- CMT removed a Jason Aldean music video after online critics said the accompanying song promoted lynching.
- Aldean called the claims "meritless" and "dangerous" in a statement on Tuesday.
CMT pulled one of country music star Jason Aldean's music videos after claims that it promoted lynching, a claim he called "meritless."
The song, called "Try That in a Small Town," takes aim at criminals who carjack, assault strangers, rob liquor stores, and "spit in a cop's face." He also sings about people who "stomp on the flag and light it up."
"Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they're gonna round up / Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck," Aldean sings. "Try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won't take long / For you to find out, I recommend you don't."
Critics online pointed to perceived racial undertones in the song's lyrics and in the music video. Others pointed to the song's references to violence, including country star Sheryl Crow, who said that "even people in small towns are sick of violence."
The song's music video was filmed in front of the Columbia County Courthouse in Tennessee where a Black man named Henry Choate was lynched in 1927, Variety reported.
One TikToker said that the song's lyrics don't have to explicitly be about race for them to still "be about race."
In a TikTok video that now has more than one hundred thousand likes, Destinee Stark said that she thinks the song's chorus — which dares people to "try that in a small town" and includes the line, "We take care of our own" — are references to"sundown towns"
Sundown towns were places where residents intimidated Black people during the civil-rights movement through discriminatory laws and violence to discourage them from living there, or even passing through.
In the wake of the online criticism, CMT on Tuesday removed the song's music video from circulation but has not offered an explanation as to why, according to The Tennessean.
—Sheryl Crow (@SherylCrow) July 19, 2023
Aldean responded to the criticism on Twitter saying that the assertion that the song is pro-lynching is "not only meritless, but dangerous."
"In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests," Aldean wrote.
Aldean added that none of the song's lyrics talk about race and that all of the protest footage in the video is "real news footage."
CMT did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Wednesday.