Country singer Oliver Anthony ripped into Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter album, calling it “complete trash.”
The “Rich Men North of Richmond” singer claimed he was urged to give Cowboy Carter a good review, but “It makes me just want to throw up.”
Anthony shared his thoughts in a YouTube video titled “What I’ve Learned from the Music Industry So Far…”
Anthony said rapper Gucci Mane tried to sign him after his 2023 viral success with “Rich Men North of Richmond”. But he went with different management.
Anthony said one member of his new management team tried to get him to give Beyoncé’s album a good review.
He said, “‘We gotta figure out how to make you cool.’ And one of the guys I worked with, he wanted me to make some stupid f*cking post about Beyoncé’s country album, about how it was good, even though it was complete trash. It makes me just want to throw up.”
Anthony said he was particularly offended by Beyoncé’s rendition of the Dolly Parton classic, “Jolene,” claiming he couldn’t even listen to the entire song.
“It’s just total cringe,” he said about the tune. “It represents how degenerative our society has become, that a song like a Beyoncé’s version of ‘Jolene’ can come out and anybody actually listen to it and think it’s not just complete f*cking trash.”
Anthony claimed his management had hopes of them doing some kind of song together. He suggested those kinds of requests happen all the time, because music industry executives are more concerned with profit than true talent.
Anthony also discussed record labels paying to artificially boost songs like Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
The country singer explained the psychological manipulation behind campaigns to artificially boost certain artists up the charts while talented artists are ignored.
“How many people do that?” Anthony continued. “It’s so much theatrics and illusion and characterizations that are built into this whole thing to like keep people hanging on for more. And God, if it’s that bad in music, it’s gotta be bad in everything.”
Beyoncé and Shaboozey (pictured) were snubbed by major country music awards shows in 2024.
Country music fans accused Beyoncé and Shaboozey of cultural appropriation. One country music fan wrote: “Imagine if a country singer made a rap album and submitted it for a BET Award in the rap category. Black people would all be outraged.”
