the beat
GROOMING BY SU HAN AT DEW BEAUTY AGENCYCHART
BREAKER
DISCOVERING NEW TALENT SINCE 1894(!)
No. 1
on Billboard’s
Hot Country
Songs chartBrown photographed
Au g . 10 a t T h e
Hermosa Saloon in
Hermosa Beach, Calif.Country Boy
Raised in Georgia, Blanco Brown split his
time between the Atlanta housing projects,
where he would hear OutKast on the radio,
and his grandmother’s home in rural Butler,
where he listened to Johnny Cash. By his
early teens, he realized they were singing
about the same things, just in different ways.
“I was from the projects, and I heard this
country boy singing about shootings,” says
Brown, 31, who grew up in a musical family
and signed his first recording contract with
NunStarr Records — with his brothers and
cousin — when he was 7. “It was so close to
what I was familiar with.”“Git In Here Right Now”
By 2008, Brown was working as a
songwriter-producer, collaborating with
Pitbull (“Goalie Goalie”) and, more recently,
Fergie (“M.I.L.F. $”). At the same time, he
was making music on his laptop at home in
Atlanta and coined the term “trailer trap” to
describe his country-rap fusion. Ten years
later, he pitched a demo to former BMG
president of U.S. repertoire Zach Katz. “He
started texting [BBR Music Group executive
vp] Jon Loba, ‘Get in here right now,’ ” recalls
Brown. “[Loba] says he’d never seen anyone
react like that.” Brown signed with the
Nashville-based indie in June 2018.Staying The Course
Three months later, Brown used a friend’s lap
steel guitar to make a loop, to which he later
added beatboxing. It became an early version
of his hit first single, “The Git Up.” As Brown
was getting ready to release it, Lil Nas X’s
“Old Town Road” quickly grew from online
meme to national sensation, hitting No. 1 on
the Billboard Hot 100. Loba urged Brown to
release “The Git Up” ASAP. It arrived in May
and immediately took off thanks to a TikTok
dance challenge, later becoming a bona fide
country hit. With 200.7 million on-demand
U.S. streams, according to Nielsen Music, it
has ruled Hot Country Songs for six weeks.Giddyup
Brown, who has “enough music for 80 trailer-
trap records,” is keeping the momentum going:
He’s currently filming a music video for “The
Git Up” in Nashville and Watertown, Tenn.;
touring with Kane Brown (no relation); and will
release a full album before the end of the year.
The success of “Old Town Road” put his career
on the fast track, but Blanco doesn’t feel like
he’s following a trend — he says he’s bridging a
gap and is happy Lil Nas X opened doors to the
house he has always lived in. “Someone asked
me a long time ago if I felt like country music
is changing,” he says. “I don’t know where it’s
going, but I’d love to be a part of it.”BLANCO BROWN
The self-described “trailer-trap”
artist isn’t following in anyone’s
footsteps, including Lil Nas X’s
By Marissa Moss
Photographed by Koury Angelo44 BILLBOARD | AUGUST 24, 2019