing it. Every One he sounds too southern in the song, so now he's a poser.

Do you know that when people talk and when people sing, they don't always sound the same. That's true, I mean seriously, Like over look at any European band, they all sing English, English, American accent English. Yeah, they were right. Yeah, the accent doesn't usual with rare exceptions, the accent doesn't usually come from when someone's singing. Yeah, when they copy of Metallica song they try and coffee and how Metallica sings it. Or Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day, he sounds like he's British and he's from California, so it can work that way too.

I met the guy who played House. He could speak perfect English. Not it like he was born in Brooklyn. He's European, he's British. He's actually when he talks in his regular voice, he's totally British in his dialect. I think that's stupid. I think that that whole thing is just stupid. I think they're just looking for something to latch onto because he didn't turn out to be their boy. He hasn't he flat. He's denied that he's a conservative. He says he's more of a centrist. You know, he's totally denied that.

So he's not playing along with what they want. They're gonna find new reasons to hate him. He's a plant. He's talking about diversity, and really he was talking about rich people just destroying poor people, doing everything they can to make money and squeeze the money out of the poor people, but you know, never going back to them. And he literally did say that. He was talking about all of those people that were on that debate stage. He literally said, right, I am talking about you. So their tick now, this was going to be their guy man, their new champ in song, and he's ruining it for him.

Yeah, it also, but you know that's it is true. It's one thing that's really gross in politics is that they just don't seem to care about personal property rights. Like they're all about property rights until it's somebody else's song. Like, how many musicians have you seen I couldn't even think of a name to quantify it. How many musicians you hear about complaining? So when those used there my song in their rally, and I never told them they could, right, Oh yeah, that's happened so much billion times because They never asked for permission.

They just do it. The New York Posts has an article Oliver Anthony is singing for all of us hometown salutes rich men of North Richmond. North of Richmond. Phenomenon says. This is a short article. It says here the men south of Richmond were on a high when viral phenomenon Oliver Anthony made a surprise appearance at a street festival here Saturday night. Anthony's rich Men North of Richmond is rocketed to number one on the Billboard Heart one Hot one hundred, propelling a once known, once unknown songwriter from south central Virginia into the national onto the national stage.

But he's staying close to his roots. Uh, I'm gonna skip down. I don't care about that part, okay. Oh, this is more about the show that he did recently. I mean, I like the guy a bit more after this conversation. I'll say, I like the fact that he's standing up for what he feels and he's not letting other people take it and try and twist it into what they want. Yeah, I'm not crazy. I'm certainly I'm definitely not okay with the fat shaming and you know, trying to do the wellfish shaming. I think that's that's but see, that's that's a low blow to be going to, especially if you're trying to talk about the rich men and rich men, why are you talking about you know those aren't rich men.

But but it's also though the backlash, see the backlash to the song now that's happening from the right. It's another example of what I always talk about, how we live in this binary political culture where you have to be all the way on one side or all the way on the other, or you just confuse you just confuse people. Because here's an example of there shouldn't be any backlash coming from the right. The song has several conservative tropes, so that doesn't mean so if you're a conservative and you like the song because of that, then you shouldn't be mad at the guy for saying one thing you don't like, or because he doesn't have the accent that you thought that he had, or whatever it is.

You can still appreciate the song. You don't have to completely turn on the guy just because you thought you thought he was all the way completely with you, and now you're going, oh, maybe he's not really conservative, maybe he's more a right leaning guy or whatever. So oh now we have to be upset with him, like, oh tis tis Matt, what are you ever thinking? I mean, it even work, it even affects art, it even affects music. You know this, this this nastiness that exists, this

this used to be that way. But like, just to watch, I'm looking at another process. Person goes, where did alliver as an accent? Go? Also, why is he saying diversity is our strength? Like how that's a bad sentence? Now diversity is a bad word? How dare you?

Oh how? Oh my? Never? We should just take the statue of liberty, like we should just send up a sandblaster to just stand off the book because you know, we're not give me your poor you're tired, you're hungry masses. We're not that melting pot anymore. That's not what people want. Apparently at least these people can we just this is why we all need to get out and vote and speak up and talk, because if you don't, they're gonna win. And when they win, every every every day, Joe loses, in my opinion.

In my opinion, I like the guy because he did stand up and say no, don't take my song. It's not about you. In fact, you're the Actually it is about you, but not in a good way. But I do like that, and I think the song isn't bad. It's just the one fiction and his voice. Yeah, a lot of people who came out because of course, again you have the polarization, so you had all these uh conservatives online who championed the song. So of course you have also all these people on the left who are condemning the song and condemning him.

They were, they're not condemning him anymore, but you know, condemning the song, but not just not just the message of the song, but saying, oh, he has no talent and all this terrible stuff. And no, I think he's talented, and I actually like his vocal delivery. I have no problem with any of that.

Matt Connarton Unleashed: Oliver Anthony "Rich Men North of Richmond" song and backlash analysis

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