David Morris takes a rural-to-streaming hip-hop road to country's mainstream

Though he's existed roughly one-tenth as long as George Strait as a mainstream musical artist, independent rising rapper David Morris has approximately one-quarter as many TikTok followers as the King of Country Music.

However, if you're paying close attention to country music's ever-growing influence on streaming charts, the level of impact that the Charleston, West Virginia-native's cover of Strait's "Carrying Your Love" and of "Dutton Ranch Freestyle" – the latter an ode to Paramount+ program "Yellowstone" and to making passes at young women who love "cheap drinks, tattoos, and Morgan Wallen" – highlight better than most anything else currently how country's digital democratization is evolving and expanding the genre's traditions.

"On a global scale, country music is spreading," Morris told The Tennessean. "In this generation, with the advent of social media, country music is becoming a melting pot where genres blend and songs become more reflective of [trends] that fans embrace. Call it or label it however you want, it's just good music."

Morris is not an industry neophyte running up the algorithmic score for a fast cash-in. Nor is he some Walker Hayes clone familiar to Music City executives as a pop-country songwriter with a deft touch around hook-driven R&B.

"I'm in a left-of-center lane where, because I can't [sing or rap] like Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen or Kendrick Lamar, I have to use the talent I'm blessed with as a songwriter to create my style," Morris says.

To discover how and why Morris excels, drive along the Monongahela River and Interstate 79 between Pittsburgh and the Morgantown campus of West Virginia University. The roots of Morris' hip-hop career exist within the red Solo plastic cups, keg stands, and lifted Ford F-150 trucks of that area's tailgate and dive bar-driven culture.

"If you're from a small town anywhere in America, you dig my music," says Morris.

He notes that party life in most small towns includes sampling "bits and pieces" from a diverse array of larger cities whose musical moments have influenced American popular culture in the past two decades.

Whether 2Pac's final years in Los Angeles, Nelly's St. Louis roots, Jay-Z doing it big for Brooklyn, Eminem's time on Detroit's Eight Mile Road, or T.I.'s trapping as a "Rubberband Man" in Atlanta, they're all important.

Equally as important given that Charleston and Morgantown are located deep in the heart of Appalachia is rock sounds erring toward Whiskey Myers' "Ballad of a Southern Man," AC/DC favorite "Thunderstruck," or pop-country hits from anywhere in the genre's nine-decade history.

Stories of pulling up to tailgate parties and hearing an "eclectic" blend of the latest hits from Kenny Chesney and Luke Combs alongside Drake, the Ying Yang Twins and John Denver's "Country Roads Take Me Home" dot Morris' telling of the core elements that drive his music's appeal.

He also adds that Morgantown's connection to West Virginia University is vital, as the atmosphere provided by a college town lends itself to attracting a "young diverse and national population that loves to party" and serves as a "petri dish" to develop his music.

Moreover, he's currently working with the upstart team at Nashville's Grey Area Artist Management, including Collin McMillan (ex-tour manager, Drake White), Sean Pace (ex-director of streaming marketing for Universal Music Group (UMG)/Digmark), Joe Putnam (ex-radio promoter, UMG), and singer-songwriter Melanie Dewey.

Morris praises his veteran management team as a "great crew."

"Dutton Ranch Freestyle" was a fortuitous accident. While sitting in the studio, producer Brandon Manley began to snap his can of chewing tobacco in a manner that resembled a metronome. Stunned by the sound, Morris asked him to record it into a studio microphone for the track he had just opened on his computer. Then he suggested he strum a few banjo licks on top of the smacking of the can. From there, they added an already crafted, soulful trap instrumental. The final touch, the sound of a can of Busch Light opening, was then added.

"I've been a fan of 'Yellowstone' for a long time and written a few 'Yellowstone'-themed bars over the show's theme song for fun," Morris says. "So I took those and put them in the song. ['Dutton Ranch Freestyle'] is a bunch of little ideas I had over a month, shouting out a lot of things."

The track has reached the top of the Billboard Digital Sales and iTunes Country charts, plus it has been TikTok's most-played country song.

The tune, he says, mirrors how he's accompanied the rollout of every project for the past three years with a "fun, standalone single" that "resets and refreshes" his fans' attraction to his music and support of his artistic growth.

Country and rap's modern hybrid is growing in acclaim with songs like "Dutton Ranch Freestyle." However, Morris' earlier viral moment, covering Strait's "Carrying Your Love" in June, was arguably met with more derision than positivity. The moment felt similar to that of Walker Hayes' 2021 success with "Fancy Like," which spurred similar online disgust from country music traditionalists.

Morris notes that "Fancy Like" was a Grammy-nominated triple-platinum seller, keyed as much by controversy-fueled algorithm-spiking engagement as being "a hell of a song by a hell of a songwriter."

He adds that "like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Tom Brady, every great thing in life has criticism. So if people love or hate my music, it's all exciting to me. If you love it, great; if you hate it, keep it moving."

From growing up listening to Chesney, Strait, and Tim McGraw on his way to little league practice in his mother's minivan to touring nationally with acts like digital and viral-leaning artist Kidd G, Morris says he's glad to be expanding what he feels is his home state's underrepresented place in popular culture.

"People are really listening to my music and that means so much to me," he says. "I just think that above everything else, it's cool to represent my hometown on a bigger scale."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: West Virginia's David Morris takes a diverse road to country success