The history of racist music includes a huge list of names. This particular entry into the Boondocks’ cannon focuses on Jimmy Rebel, a sort of hillbilly outlaw. And yeah, his lyrics are given over to overtly racist stuff, but honestly, if you like country music, you’d probably like his discography.

None of the following is meant to sanction music purveying a racist message, that’d be ignorant. But there are a few issues that need to be addressed. Firstly, there’s unquestionably some anti-white sentiment in rap music. It’s not pervasive by any means. And of course, Tipper Gore’s cohort would be up in arms after listening to some Brand Nubian tracks, but it’s worth noting the existence of the form.

Secondly, there’s actually some pretty well construed racist rock music. It’s admittedly difficult to get past all of the nonsense being passed off as politics, but really, Skrewdriver was a pretty good band for a few years. That’s not negotiable.

Lastly, the fact that all of this white power music is able to sustain itself while being detached from a broad audience is a remarkable feat of business planning. Of course, there’re probably more listeners to this fair than would care to admit, but it still represents only the slimmest portion of the market share. Either way, the direct marketing and do it yourself approach to independent (racist) music is admirable even if the product those folks seek to hock isn’t.

"The Story of Jimmy Rebel" begins with Ruckus crooning a self effacing country track and shipping it off to his avowed idol. With the music mogul being struck by what he hears, Rebel sets out to hunt down the song’s singer. When meeting Ruckus face to face, Rebel can’t believe who wrote what. But Ruckus understanding the lay of the land comes up with some story about a white guy who wrote and recorded the track.

Ruckus’ attempt to stave off the truth eventually disintegrates. Afterwards, he and Rebel end up going in on a few recordings together. Despite what one might think of the music in the episode, the reception that the duo receives isn’t an auspicious or befitting one. Rebel soldiers on even after he figures that there are black folks out there that he actually likes.

Ruckus being Ruckus, though, when he hears that sentiment related, books it and disavows his hillbilly music idol. Not a shock given the character. But it brings up a host of questions about the black community. And while there aren’t (most likely) folks who subscribe to the same belief system as Ruckus, there’s got to be a schism dividing those black folks who don’t like whites from those that don’t see the point in pursuing racism (as a side, there’s no such thing as reverse racism).

Whatever the case, though, McGruder conceived of another rather light plot idea that was able to examine American culture and race in our country today. At this point, even if you liked the episode, it shouldn’t have been too surprising. Hearing Ruckus sing, though, was.