Cowboy Carter's Middle Finger to Nashville

Beyoncé came to Nashville to test out her country music aspirations. Her reception was so racist that she set out to prove she didn't need Music City anyway.

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Beyoncé does not like to be messed with. She has played many roles over the course of her career: queen, mother, first lady, liberal icon, scorned wife, independent woman, survivor. But one constant theme has been — and I know how cringe this is, but bear with me — fierce. Beyoncé has a lot of patience for novice upstarts, gossip rags and rumor mills. But she will not tolerate disrespect¹. 

And pardner, Nashville disrespected her. 

Cowboy Carter is the sort of album that begs to be written about, and other people have covered its social, racial, gender and genre contours a lot better than I could. I’d advise you to read them for a better understanding of what I think is a really good album. The only real discourse angle I have anything to add to is one from the perspective of a Nashville guy and it is my sad duty to report that the Home of Country Music does not come off well in the Cowboy Carter narrative. A self own for the ages.