Oliver Anthony's 'Rich Men North Of Richmond' Is No. 1 On Apple ...

Oliver Anthony’s political song “Rich Men North of Richmond” is winning over an audience, even as many media outlets condemn its message.

The song complains about the injustices perpetrated on the rural working class. Its songwriter, Oliver Anthony, is a high school dropout who lives in a trailer and reportedly has shunned big money offers from the mainstream.

His song has touched a nerve with its lament, “It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to / For people like me and people like you / Wish I could just wake up and it not be true / But it is, oh, it is.

The Red-bearded Anthony’s song has been viewed more than 21 million times on YouTube as of Friday afternoon. It’s also topping many of the streaming and downloading sites.

The song is the second conservative anthem to dominate the charts, arriving in the wake of Jason Aldean’s equally controversial “Try That In A Small Town.” The Aldean song came out in the spring, but drew massive attention weeks later when its video exploded. That video was eventually pulled from CMT.

The Anthony song’s sentiments – particularly its attack on welfare recipients and aid to minors in foreign countries, which many have taken as a reference to the equally controversial child-trafficking film, Sound of Freedom — have not been received well by many in the U.S. mainstream media. The BBC termed it “The hit song that has divided the US.”