Morgan Wallen May Not Have Actually Donated $500,000 To Black Causes, As He Promised
Morgan Wallen may have lied about donating a lot of money to Black causes after his n-word controversy, as Rolling Stone did an investigation into his claim and found that the math was not mathing. One organization roasted his post-n-word racial efforts, and called Morgan’s number “exceptionally misleading.” Well, maybe Morgan is as good with numbers as he is with racial issues?
After Morgan was caught on camera saying the n-word in February, his music sales jumped. His album, Dangerous: The Double Album, was already charting, but after his n-word video was leaked, his album sales increased by 1,220% and song sales went up 327%. Billboard estimated that within nine days of sales, Morgan made over $2 million in music revenue. No wonder Megyn Kelly loves being racist so much! It pays the bills!
Morgan did suffer some consequences beyond getting mad richer; CMT removed his videos (and a source told RS they still don’t have them up) and his booking agent, WME, dropped him (which a source also confirmed Morgan is not one of their clients). The Academy of Country Music made him ineligible for the 2021 ACM Awards and the Country Music Association disqualified him from their upcoming awards–although he is still nominated as a “collaborative nomination” for Album of the Year. He was also “suspended” from his recording contract (his suspension is now over) and was off country radio (some stations have started to play him again, and his new song is charting at 25 on country radio).
In July, Morgan did an apology interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America. During the interview, Morgan promised to donate $500,000 to causes, starting with BMAC, the Black Music Action Coalition. But Rolling Stone recently spoke with BMAC and they pretty much roasted Morgan for filth. They did receive money from Morgan but not $500,000 which they said: “seems exceptionally misleading.” They got $165,000 in April and said they were “appreciative of the money” which they used for “grants directly to Black musicians through our Covid Emergency Relief Fund.” But they also dragged Morgan saying they were “disappointed that Morgan has not used his platform to support any anti-racism endeavors.”
RS called 56 other charities in Tennessee (where Morgan is from) which were Black-led, or Black-founded and none of them got any money either, nor had they been in contact with him or his people.
Morgan could have made anonymous donations, but RS pointed out that Morgan did quite a lot of public charity work since. In June, Morgan had a surprise performance at the Brett Boyer Foundation, raising money for children with congenital heart disease and Down syndrome. July, he launched the More Than My Hometown Foundation. And two weeks ago, Morgan performed at a benefit concert with other stars Dierks Bentley, Cole Swindell, and Breland–the next day, a press release went out from Morgan’s publicist saying the event, called Morgan Wallen & Friends, raised $725,000 for the victims of the Humphreys County flood in Tennessee.
BMAC also dissed Morgan’s response to Michael Strahan’s question in July about a race problem existing in country music which Morgan replied at the time: “It would seem that way, yeah. I haven’t really sat and thought about that.” BMAC was confused since that was like, the whole point of their conversations?
“We are confused as to how Morgan has not given any thought as to whether there is a race problem in country music, given the amount of time and energy we have specifically spent with him discussing this very issue. We would like to be clear: as our recent Report Card illustrates, there absolutely is a race problem in country music.
RS tried to speak to get a statement from Morgan’s reps about this, but they were either ignored or given vague responses. But after they published their article, the responses poured in, girl! CEO of Morgan’s label, Big Loud, Seth England, said that it was Big Loud and not Morgan himself who donated the $500,000 so that explained how there was no record of it.
England also highlighted as part of Big Loud’s donations $100,000 given to an outfit called “Rock Against Racism.” It’s a project of 5B Artists + Media, the managers of rock acts like Slipknot and Megadeth. In 2020, 5B applied to trademark the term for a concert series, and the Rock Against Racism Instagram account features a recent post offering a “last chance to win a VIP trip to the metal tour of the year.” The Rock Against Racism website, however, says it is a “fiscally sponsored project of The Giving Back Fund, a 501(c)(3)” nonprofit.
Finally, England claimed that Big Loud’s donations included “$300,000 to BMAC & Other Black Leader’s [sic] organizations of choice.” The money, he says, was given via the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a venerable Los Angeles nonprofit co-founded by Humphrey Bogart. For its part, BMAC insists it ultimately received only $165,000 — and stands by its statement that Wallen’s $500,000 pledge appears “misleading.”
I guess Morgan will just have to let out a slur on video again to pay the charity donation he promised. This is not shocking to me at all whatsoever. Although, there is one way to fix this problem. As recompense for sharing Morgan’s music that one time by accident, Justin Bieber should cover Morgan’s false donations! Hand over the money, Justin! Add in some extra for those MLK samples, too!
Pic: Judy Eddy/WENN.com