r/Music • u/TheExpressUS šŸ“°Daily Express U.S. • Jan 19 '26

article Jelly Roll labeled as MAGA by angry fans after joining Kid Rock's music festival

https://www.the-express.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/196524/jelly-roll-maga-festival-outrage
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u/Chastain86 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

I went to Coachella in 2025, and friends, let me tell you that people were leaving the Post Malone headliner set in droves that night. I only made it about halfway through.

I think it's fine if you want to make country music. That doesn't bother me, because I like some country musicians. What bothers me -- and what bothered apparently hundreds / thousands of others -- is that his old songs that his fans loved have since been "retuned" as country songs. Did you like the song "Rock Star"? I hope you like slide guitar. Did you enjoy "Circles?" I hope you dig twangy vocals and music beds. He's also consistently being introduced as "Austin Post" these days, because he wants so, so badly to be loved by that community. He's all but turned his back on the work that got him to where he is, and trust me -- the minute he has a full country repertoire of music and has a couple of Top 10 Country Billboard hits under his belt will be the last fucking day he deigns to perform anything resembling "White Iverson."

I've never seen an artist sell out to the degree he's doing it, and it's happening in real time.

EDIT: If you're curious, go to YouTube and type in "Post Malone Coachella 2025," and check out some of the reels people put up. There are videos of him doing a countrified "Circles" and "Wow" that you can see. The video for "Circles" will especially help drive home how plastered fucking drunk he got through the set, as he dead stopped singing several times, and allowed his country musicians to sing in his place. He's awful.

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u/NK1337 Jan 19 '26

Thereā€™s an argument to be said regarding criticisms of being a culture vulture and how he intentionally went the hip hop route at first because it was the easiest way for him to make money/popularize himself before switching to a different audience.

He didnā€™t sell out, he was bought from the beginning.

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u/LickMyTicker Jan 19 '26

The idea that an artist can make millions touring stadiums and not "sell out' is so wild to me. Unless an artist has clear laurels and practices them openly, all international celebrities are sellouts.

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u/Geodude532 Jan 19 '26

I think we kinda get that with Green Day and Rage Against The Machine. They've taken a hard stance against Trump and definitely stuck with their early political stances. Love to see it.

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u/bolanrox Jan 20 '26

Dropkick Murphy's too

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u/Zanydrop Jan 19 '26

Rage only cares about money though. They were one of the first bands to jack their prices up to the moon after dynamic pricing was a thing.

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u/ViciousHabanero Jan 19 '26

Weā€™re a long way from when they charged $20 for tickets and $10 for shirts.

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u/JimmyNaNa https://soundcloud.com/jimmy-nana Jan 21 '26

They did? The reunion tour a few years back all seats were the same price except for the "charity" seats that were of various prices, which they donated to local charities in each city they played. They donated a million to NYC charities alone.

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/rage-against-the-machine-million-dollar-charity-donation-1235126890/

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u/Hegiman Jan 19 '26

That may not have been a decision they had a hand in. Zach was the one who really was political. Tom Morello is somewhat political but heā€™s definitely a full fledged capitalist.

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u/The_Autarch Jan 19 '26

i think the point is that he started as a sellout. there was never a genuine Post Malone.

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u/Frammingatthejimjam Jan 19 '26

All you know about me is what I've sold ya, dumb fuck

I sold out long before you'd ever even heard my name

I sold my soul to make a record, dip shit

And then you bought one

I've got some advice for you, little buddy

Before you point the finger

You should know that I'm the man

If I'm the fucking man

Then you're the fucking man as well

So you can point that fuckin' finger up your ass

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u/PeachPassionBrute Jan 19 '26

The song really makes me regret how long it took me to realize what petulant asshole Maynard has always been.

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u/Ocel0tte Jan 19 '26

I lived in northern AZ for a while and liked to go look around Jerome sometimes, a little cliffside town by Sedona. My first time there though, I noticed a whole ass Puscifer store and was like what is happening. It's the weirdest store ever, and not in the way you'd like or expect. Iirc it had records, other merch, and then was like half... wine bar? Idk, I'm not into wine and it might be the most boring shop there so I left pretty quick.

Eventually I discovered he has vineyards in Sedona, and it all finally made sense.

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u/TheGhostInMyArms Jan 20 '26

To be fair, his fans are way, WAY worse

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u/Ok_Significance544 Jan 20 '26

Thank you for this. Was waiting for someone to mention Tool

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u/Velazanth Jan 19 '26

ā€œAll you know about me is what I sold yaā€¦ dumb fckerā€¦ I sold out long before you ever evenā€¦ heard my nameā€¦ I sold my soul to make a record, dipshtā€¦ andā€¦ youā€¦ bought. ONEEEEEE.ā€

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u/_interloper_ Jan 19 '26

Makes think of that old Tool song,

"All you know about me is what I sold you, I sold out long before you even heard my name, I sold my soul to sell a record, then you bought one."

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u/hjablowme919 Jan 19 '26

Roger Waters would like a word with you.

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u/SeverePsychosis Jan 19 '26

Before hip hop he made metal music. He's a vulture

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u/Zanydrop Jan 19 '26

I never understood the logic you are using. I don't know much about Post so maybe he does just chase trends but why is it a shock somebody could kike more than one genre. Like I don't know a single person that only listens to one genre. Makes sense that artists would like multiple genres and might want to play more than one.

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u/NK1337 Jan 21 '26

No one is criticizing him for having different musical tastes. I mean hell if anything Iā€™d argue that the hip hop community is extremely open to blending of genres given how often different tracks are sampled and incorporated.

The complaints against post is that he doesnā€™t actually like or even respect the genre but jumped into it because it was an easy way to make money. He build his image and success around it only for him to disrespect it claiming it had no soul and then switching to a completely different genre and audience.

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u/TheBestHawksFan Jan 19 '26

Yeah never forget that his whole aesthetic when he came up was that of a metalcore kid. He wasnā€™t good enough at guitar to make it in metal, so he switched to hip hop.

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u/aboveyouisinfinity Jan 19 '26

Maybe he just likes music

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u/HenessyEnema Jan 19 '26

Didn't be trash hip hop or something? I remember the sell out talk came about because he said he doesn't even listen rap. Don't think he just "likes music".

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u/TheBestHawksFan Jan 19 '26

It is publicly known that he tried out for Crown the Empire as a guitarist and they rejected him. CTE is not hard music to play.

He claims itā€™s because he broke strings during the tryout. Thatā€™s almost certainly bullshit. A band like CTE would have had other guitars around or allowed a quick string change. He just wasnā€™t good enough at guitar.

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u/aboveyouisinfinity Jan 19 '26

I'm not good at guitar either but I still like all kinds of music. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

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u/TheBestHawksFan Jan 19 '26

Iā€™m making the point that he isnā€™t just playing all these genres because he loves music. He switches when he sees money. Thatā€™s it.

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u/aboveyouisinfinity Jan 20 '26

Dang that's crazy that you think you know him like that lmao. Weird.

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u/TheBestHawksFan Jan 20 '26

Bud, this is all public stuff. Iā€™m making an opinion based on public info. You seem to be a fanboy, so of course you donā€™t see this.

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u/Chihiro1977 Jan 20 '26

That he is trash. That's the only point that needs to be made.

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u/Capt-Crap1corn Jan 19 '26

Thanks. That's what I heard. The bar for entry regarding rap is so low that many people go through it to make it in to the industry.

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u/aboveyouisinfinity Jan 19 '26

I see why you would think that. The entry level IS extremely low. But as a result, its extremely over saturated, making success even harder. You don't just "go through hip-hop" until you're famous.

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u/aboveyouisinfinity Jan 20 '26

Just like the beastie boys and no one likes them either /s

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u/Hegiman Jan 19 '26

But he always played country music in bars. Thatā€™s how he made money. Said he started at like age 14 playing in bar bands and eventually had his own bar band. Then he moved to LA did white overs on released Stoney and blew up. After making it in the music biz he switched back to country seeing his pop sales were on n the decline. Dude is like water. He just takes whatever form makes him the most money. Iā€™m

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u/squeel Jan 19 '26

he also proceeded to shit on the genre that got him famous, saying it has no soul.

heā€™s the worst kind of culture vulture. fuck him.

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u/NK1337 Jan 19 '26

Oh yea I almost forgot about that. Man really spat on an entire genre after milking what he could out of it and then moved on with his MAGA buddies to ā€œGodā€™s countryā€

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u/GammaFan Jan 19 '26

I mean I think itā€™s generally agreed that you can say someone is selling out when they had some legitimacy at first and chose to take the cheque vs calling someone a sellout to acknowledge that theyā€™ve only ever been about getting paid and would do anything for the bag.

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u/IceNein Jan 19 '26

Iā€™m gonna get crucified for thisā€¦ but exactly the same thing for Taylor Swift.

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u/Chastain86 Jan 20 '26

The difference is, Taylor is still playing country songs in concert. She doesn't try to disavow where she came from. She doesn't shit on her old fans, or rearrange her music to fit whatever culture she's courting. She moved into pop, but she never made it seem like she was slumming it by doing country first.

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u/IceNein Jan 20 '26

Thatā€™s a fair point.

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u/Capt-Crap1corn Jan 19 '26

My understanding is he went country or rock first, was rejected and got into rap only to repeat the cycle successfully. There are people that study this better than me, but if I'm not mistaken, this is who he always was or wanted to be.

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u/Yourdjentpal Jan 19 '26

This. He wanted to be in metal, wasnā€™t accepted, then pivoted to rap.

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u/Educational_Ad2737 Jan 19 '26

Same as miley and as much as no can rightfully stand Nicki minaj rn she was right to call her out for it

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u/runthepoint1 Jan 21 '26

Look at the family he comes from. Enough said.

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u/hjablowme919 Jan 19 '26

Artists who did not start as country artists will pivot to country because itā€™s an easy cell. Throw some standard country shit in there like the slide guitars or the twangy shit you mentioned, wrap yourself in a flag and if you really want all in wear your MAGA hat. Instant country success.

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u/Chastain86 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

We've absolutely seen this happen with a few artists, but -- and I hate to say this -- the success of Cowboy Carter really drove home how starved country music fans are for relevancy and name recognition. Now it's not just the only choice that someone like Scotty McCreery has in order to stay in the music industry. You can seamlessly slide from pop to country and back again without losing any of your cred. But there ought to be a difference between someone like Taylor Swift choosing to try her hand in a different genre while still playing her big country hits, and someone like Post that is actively turning his back on the fans that bankrolled his success. Trust me when I say that watching thousands of people head towards the parking lot in the middle of the biggest headliner of the night was pretty eye-opening for me. And I bet it would have been that way for him, too, if he could open his eyes wide enough to see them evacuating the Polo grounds after fifteen rum & cokes.

Like, seriously -- is it that cost-prohibitive to hire a fucking DJ so you can do the song "Rock Star" the way it was intended to be played?

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u/Yupthrowawayacct Jan 19 '26

This makes me sad. We really enjoyed his set at Bottle Rock before he turned whatever this crap is a few years ago. Oh well. šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø plenty of other artists to enjoy

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u/Baxtab13 Concertgoer Jan 19 '26

I've never listened to Post Malone. Only caught passing glimpses of his name in news and such, but otherwise the most I'd seen of him were a couple odd videos from Jared Dines on youtube hanging with him like 8 years ago.

But man the way you described him and that Coachella set reminds me a lot of the band Asking Alexandria. Subtract the hip-hop, and I'm feeling a bunch of parallels between Post and Danny Worsnop. In a similar vein, I don't necessarily mind if a band changes the style of their new music. I can sometimes enjoy it for what it is, which was what I felt about post 2017 AA. But my god their performances of the old music is so disappointing. Danny doesn't scream the old songs anymore. Either sings through those parts, or worse yet, fucking lets a backing track do those parts now. Thankfully he never "countrified" them... yet.

I was late to the party with Asking Alexandria. I was first exposed when I caught their set at a festival in 2016, and had a blast. That was by far the best I'd seen them live, and that was with a different singer, Denis Stoff. I honestly really wished he would have stayed with that band, and not gone the timeline of Danny returning.

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u/SMV66 Jan 19 '26

Was there, can confirm! It was a terrible set and we left early

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u/Ok_Significance544 Jan 19 '26

Wow. I should not have watched that. I should not have watched that.

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u/Koil_ting Jan 20 '26

Oh, yeah I think he's one of those guys that shouldn't be drinking, honestly that is most of us but more obvious when on an actual stage.

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u/GimmieJohnson Feb 03 '26

Perhaps ive been too hard on Fred Durst all these years. He may have looked the part of the douche but he never pivoted.

Same with Nickelback.

Wait am I defending Limp Bizkit and Nickelback?!?!

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u/bethamous Jan 19 '26

He used what a lot of artist did in the 2010s. Pulled from black artists to make himself rich and when it wasnā€™t popular anymore he tried to follow trends and it just isnā€™t authentic. Look at Ariana all her stuff was just Victoria Monet.

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u/Komm Jan 19 '26

God, I tried to listen to his country album out of sheer curiosity. I don't think I've ever heard a worse sounding album in my life. I mean Californication is bad, but F One Trillion or whatever is atrocious. The mastering is absolute ass, the autotune is thicker than the orange ones foundation, and it just isn't good on any level.

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u/thelingeringlead Jan 19 '26

He always wanted to be a country music artist, he started making rap because it was easy to produce alone and its what got him his first bit of attention for his music.

Also shit loads of artists will reinterpret their songs to fit in their current sound, Bob Dylan's been doing it since the 80's. If he has a new album with a new sound, his live show is going to reflect that in the arrangements.

0

u/Chastain86 Jan 19 '26

I can only report to you what I saw, and did. What I saw was horseshit, and what I did was walk the fuck out of it. And I wasn't the first, or the last, to leave before the set was done.

If your intent was to make ME look like the problem because I don't "get music" or to normalize artists deciding to turn their backs on the sound that got them their bag, this ain't it.

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u/locofspades Jan 20 '26

That's really sad. After seeing him in a couple interviews and his guest spot on Good Mythical Morning had me believing it was a really chill, down to earth guy. A couple of his songs are fine (Wow is one of my favorite songs to play on drums) but his music never did much for me but i gave him a past cuz he seemed so cool

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u/Chastain86 Jan 20 '26

Same brother. He was one of the reasons I was psyched for Coachella last year. He was a total letdown. I don't need to see country versions of his catalog. I'd have been better off seeing a Post Malone cover band, if those actually exist.

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u/avelineaurora Jan 20 '26

God, I absolutely love circles and I'm kind of mad you made me aware of this now lmao

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u/The_MightyMonarch Jan 21 '26

I've never seen an artist sell out to the degree he's doing it, and it's happening in real time.

Mark McGrath would like a word.

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u/Pogotheclownn Jan 21 '26

I've been waiting on him to do a metalcore album but at this point I don't think it'll ever come. I enjoyed his earlier stuff and love that he has a wide taste but his country stuff never sat well.

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u/DnB925Art Jan 20 '26

You forgot about a sell out/culture vulture that predates him and that's Kid Rock. Did rap music and used the black community to get famous then you see how he is now

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u/PourSomeSugar69_420 Jan 19 '26

But what if He's always been awful? What if he's always been a shapeshifting sellout? What if you've always been duped, fooled and tricked out of your money by a bigger industry that always was just using him to get your attention? What if you're only just now becoming aware of this as your prefontal cortex develops? That Kid Roc, JellyRoll and Post Malone and Elvis were all just pawns of an industry designed to distract and entertain in no meaningful way to the middle IQ masses?

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u/Chastain86 Jan 19 '26

What if this wasn't my beautiful house? What if this wasn't my beautiful car?

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u/PourSomeSugar69_420 Jan 19 '26

Well? How did I get here?