Consider yourself a “real Texan?” If you’re like Lone Star State native and country music star Charley Crockett, you might have an opinion on what to call the body of water that stretches from South Padre Island to Key West, Florida, and down to Cancún.
On Tuesday, October 7, Crockett took swings at the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which went into effect early this year among President Donald Trump’s first wave of executive orders.
“I was born on the Gulf Of Mexico,” Crockett, who hails from the South Texas town of San Benito, wrote on Facebook and Instagram. “I don’t recognize it by any other name. Any real Texan knows that our Mexican American brothers and sisters hold up our economy in every industry. I’m proud to have been born in the Rio Grande Valley where the population is over 90% Latino. If those boys in Washington D.C. wanna go renaming regions of this country, they can start with New England. Because it ain’t new and it ain’t England.”
The Gulf of Mexico had gone by that name since it first appeared on a map in 1550, so when Google Maps renamed it Gulf of America for U.S. users following Trump’s executive order in January, it was no small change. Several months later, though, one of the thousands of commenters under Crockett’s Facebook post called it “the post we didn’t need, 10 months after it was relevant.” Another social media user wrote, “My family has lived on the Texas Gulf Coast for almost 200 years. It’s ‘The Gulf’ to us; y’all can put whatever words behind this word that you want.” Others celebrated the new name and accused Crockett of “alienating” his fan base by speaking on politics. Another said, “He ain’t country.”
But it wasn’t all disagreement. On Crockett’s Instagram post, one user wrote, “Thank you for always standing up for Texas, and especially the Rio Grande Valley.” Another commented that the post was just another “episode of ‘Why we love Charley Crockett.'”
BigXthaPlug and Zach Bryan cause country music controversy
He isn’t the only musician to ruffle some feathers recently. Country music singer Zach Bryan, who set the record for the largest ticketed concert attendance in U.S. history recently in Ann Arbor, Michigan, teased a controversial new song. On Instagram, the Navy veteran played a snippet of a track called “Bad News,” which contains the lyrics “ICE is gonna come, bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more.” Later, he sings, “I’ve got some bad news / The fading of the red, white and blue.” That didn’t play well with some, like conservative TV commentator Tomi Lahren, who called it “trash” and John Rich (of country duo Big & Rich), who jokingly predicted a joint tour with The Chicks (formerly known as The Dixie Chicks).
Meanwhile, Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug performed at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on October 1, a set some unhappy social media users called “disgusting.” He’s not the first rapper to take the stage (beaten to the punch by Nelly, The Wu-Tang Clan and Killer Mike, as well as pop acts like Harry Styles, Lizzo and others), but he’s also an artist that crosses genre lines. His recent album, I Hope You’re Happy, features some of the biggest names in country music, including Darius Rucker, Bailey Zimmerman, Ella Langley, Luke Combs, Shaboozey and Thomas Rhett, to name a few.
So, which country singer will be the next to say “hold my beer” and invoke a social media storm? Stay tuned.
This article originally published at ‘He ain’t country’: Texas singer ignites backlash over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ remark.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
