{"id":804805,"date":"2020-03-02T15:03:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T22:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=959688"},"modified":"2020-03-02T15:03:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T22:03:17","slug":"rmrs-rascal-flatts-homage-rascal-is-a-viral-hit-as-long-as-it-can-stay-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/rmrs-rascal-flatts-homage-rascal-is-a-viral-hit-as-long-as-it-can-stay-online\/","title":{"rendered":"RMR\u2019s Rascal Flatts Homage \u2018Rascal\u2019 Is a Viral Hit \u2014 As Long As it Can Stay Online"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last Wednesday, a song called \u201cRascal\u201d went viral after it was uploaded to YouTube. In its video, a mysterious man in a ski mask named<\/span> RMR<\/a><\/span><\/a> \u2014 pronounced Rumor \u2014 wears an Yves Saint Laurent bulletproof vest over Off-White long-sleeve camouflage t-shirt, showing off gold grills and an impressive variety of firearms wielded by a similarly masked crew. It\u2019s stylish, but similar to countless other music videos that become popular every single day. Unlike most other rap videos, though, RMR begins the song by breaking into an impressive a cappella rendition of<\/span> Rascal Flatts<\/span><\/a> \u201cThese Days.\u201d After that, he launches into an interpolation of \u201c<\/span>Bless The Broken Road<\/span><\/a>\u201d \u2014 a 1994 country classic written by Marcus Hummon, Bobby Boyd, and Jeff Hanna, first recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and subsequently popularized by Rascal Flatts. In RMR\u2019s rendition, it isn\u2019t<\/span> a song about how divorce<\/span><\/a> and God can eventually lead to true love, but how the women who\u2019ve broken his heart turn into the \u201choes I scam.\u201d Eventually, his falsetto settles into a simple declaration: \u201cFuck 12,\u201d a slang term for the police.  <\/span><\/p>\n

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From its juxtaposition of country music with hip-hop aesthetics (Lil Nas X, Post Malone) to the anonymous artist arriving seemingly out of nowhere (The Weeknd, H.E.R.), \u201cRascal\u201d seemed engineered for viral success. It\u2019s jagged, quick rise felt the same way: Originally a<\/span> sponsored post on Elevator Mag<\/span><\/a>, the video quickly disseminated to social media.<\/span> Ryan Hemsworth<\/span><\/a> remixed the song immediately, while artists, as varied as Timbaland to Lil Aaron, have commented about their love for \u201cRascal\u201d on Instagram.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been life-changing. You sit and pray for things to happen and then when it\u2019s finally happening you just got to grab your nuts and run with it,\u201d RMR tells <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> over the phone on Thursday. \u201c\u2018Rascal\u2019 came from a pure place. I wasn\u2019t forcing nothing. When I dropped it, I expected some people to gravitate towards it, but the meteorite-type of effect that it had like \u2018boom\u2019 it just hit. It\u2019s like a viral sensation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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@whatrmr<\/a> \u2013 Racal pic.twitter.com\/DxTrwCpSyn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 RMR (@whatrmr) February 26, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

RMR declines to give his real name. At one point, he says he is 24-years-old before backtracking to state that he\u2019s actually 23, mentioning that he sometimes gets \u201cconfused\u201d since he\u2019s so close to being 24. According to RMR, he grew up between the Buckhead district of Atlanta and Inglewood, Los Angeles. He credits traveling between the two locales for inspiring his love of country. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been listening to Toby Keith. I been listening to Jason Aldean. All of them, like I been listening to them since \u201806,\u201d he says. \u201cAlso, shout out to Rascal Flatts, one of my favorite things ever is Gary LeVox, because he just got that voice. I\u2019ve been listening to him for so long.\u201d Blink 182, The 1975, John Mayer, Kanye West, Drake, and Jay-Z are also among RMR\u2019s influences, but he\u2019s wary of classifying what type of genre he belongs too. \u201cI\u2019m a new age artist. I\u2019m the future. I\u2019m what people are going to be in the next two to five years. This is how people are going to go about things. I take the Mamba Mentality to thing. I\u2019m Kobe Bryant with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the ski mask and the moniker, RMR says he was a behind-the-scenes figure in the studio, producing or engineering for his friends until he decided to write and perform for himself. By his estimation, \u201cRascal\u201d was made three months ago, but he\u2019s wary of sharing many details behind the song\u2019s creation. According to him, the song was produced by his \u201chomeboy\u201d and the video was directed by RMR\u2019s \u201cteam,\u201d although the video is credited to someone named Gabe on YouTube. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou sit and pray for things to happen and then when it\u2019s finally happening you just got to grab your nuts and run with it\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Just as confusingly, the first version of \u201cRascal\u201d to be released on Spotify came with a writer\u2019s credit attributed to someone named Sage Clark. When asked about this name on Thursday, RMR simply stated, \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t say that. I don\u2019t know who that is.\u201d Not long after, a second version of the song, exactly the same except stylized entirely in capital letters, was uploaded to Spotify, crediting RMR as the sole writer. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRMR posted everything, right,\u201d said Malik Rasheed, the president of CMNTY RCRDS \u2014 pronounced \u201cCommunity Records\u201d \u2014 which has a partnership with RMR. \u201cWhen this was happening, I don\u2019t know what happened, but he said \u2018Look, I got distracted.\u2019 I don\u2019t know if he was talking to whoever or someone, I don\u2019t even know who that guy is to be very honest with you. He just put that on there, but he\u2019s written the song 100% by himself. That\u2019s why there\u2019s no one claiming copyright infringement or anything. There\u2019s no issue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So RMR is not Sage Clark?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, not.\u201d Rasheed replies. \u201cAbsolutely, 200 and 500% no.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the attention surrounding RMR\u2019s debut, he\u2019s yet to talk to or meet his hero, Rascal Flatts lead singer Gary LeVox, or the original writers of \u201cBless The Broken Road.\u201d He\u2019s excited at the possibility of one day collaborating with the band that inspired \u201cRascal,\u201d and was clear that he had not even talked to those involved in the song about the rights before uploading \u201cRascal.\u201d \u201cNo. Nah,\u201d RMR said, when asked directly about clearing the sample. \u201cThat\u2019s non-disclosure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Not long after \u201cRascal\u2019s\u201d release, the seams began to unravel. By Friday, the song was no longer available on Apple Music. By Saturday, the song\u2019s official YouTube video was replaced with a message stating, \u201cThis video contains content from UMPG Publishing, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

BMG, which partially owns the publishing rights to \u201cBless This Broken Road,\u201d declined to comment. Jeff Hanna, one of the song\u2019s credited writers and member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band declined to comment. Rascal Flatts also declined to comment, but do not technically own the rights to \u201cBless This Broken Road\u201d and are therefore unlikely to weigh in publicly, despite their ties to the song. Universal Music Publishing Group did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the continued takedowns, CMNTY\u2019s Rasheed remained upbeat throughout the weekend. Rasheed is a former VP of A&R at Epic Records and Senior VP of A&R at Scooter Braun Projects, and partnered with Bruno Mars producer and collaborator Philip Lawrence to launch CMNTY, which he describes as a label for \u201cprotectors of culture.\u201d \u201cWe can\u2019t take any credit for the vision that you\u2019ve seen and that everybody\u2019s seen in the last 72 to 96 hours,\u201d Rasheed said. \u201cThat all came from [RMR]. We\u2019re here to advocate for him and to protect him, and to make sure that he gets to the next space and everything that he wants to accomplish, he gets there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Good Meeting Today @ColumbiaRecords<\/a> @whatrmr<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/v6PcmhpYbD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Adrian Swish (@IAmAdrianSwish) February 27, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rasheed explains that he learned of RMR through one of the rapper\u2019s managers, Adrian Swish, reaching out after seeing the video for \u201cRascal\u201d circulate on social media. He is reticent to give an exact date when RMR was signed to the company. \u201cWe have recently become partners with him,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd from here on out anything \u2014 again, these are young kids, man. We\u2019re helping him. We\u2019re cleaning up things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Rasheed, the reasons for the song\u2019s removal on Apple Music and its double appearance on Spotify twice are unrelated. \u201cIt was an unauthorized flip. It\u2019s like a mixtape, right?\u201d Rasheed says. \u201cHe rocked the record. He shot a visual for it. He went totally guerilla. And whoever, UMG, they initially asked for it to be taken down and we\u2019re dealing with it, but it\u2019s all good. Everything is on the move. The song will be able to continue to grow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was asked to be taken down and obviously in a reactionary moment, one of the guys on his team, not him, took the record down,\u201d Rasheed continues. \u201cWhen I say his team, not CMNTY, but his immediate guys. It was like \u2018Oh shit, they said take it down. So we took it down.\u2019 We\u2019re like, \u2018What the fuck are you doing? Put it back up.\u2019 So they sent a cease and desist. That\u2019s why you see it up twice.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

When \u201cRascal\u201d initially dropped, RMR was adamant that its trajectory was completely natural. \u201cIt just got released and everybody just ran with it. They seen it. They copied it on their page. I was like \u2018Shit, this shit organic. This is organic growth.’\u201d A day later, a screenshot allegedly requesting support from social media influencers to support \u201cRascal\u201d on their accounts was leaked. It, along with the song\u2019s rapid rise, led to critics tagging RMR as an artist with industry connections simply feigning anonymity. Rasheed\u2019s response to this is short. \u201cRMR did not solicit anyone,\u201d he says. \u201cHe is not an industry plant.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

For now, RMR and CMNTY RCRDS are still searching for a joint venture \u2014 likely a major label \u2014 to partner with for their new signee\u2019s career. And if RMR has it his way, he plans to stay anonymous \u201cfor life.\u201d \u201cIf Marshmello can do it, I can do it,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m the hip-hop Marshmello.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Jonathan Bernstein and Elias Leight<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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