Of every musical movement that has incubated below the Mason Dixon line in the American South, no two genres have as rich a history and vibrant a culture as country and rap. Yet efforts to blend these sounds — while at times commercially successful — have often fallen flat. Kid Rock has sold over 35 million records, but his nu-metal inflected hick-hop is largely unlistenable. Nelly and Tim McGraw did their darndest with “Over and Over,” a single with a smooth bassline that went Platinum in 2004, where it should stay. However, country-rap crossover might soon be revived, if the former genre’s most honored female performer of all time has anything to say about it. In a new interview, Miss Dolly Parton revealed she’s interested in collaborating with Snoop Dogg.
“Would you do a duet with Snoop Dogg?” The Real co-host Loni Love asked the country icon, presumably backstage at a stop on Parton’s Pure & Simple tour, given the rhinestone embellished violins, banjos, and acoustic guitars both women are surrounded by. “Well, my husband loves him, by the way,” Parton said of the Southern California gangsta rapper. She added that her husband, to whom she has been married for 50 years, likes Snoop “as a person, he relates to him somehow. He thinks he’s the coolest guy.” So a collaboration? “It’s possible!” she laughed.
It wouldn’t be Snoop’s first time joining forces with a country icon; he and Willie Nelson have linked up on songs like “Superman” and “My Medicine.” After performing separate concerts in Amsterdam one fine April 20th, Snoop and Willie apparently puffed on a blunt, played dominos in a hotel room, then got KFC takeout. Given that the two men share a lifelong passion for herbal medicine and excellent pigtails, this friendship is unsurprising, but feels right.
If you’ve seen 9 to 5, you’ll remember that Parton knows how to burn one, too. She’s also no stranger to great pigtails, nor to out-of-the-box musical projects (we’re still waiting for her long-promised gay dance record). And, as fate would have it, it was announced yesterday that Parton will receive the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement honor at the 50th annual Country Music Association Awards next month.
Nelson and Parton are longtime pals, former labelmates, and periodic collaborators. “We did a duet of a song I wrote, ‘From Here to the Moon and Back,’ [from Nelson’s 2013 duets LP, To All the Girls…],” Parton recalled to Rolling Stone. “He put his vocal down first, sent it to me to go in the studio in Nashville to do my part. Trying to sing with him? I was everywhere! I called him up and said, ‘Willie, send me a sack of that grass you’re smokin’, ’cause I can’t follow you.”
Snoop, what are you waiting for?
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Text Emily Manning