Every so often, a song like RMR's "Rascal" hits the internet and seems to capture an otherwise uncapturable attention span. Perhaps Rebbeca Black's "Friday" is to blame, or more recently Lil Nas X's record-shattering "Old Town Road." In any case, "Rascal" seems to be rapidly gaining notoriety across social media, to the point where some are predicting a fully-fledged hit in the making.
You might have already seen it. Perhaps one of your friends or followers brought it to your attention, amused and confused at the surprisingly successful wrangling of genres. In essence, "Rascal" is a country ballad, tinged with a boyband leading man's impassioned delivery. Yet the package is made complete by its music video, which goes balls-to-the-wall with trap music imagery. Ski-mask clad gangs tote weaponry with menacing expressions -- that is until the vocals begin to soar.
"This much I know, it's true, I came up and so could you," he sings, in the song's emotional chorus. "And fuck the boys in blue." It's easy to write this one off as simple parody, yet there's a relatable message at the heart of it all -- the contagious nature of a good come-up story. And don't get it twisted -- RMR is earnest in his delivery, sincere in his appreciation for country music. This is a post-Lil-Nas-X world and the country-rap subgenre has all the room in the world to evolve.
Interestingly enough, "Rascal" is mostly tethered to hip-hop through its visuals -- stip those away and you've got a surefire country hit -- and that's exactly what it is, essentially being a reinvented flip on Rascal Flatt's own "Bless The Broken Heart." Though it might not be an original melody, that juxtaposition though. Check out the rapidly rising viral sensation below. Is this a gimmick or are there legs here?