After scoring his first No. 1 with country artist Morgan Wallen, who was caught on tape using the N-word last year, rapper Lil Durk says other hip-hop acts should follow his lead.
When asked by TMZ about his recent rap-country hit “Broadway Girls,” Durk said of his collaborator Wallen, “He ain’t no racist, that’s my boy. We had a long talk, he had his public situation. We ain’t behind closed doors.”
Durk continued, “He ain’t canceled, I talked to him. When I say you ain’t canceled, you ain’t canceled.” While Wallen was all but banned from the airwaves for months following his controversy, the success of “Broadway Girls” has enabled his return to radio. Wallen also currently stands at No. 9 on Billboard’s country airplay chart with “Sand in My Boots,” his first song there since last February.
When asked whether Lamar and other rappers should work with Wallen, Durk said, “For sure.”
Wallen first expressed interest in teaming up with Lamar on Dec. 29 in an interview on comedian Druski’s Clubhouse talk show. When Druski asked the country singer who his ideal hip-hop collaborator would be, Wallen said, “I do love Moneybagg [Yo]… He’s definitely at the top of the list,” Wallen said. “But like overall, ever… I’m trying to think of not just in the past little bit… Kendrick Lamarwould be pretty cool.”
Wallen addressed the controversy earlier this year on “Good Morning America” when he told host Michael Strahan, “I was around some of my friends, and we we say dumb stuff together. And it was — in our minds, it’s playful… that sounds ignorant, but it — that’s really where it came from … and it’s wrong.”
It’s unlikely that Wallen finds a collaborator in Lamar, who in 2018 famously invited a white fan on stage and then booted her off after she repeatedly sang the N-word.