Joseph Hudak
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Fetty Wap made his CMA Fest debut with Russell Dickerson on Sunday night in Nashville. Terry Wyatt/WireImage Over the last year or so, Russell Dickerson has found his lane. A singer of country music love songs when he first launched with ballads like “Yours,” the Tennessee native has broken through by following his whims. If that means adopting a pro-wrestling aesthetic (his “RussellMania” branding is particularly inspired) or teaming up with the rapper Fetty Wap, so be it.
Dickerson indulged the former idea last month when he recruited Fetty for the earworm spelling bee “Boots,” a 80/20 mix of trap and country music. “Girl, where’d you get those Lucchese square toes?/ You floating like an angel with a neon halo,” Dickerson sings, providing the song with its lyrical rural signifiers. Onstage at CMA Fest on Sunday, Dickerson performed the song live, with a surprise appearance by Fetty Wap himself.
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The rapper’s cameo wasn’t remarkable because it happened at a country music festival — we’ve seen plenty of those by now — but because Fetty has been under house arrest since January. After pleading guilty to a 2022 drug charge, he was released from a Minnesota federal prison at the beginning of this year. He’s now under home confinement in New Jersey, which is slated to end in November.
