At the Martin Luther King Freedom Fest in Nashville, Tennessee, rapper Lil Durk brought controversial country star Morgan Wallen onstage to perform their Top 14 hit, "Broadway Girls."
Calling Wallen "genuine at heart," Durk prefaced his appearance by asserting, "Can't nobody cancel s— without me saying it, you know what I'm saying?"
The two performers bro-hugged and Wallen met the MLK Fest moment with lyrics such as, "She said I'm too drunk and crazy/ she don't like the way I dance/ I said, 'You don't have to join in'/ she said she'd take a chance."
Wallen may have been considered an odd choice to celebrate the legacy of the heroic, slain civil rights leader, considering the singer's appearance in a viral video last February that caught him using a racial slur.
One of the most popular singers in country music at the time, Wallen saw his contract suspended by his label and his airplays plummet on services such as I Heart Radio and Cumulus. (This after a number of controversies, including getting booted from a "Saturday Night Live" gig for violating the show's COVID-19 protocols by partying in a crowded bar just before his scheduled appearance.) Wallen apologized when the video went public, saying, "I'm embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever."
Following the emergence of the N-word video, Wallen's sales increased more than 300%. His then-current record, "Dangerous: The Double Album" rose to No. 1 — on the Hot 100, not just the country chart — and held the top spot for seven weeks, a record for a country artist. Wallen has said that he and his manager figured the sales surge led to a windfall to them of around $500,000. (Jason Isbell, who wrote the song "Cover Me Up" on the album, then tweeted he would donate his royalties to the Nashville chapter of the NAACP.)
Wallen addressed the racial controversy in a Good Morning America interview in which he told former football player Michael Strahan that his use of the N-word was "playful": "I don't think it just 'happened,'" he said. "You know, I was around some of my friends and we say dumb stuff together. In our minds, it's playful. That sounds ignorant, but that's really where it came from." He also told to Strahan it wasn't the first time he'd used the word, but said he only did it "around this certain group of friends."
The singer also said he planned to donate that $500,000 profit surge to Black-led groups. The Black Music Action Coalition told Rolling Stone it had received $165,000 from the singer. However, it also said it considered the $500,000 donation figure "exceptionally misleading." A spokesperson said the organization had been in conversation with the singer but remained "disappointed that Morgan has not used his platform to support any anti-racism endeavors." A Rolling Stone investigation in September 2021 failed to confirm the donation of the balance of the $500,000.
Of working with Wallen, Lil Durk told TMZ, "He ain't no racist; he's my boy. We had a long talk ... he ain't canceled; I talked to him. When I say you ain't canceled, you ain't canceled."
———
