The latest single from Breland is a head-turner — and it just may be a contender for song of the summer. “In My Truck,” the first release from the country singer in two years, is an upbeat earworm that interpolates 50 Cent‘s immortal 2003 blockbuster “In Da Club.” The entire song rests on swapping out the word “club” for “truck,” a move so obvious that it’s almost genius.
“In My Truck” has all the hallmarks of a summer country hit: tight jeans, country boys, rhyming the word “truck” with “mud.” But its main precedent (and clear template) is a song that traveled far past country radio: “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” the 2024 Shaboozey single that transformed another early aughts hip-hop hit (J-Kwon’s “Tipsy”) into a crossover country-pop phenomenon. Like “Bar Song,” “In My Truck” trades hip-hop lyrical tropes for country signifiers (In this truck we drink whiskey, not Bacardi), while also inserting its own name brand to juxtapose with the down-home lyrics (In “Bar Song” it’s a Birkin; in Breland’s latest it’s a Rado watch).
But as much as it’s impossible not to view “In My Truck,” in part, as an attempt to follow the same path to crossover success as Shaboozey’s breakthrough, the song is also the culmination of Breland’s long and fascinating journey within country music. Over the past half-dozen years, the New Jersey native has become one of the most thoughtful artists (and in-demand collaborators) in country, unafraid to both speak his mind or experiment with genre. See his 2024 song “Grandmaman’em,” a song that offers an entirely fresh take — both sonically and lyrically — on the grand country tradition of songs that pay homage to ancestors.
But Breland’s new song is also a sequel to his 2019 debut, a trailblazing country-trap anthem with virtually the same title: “My Truck.”
“There are certain songs of mine that may make you say, ‘This is a country song.’ You may say, ‘This is a hip-hop song,’ he told Rolling Stone in 2020. “Ultimately, I think that’s a good thing. It’s progress. I think the less we feel the need to put labels on music, the less we feel the need to put labels on people. That’s how we move forward in culture.”
Last year, during an appearance on the Nashville Now podcast, Breland talked about the influx of pop artists into country and why some find success and others don’t. “I think that country music is fine with certain artists coming over here if they do it with the artists that they trust,” he said. “For BigXthaPlug, and I don’t know what he might feel like — ‘Nah, I haven’t been accepted here at all …,’ I don’t want to assume — but what it looks like to me is that BigXthaPlug started doing some of these collabs with much success and then decided, ‘Hey, I’m going to lean all the way in and do a whole collab album with all of these pop and country artists, and it’s gonna work.’”
Breland teased “In My Truck” earlier this month on Joe & Jada, the podcast from Fat Joe and Jadakiss, who both raved about the song’s hit potential and emphasized how hard it was to get permission to use 50 Cent’s enduring hit (Breland says he also got the approval of Dr. Dre, who co-produced “In Da Club”). “He made history” raved Jadakiss, “he got something cleared that’s almost impossible to clear. That’s telling you it’s going to be a hit.”
Whether or not it catches on and becomes the song of the summer, “In My Truck” stands as one of the most obviously catchy songs we’ve heard in a long while.
MacGowan and Bruce Springsteen, 2023 Victoria Mary Clarke*
