A Crossroads Like No Other

As everyone is well-aware, Kanye West and 50 Cent are having a big feud over President Bush. West, as we remember, famously declared that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson then countered that he had no idea what West was talking about, that the hurricane was just God's way of getting his message across. 50 Cent then went on to praise the president and bemoan the fact that he could not vote for Bush, because Jackson is a felon*. This got me thinking about CMT's Crossroads. As you know, this show takes artists from across genres who are, presumably, fans of each other's music, and puts them onstage together. But, as is so obvious that I'm loathe to get into it, country music and rap have tons in common--violence, love of guns, bad-ass masculinity, big concerns about authenticity, name-checking fellow artists in songs, promoting a lifestyle presumably looked down on by the dominant culture, love of booze, emphasis on the importance of the role of the producer, etc. etc.--and yet there's been no real rap/country Crossroads**. Now, Tim McGraw did do that duet with Nelly, but, let's face it, it sucked. It was a ring tone in search of some phones and nothing more. And I'm not seeing too many other rappers admitting a love of country music or visa versa. But what if we could put folks together by politics? Imagine 50 Cent on stage with Darryl Worley. It might be enough to rescue both of them from their equally bizarre and mediocre careers or, and we can only hope, it would ruin both of them forever. *Thus proving how little Jackson understands about how politics work in predominately Democratic places like NYC and Chicago, but that's neither here nor there. **No, Bob and Bocephus don't count.