Jason Aldean's controversial "Try That in a Small Town" was quietly edited Tuesday night to remove clips of Black Lives Matter protests.
The video is six seconds shorter now than it was when first uploaded to YouTube two weeks ago. It no longer features Fox News clips depicting the 2020 protests. The Washington Post, which first reported the changes, noted that additional edits also appear to have been made.
Jason Aldean Edits Music Video
It is unclear why the changes were made, but the edits came shortly after the video received national attention for its message, which some dubbed "pro-lynching."
The original edit of the music video featured clips from the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, showing protestors burning American flags and clashing with law enforcement as the lyrics threatened violence against those who "cuss out a cop" or "stomp on the flag."
Some of the lyrics read: “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face, Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough, Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road."
Many commenters online noted that the words seem to invoke the image of a "sundown town" — all-White towns in the United States that exclude people of color through threats of violence and lynchings.
Another notable detail in the video was its filming location — in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. In 1927, the courthouse was the site of the brutal lynching of 18-year-old Henry Choate, a Black man who was dragged behind a car by a White mob and hanged from a second-story courthouse window.
Aldean still performs in front of the courthouse in the new edit of the music video.
The video played on country music channel CMT upon its release, but was pulled from the cable network just days later. A representative for CMT confirmed to Yahoo on Tuesday that “the video is no longer in rotation,” but offered no explanation. It remains unclear whether or not the network will allow the edited video to air.
