Oliver Anthony went from virtually unknown to being at the very top of the charts with his hit song, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which went viral for lyrics such as “Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothing to eat / And the obese milking welfare / Well God, if you’re 5 foot 3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds” and “Livіng in thе new world / With аn оld soul / Тheѕe rich men north of richmond / Lord knows they all just wanna havе totаl cоntrol / Wanna know what you think wannа know what уоu do / Аnd they don’t think you know but I knоw that you do / ’cause your dollar аіn’t shit and it’ѕ taхed tо no end / ‘сausе of rich men north of Richmond.”
Another one of those lyrics, however, one that has gone relatively unmentioned thanks to the primarily economically populist message of the song, calls out Epstein and human trafficking: “І wish politіcians would loоk out for miners / And not juѕt minors оn аn island somewhere.”
Listen to the song, including the human trafficking lyric, here:
Anthony emphasized the ant-human trafficking message of the show in a video about his political views and the meaning behind the song, saying, “It touches base on human trafficking and the atrocities that, you know. I sit pretty dead center down the aisle on politics, and I always have. I remember as a kid the conservatives wanting war and me not understanding that, and I remember a lot of the controversies when the left took office and it seems like, you know, both sides serve the same master and that master is not someone of any good to the people of this country.”
Watch that video here:
During that video, Anthony also described his background and noted that the wealthy financiers and Swamp creatures north of Richmond in DC and New York City are doing their best to make life difficult for people like him, saying, “‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ touches on my time in Western North Carolina working in the factory. It talks about some people that live north of Richmond, Virginia, who I’m sure you’re very aware of, who make life a little more difficult than it should be.”
In the same video Anthony noted that he started singing so that he wouldn’t feel like he was wasting his life after many nights of drinking and smoking, saying, “I really started to write my music back in 2021. Things were obviously not good for a lot of people, and in some respects, I was one of those people,” Anthony told listeners in the lengthy clip. “I had wasted a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk, and I had sort of gotten to a point in my life where even things that I did care about didn’t mean anything to me anymore….”
But, whatever his background, with an anti-human trafficking and economically populist message, no wonder the powers that be hate Anthony for his music.
Featured image credit: Screengrab from the embedded video
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