Combining country and hip-hop music seems like someone is setting themselves up for lack of success, but in some few lucky cases, combining these genres works out nicely.
Country pop duo artists Maddie & Tae released their new album “Start Here,” which contains modern-day country and hip-hop songs, on Aug. 28. They are one of the few lucky people to do a great job combining the two genres.
The first song that earned Maddie & Tae recognition by music listeners was their song “Girl in a Country Song.” This is the first song on their album that caught my interest. The title fits the song perfectly as it is all about being a girl in a country song. They sing about how country girls are always supposed to wear bikini tops and Daisy Duke shorts. The beginning of the song starts out with the lyrics, “Well I wish I had some shoes on my two bare feet/ and it’s getting kinda cold in these painted-on cut-off jeans/ I hate the way this bikini top chafes, do I really have to wear it all day?” In the middle of the song, they sing about how in the old days, country girls used to be respected. Nowadays, they just have to sit and look pretty for all of the country boys.
Another one of Maddie & Tae’s top hit songs on their album is “Fly,” the second song that I heard by Maddie & Tae. It’s not full of energy like all of the other songs. “Fly” is more of a mellow song. The song starts out by painting an image of a girl looking outside while it’s raining. She’s wondering if she can reach her dreams and praying that she’ll find a way to make those dreams happen.
This song talks about how you must keep trying to reach your dreams no matter what gets in the way. If you’ve gone so far already, why give up now? This is shown through lyrics like, “So keep on climbing, though the ground might shake/ just keep on reaching though the limb might break.”
A catchy song on the album is “Your Side of Town.” It’s definitely more of a hip-hop song. “Your Side of Town” is about a guy that got on the bad side of a girl. He hurt her so she’s threatening him to stay on “his side of town.” If he comes over to her side, he’ll regret it.
All in all, Maddie & Tae do a great job combining country and hip-hop on their first album. I bought the album a couple of days after it came out. “Girl in a Country Song” and “Fly” were the first songs that got me hooked. They are also Maddie & Tae’s most popular songs. If you haven’t done so already, you should definitely buy the album.
-Kim Burns
