Ludacris Will No Longer Perform At MAGA-Adjacent Country Festival

The Rock The Country music festival precipitated some hip-hop controversy this 12 months after they revealed Nelly and Ludacris as performers. With a shifting line-up, the country-music pageant will happen in eight small United States cities on a number of weekends from May 1 by September 12. Founded in 2024 by Kid Rock, the pageant has drawn some controversy for its unofficial associations with U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters, which had rappers like Luda caught in heavy backlash.

Nelly has supported Donald Trump before, so he didn’t garner the identical degree of shock and disappointment from many followers. However, in line with a Rolling Stone report, the Champaign native has now dropped out of the pageant. A Rock The Country consultant confirmed this and advised the outlet to hunt out his group “for any further feedback,” which they did. According to Luda’s consultant, his inclusion on the lineup was “a mix-up,” including that “strains received crossed, and he wasn’t purported to be on there.”

To be clear, the Rock The Country pageant isn’t a political occasion in any means, nor does it explicitly align itself professionally or ideologically with Trump and the MAGA motion. But earlier iterations did maintain some political weight.

For instance, Donald Trump himself offered headliner Kid Rock final 12 months with a video message on the pageant, telling the gang to “struggle” and “win for the American folks.” In 2024, Gavin Adcock went off on then-president Joe Biden, shouting “F**okay you Joe Biden, you c**k-sucking motherf***er” onstage.

Still, at press time, we do not have a lot of a deeper clarification from the “44 Bars” MC himself or his group relating to the particular circumstances of his drop-out. Maybe it was a scheduling or communication battle because the assertion to Rolling Stone suggests, or perhaps the hip-hop fan backlash grew robust sufficient to trigger a reversal. Either means, followers would nonetheless admire a extra thorough message.