Hip-Hop Community Reacts to LL Cool J’s Feature on Brad Paisley’s ‘Accidental Racist’
Brad Paisley's song, 'Accidental Racist,' featuring LL Cool J, has garnered a tidal wave of reactions on Twitter. The song has been universally panned by the hip-hop community for its absurd lyrics by both artists.
If you haven't heard the polarizing song, Paisley sings about a white man who enters a Starbucks coffee shop wearing a confederate flag T-shirt and hoping the barista doesn't prejudge him because of his Southern pride. “Cause I'm just a white man / Coming to you from the southland / Trying to understand what it's like not to be / I'm proud of where I'm from but not everything we've done / And it ain't like you and me can rewrite history," he sings.
Meanwhile, LL tries to console the white man's guilt with his bizarre "let bygones be bygones" rap. “If you don't judge my du-rag / I won't judge your red flag / If you don't judge my gold chains/ I'll forget the iron chains," he raps.
In Paisley's defense, he did explain himself regarding the song. The country singer insists that he wasn't trying to incite controversy, instead he wanted to bring attention to the complicated issues regarding race.
"This isn’t a stunt," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "This isn’t something that I just came up with just to be sort of shocking or anything like that. I knew it would be, but I’m sort of doing it in spite of that, really. I’m doing it because it just feels more relevant than it even did a few years ago. I think that we’re going through an adolescence in America when it comes to race. You know, it’s like we’re almost grown up.
"You have these little moments as a country where it’s like, ‘Wow things are getting better.’ And then you have one where it’s like, ‘Wow, no they’re not.’"
"I just think art has a responsibility to lead the way, and I don’t know the answers, but I feel like asking the question is the first step, and we’re asking the question in a big way," he continues. "How do I show my Southern pride? What is offensive to you? And [LL Cool J] kind of replies, and his summation is really that whole let’s bygones be bygones and ‘If you don’t judge my do rag, I won’t judge your red flag.’ We don’t solve anything, but it’s two guys that believe in who they are and where they’re from very honestly having a conversation and trying to reconcile."
What do you think about the Brad Paisley-LL Cool J song? Tell us in the comments below
Listen to Brad Paisley's 'Accidental Racist' Feat. LL Cool J