Joe Rogan poked fun at the outrage Oliver Anthony’s hit song Rich Men North of Richmond has caused following its release.
The US singer - whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford - went viral with his song, which then went on to claim the number one spot in the Billboard Hot 100 - a feat that is all the more impressive due to the fact the singer had no prior history in the music charts.
The track was even recently used during the Republican presidential debate - much to the singer’s annoyance.
On YouTube, Anthony explained that he wrote the song to ‘give hope to the working class and your average hardworking young man who may have lost hope in the grind of trying to get by’.
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However, some have criticized the lyrics of the song, which includes the line: "If you’re five-foot-three and you’re 300 pounds, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds." The song also claims that ‘obese’ people are ‘milking welfare’.
Actor Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight in The Office, was one of those who hit out against the lyrics, writing on social media: "If I were writing a song about ‘rich men north of richmond’ I wouldn't talk about obese people on welfare, I’d sing about CEOs who make 400 times their average workers salary (up from 50 times 30 years ago) and corps that pay zero taxes and offshore tax shelters for billionaires."
Anthony appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, where he spoke about his sudden and swift rise to fame.
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During the course of the podcast, Rogan made reference to Wilson’s post, saying: "There is nothing funnier than millionaires talking s**t about billionaires. There is nothing funnier about millionaires pretending, ‘these billionaires are out-of-touch.’"
He continued: "Take Dwight from The Office down to West Virginia, take him through those coal-mining countries, take him through those places in Appalachia where people have extreme poverty.”
Before Anthony added: "Throughout rural Virginia, that poverty is a big issue, and drugs are a big issue, and I mean it's not just even in the rural areas, and you go into downtown Richmond or any downtown anywhere for that matter.”
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Anthony has previously hit out at ‘certain politicians’ using the song to try and get across the message that ‘we’re fighting the same struggle here’.
In a clip uploaded to YouTube, he said: “The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up in this.
“I’m disappointed to see… like, it’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me, like I’m one of them.”
Claire Reid