Screenshot via YouTube
Look, I can understand your reservations about watching a rap video from a dude named Jelly Roll that also stars Uncle Kracker. I get it. This is not where you thought your day would lead you. But your day not ending up how you expected is what this song, “Sunday Morning,” is all about, so I urge you to get on board.
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Jelly Roll is a familiar fixture of the Nashville music scene, a guy who has built a solid fan base and local reputation through the good old-fashioned virtues of hard work and being unapologetically himself (which is, as you may notice, a very large, heavily tattooed white guy with an attitude that’s both totally country and totally hip-hop). His music is a celebration of the type of Southern life that is none too sexy to the coastal elites of the world and prefers it that way, as the title of his debut EP Whiskey Weed & Waffle House or the fact that he was enlisted to write the theme song for a TLC reality show about a trailer park (Welcome to Myrtle Manor) might suggest. He describes it as “southern rock, white trash rap.” Maybe that’s not your cup of sweet tea, but at least it’s real.
“Sunday Morning,” though, the lead single from his mixtape Hangovers and Hot Chicken (hot chicken being a noted Nashville delicacy), is a song anyone who’s ever had a hangover can relate to: “I swear to God I regret this shit every Sunday / I’m in dire need of a Tylenol and a Gatorade,” Jelly Roll raps, capturing the feeling of total regret that washes over anyone the morning after they’ve had too much to drink, the kind of hangover where you tell yourself you’re never drinking again. But as anyone who’s ever been in that position probably also knows, it was often worth it, and the temptation to have fun tends to stick around after the hangover subsides. “The weekend’s gone I can’t believe it again / But I know on Friday I’ll be drinking again,” Jelly Roll continues. Damn right. (Un)fortunately.
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Uncle Kracker comes through with the sing-along hook and clutch piano playing, and the whole song has a country twang that never lets you forget that Jelly Roll comes from Nashville. This one deserves to be a honky-tonk staple (Let your local honky-tonk know it’s the 21st century, and it’s cool to rap in a country song now).
“Working with Kracker was awesome—from years of watching interviews and listening to his music and being a fan, he was everything I would’ve expected: a funny pile of Detroit white trash haha. My kinda people,” Jelly Roll said over email. He added that he was “just glad to finally give this video to the world. I’ve always felt this song was special—and humorously honest.”
Hangovers and Hot Chicken comes out tomorrow via LiveMixtapes. The whole project was produced by Jingle Jared of the Jingle Punks. Jelly Roll also kicks off a headlining tour this Friday in Jackson, Mississippi (dates below). If you start drinking now, you should have just enough time to not be hungover for the tour itself. Watch the video for “Sunday Morning,” directed by Krista Liney and portraying all the dumb house party morning-after debauchery you’d expect, below:
Jelly Roll Headlining Tour Dates:
Sep-11 Jackson, MS Martin’s
Sep-12 Pensacola, FL Vinyl
Sep-15 Jacksonville, FL Jack Rabbits *
Sep-16 Tampa, FL State Theatre
Sep-18 Kennet, MO Eagles Club *
Sep-19 Nashville, TN Yelawolf Fest
Sep-22 Greensboro, NC Shiners
Sep-23 Spartanburg, SC Ground Zero
Sep-24 Murfeesboro, TN Tempt
Sep-25 Charlotte, TN Tremont Music Hall
Sep-26 Knoxville, TN Concourse
Oct-01 Litchfield, IL Shaw’s Club 66
Oct-02 Columbus, OH Alrosa Villa
Oct-03 Louisville, KY Louder Than Life Fest
Oct-07 Indianapolis, IN Emerson Theater
Oct-08 Chicago Ridge, IL Star Bar
Oct-09 Detroit, MI I-Rock Nightclub
Oct-10 Minneapolis, MN Fine line
Oct-11 Des Moines, IA Vaudeville Mews
Oct-13 Fargo, ND Mainline Bar & Event Center
Oct-15 Omaha, NE Whiskey Tango
Oct-16 Colorado Springs, CO Black Sheep
Oct-17 Denver, CO Cervantes
Oct-20 Boise, ID Neurolux
Oct-21 Billings, MT Pub Station
Oct-23 Seattle, WA El Corazon
Oct-27 West Hollywood, CA Roxy Theatre
Oct-30 Las Vegas, NV LVCS
Nov-2 Flagstaff, AZ Museum Club
Nov-3 Phoenix, AZ Last Exit Live
Nov-5 Little Rock, AR Juanita’s
Nov-6 Sedalia, MO Epspolon Night Club
Nov-7 Independence, MO The Scene
Nov-13 Nashville, TN Exit In
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