Morgan Wallen’s latest album, I’m the Problem, dropped on May 16, 2025, and it’s already tearing up the charts, proving once again that this country star is untouchable, no matter how many headlines he grabs for the wrong reasons. With 37 tracks and collabs featuring Post Malone, Tate McRae, Eric Church, HARDY, and ERNEST, the album’s a sprawling testament to Wallen’s knack for blending country grit with pop polish. But it’s his ability to shrug off scandals—racial slurs, arrests, and a bizarre SNL exit—that makes him a cultural lightning rod, drawing fierce loyalty from fans and head-scratching from critics.
Wallen’s rise from a Voice reject to country’s biggest name is the stuff of legend. His 2021 album Dangerous: The Double Album spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and 2023’s One Thing at a Time held the top spot for 19 weeks, outlasting Garth Brooks’ record for a country album. I’m the Problem is on track to follow suit, with singles like “Lies Lies Lies,” “Love Somebody,” and the title track already hitting No. 1 on Country Airplay. “Just in Case” debuted at No. 4 on the Hot 100 before the album even dropped, breaking records for pre-release chart dominance. His tours sell out stadiums, and his Sand in My Boots Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, sold out in two hours. “He’s not just a country star—he’s a pop juggernaut,” says Billboard, noting his 19 Billboard Music Awards and 2024 CMA Entertainer of the Year win.
Yet Wallen’s career thrives despite controversies that would’ve sunk others. In 2021, a video caught him drunkenly using a racial slur in Nashville, sparking outrage. Radio stations pulled his music, and awards shows like the CMAs banned him. Wallen apologized in a five-minute Instagram video, calling it “hour 72 of a 72-hour bender” and vowing sobriety while meeting with Black community leaders. Fans didn’t flinch—Dangerous sales spiked 100% that week, and it stayed atop the charts for seven more weeks. “His base saw it as a middle finger to cancel culture,” Holly Gleason, Nashville editor of Hits magazine, told The Post. By 2022, he was back, winning Album of the Year at the ACM Awards and performing at the Billboard Music Awards.
Trouble kept coming. In 2020, he was arrested for public intoxication outside Kid Rock’s Nashville bar and caught maskless at Alabama bars during COVID, costing him an SNL gig. He poked fun at it in a later SNL skit with Jason Bateman, but his March 2025 SNL appearance ended with him bolting offstage, skipping the usual cast goodbyes. A photo of his jet captioned “Get me to God’s country” fueled chatter of disrespect, though Wallen told Sundae Conversations he was just “ready to go home.” Then, in April 2024, he was arrested for throwing a chair off a Nashville bar’s roof, landing three felony charges. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment, serving seven days in a DUI education center and two years’ probation. “I made amends with some folks,” he wrote on social media, addressing the incident.
Why does Wallen keep skating through? For one, his music hits like a gut punch. I’m the Problem leans into his signature mix of heartbreak and whiskey-soaked regret, with tracks like “Superman,” written for his son Indigo, showing a softer side. “Don’t always know my wrong from right / Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy,” he sings, owning his flaws in a way that resonates. Rolling Stone praises his “weary wail” on songs like “Jack and Jill,” a tale of small-town dreams crushed by addiction, and notes pop flourishes like trap beats in “What I Want” with Tate McRae. “He knows his lane,” Gleason says. “He sings like the guy you went to high school with, spilling his heart.”
His fans—millions strong—see themselves in him. Wallen’s mullet, cutoff shirts, and unpolished vibe scream “everyday guy,” not coastal elite. “He’s the voice of the flyover states,” Gleason told The Post, highlighting the cultural divide between urban critics and his heartland base. When he was “canceled,” fans rallied, turning his music into a symbol of resistance. On social media, @DylanGrey2022 called I’m the Problem “37 tracks of raw, rebellious heart,” while @EFCountry praised its “consistent quality” and Wallen’s willingness to “tackle his shortcomings.” Even his 2021 scandal didn’t dent his draw—Dangerous was 2021’s best-performing album, and he outsold Taylor Swift’s Midnights in 2022.
Critics argue he hasn’t done enough to atone. Slate’s Carl Wilson wrote that Wallen’s weak response to the racial slur—donating to Black causes without clear follow-through—missed a chance to stand with Black country artists like Mickey Guyton. “He doesn’t have the guts,” Wilson said. Some fans on Reddit’s r/CountryMusicStuff agree, with one calling him “an asshole” whose drunken antics reveal deeper issues. Yet others, like a Black user on the same thread, defend him, saying he “said nothing wrong” and shows “love for the culture” through rap influences and collabs with Post Malone.
Wallen’s controversies seem to fuel his mythos. “He’s a bad boy with real talent,” AP News noted, suggesting his flaws draw fans who crave authenticity in an era of polished pop. His music, blending country’s twang with hip-hop’s swagger, speaks to a generation that grew up on Lil Wayne and Nickelback. The New Yorker calls him a “product of his political moment,” unapologetic and defiant, like a country outlaw reborn. Whether he’s dodging accountability or just being human, Wallen’s grip on the charts and his fans’ hearts shows no signs of slipping. I’m the Problem isn’t just an album—it’s a declaration that, love him or hate him, Morgan Wallen’s here to stay.
