Hip-Hop, Rap Plus Country for TTT

**Magandang buhay!** The hubby had been playing these yesterday and thought they were quite nice, so I wanted to showcase them today as my participation in the TTT initiative by Ablaze. When asked how he found them, he said it was on TikTok. Gotcha! I didn't know he was using the app, lol! It's a good thing, though, at least we get to discover new stuff (including these artists and songs) Anyway, this first tune brought back some nostalgia. We had some jamming buddies in the past, and while all our craziness from those days had become vague to remember, we certainly did not forget our friends and the fun we had then. ## Brent Morgan - Friends We Won't Forget

Country it is! One of our favorite genres ever since. The nostalgia the lyrics bring makes the song quite good to listen to. Although I thought it was a tad too short. Moving on, the second tune was rather unexpected. We are not big fans of hip-hop or rap, but this collaboration was a nice surprise, especially with the incorporation of country elements. ## BigXthaPlug ft Jelly Roll - Box Me Up

I love Roll's powerful delivery with his raspy, evocative, and soulful vocals. I also like BigX's cool and clean punchlines. The track is included in BigX's album **I Hope You're Happy**, which, accordingly, is the artist's heart, and I quote: > This album’s my heart, my story — the love, the loss, the heartbreak, the grind. I wanted people to feel it all with me, the highs, the lows, the real life that shapes you. I Hope You’re Happy is me mixing my urban roots with that country soul, tellin’ my story straight up, just me. ^{[*(src)*](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bigxthaplug-jelly-roll-box-me-up-music-video-1235414023/)} By the way, the album was recently released (August 22nd), so it might not be that popular yet, but I think it won't take long for it to become a hit. And because I like Roll that much already, I'm making his 2020 single as my third tune recommendation for the day. This was included in his album **Self-Medicated.** ## Jelly Roll - Save Me

This isn't my first time listening to this song, but it always feels like it is. Roll's heartfelt delivery is amazing, and the stripped-down acoustic instrumentation perfectly matched it. He seemed to be very vulnerable in this version, yet it's beautiful anyway. Accordingly, the song's inspiration came from a *dark space* during the pandemic, re: > It was the middle of the pandemic. And when I say middle of it, I mean we were spraying boxes with Lysol. And I just couldn't sit through that. I was like, "We got to work." And I was in such a dark space because of that; I knew I needed to write. My father had just died a year before. So I'm still learning how to grieve through that. And then I'm like, "We got to write. I got to get this out of me." So "Save Me" came from a really dark space. It's still really hard to sing. ^{[*(src)*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_Me_(Jelly_Roll_song))} And with that, let me end this TTT edition for the week. Cheers!