Yelawolf & J. Michael Phillips - Whiskey & Roses (2025) Hi-Res

More than 25 years after Kid Rock’s Devil Without a Cause first proved that country, rock and hip-hop could coexist, Yelawolf and J. Michael Phillips have arrived to show us how that ambitious blend has evolved. Whiskey & Roses doesn’t just blur genre lines—it obliterates them entirely.

The opening track “Helping Hand” immediately signals that this isn’t your typical country-rap experiment. Drawing from Three Doors Down’s early 2000s rock sensibilities while channeling contemporary Jelly Roll’s hopeful energy, it works in ways that shouldn’t make sense but somehow does. Phillips delivers lines like “I’m not the same old me that I used to be / I done fell off the branches a long time ago from my family tree” with the kind of raw vulnerability that cuts through genre expectations and speaks directly to anyone who’s ever felt lost on life’s highway.

This is soul music, disguised as country trap, dressed up as hip-hop.

“I Swear” might be the album’s most audacious moment—imagine “Ghost Riders in the Sky” colliding with The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm,” filtered through contemporary rap sensibilities. Phillips sounds like a grittier Colter Wall, while Yelawolf’s unique melodic approach creates something that feels both formulaic and completely original. It’s the sound of country music’s future, and the future is now.

The album’s true secret weapon is its unpredictability. “Amnesia” serves up the catchiest hooks with hilariously relatable lyrics about toxic relationships: “You a peloton just a peddler/With your mouth open like a pelican(I know you well)/On the Instagram you a simpleton/With ya fake account check your bank accounts.” It’s sharp, clever and infectious—the kind of song that gets stuck in your head for days.

Then “Falling” throws you completely off balance with its EDM influences, channeling artists like Zhu into something that feels both electronic and organic. This album is all over the place in the best possible way, refusing to be categorized or contained.

“Searching for Heaven” stands as the album’s emotional centerpiece. With its Linkin Park-influenced approach complementing deeply personal lyrics, it showcases how this style can handle serious emotional weight: “Searchin’ for heaven / I found the devil / Never be ready / When it’s your time.” The track builds from introspective verses to soaring choruses that feel like catharsis set to music.

This isn’t just genre experimentation for its own sake—it’s two artists finding the perfect sonic vehicle for their stories. Phillips, who spent years in and out of prison before finding his calling in music, brings authentic street credibility to country storytelling. Yelawolf, the Alabama native who’s spent two decades pushing boundaries, provides the perfect creative collaborator. He knew he would. That’s why he stepped in as executive producer.

The album’s boldest statement comes with tracks like “Giddy Up,” which introduces what might be called Country Trap as a legitimate subgenre. Some traditionalists might resist, but this is evolution in action—taking the outlaw mentality that’s always defined the best country music and introducing it to a new generation through contemporary production and delivery. Hank definitely didn’t do it this way.

“Big Truck” drives this point home with all the swagger of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin'” filtered through a country lens. It’s both throwback and breakthrough, honoring the past while blazing new trails.

“All I Ever Seen” provides the ideal album closer, with its contagious cowboy riff and beat creating the perfect synthesis of country, rock, and hip-hop. Lines like “The sun gone shine / And the sky gone rain / It’s hard to be happy / If you don’t know pain” capture the album’s central theme: life’s beauty and brutality exist simultaneously, and great art emerges from embracing both.

Whiskey & Roses was produced by Taysty and recorded by Jason Mott worked at East Iris Studios in Nashville, with additional sessions at Point Lorraine in Red Boiling Springs, Tennesee and Executive Studios in Tampa. Mott also handled mixing and mastering. Mike Hartnett and Colton Parker provided guitar.

The album title says it all—life is harsh and it’s great, it’s whiskey and roses. This music captures that duality perfectly, creating something that’s both celebration and confession, party anthem and prayer.