Jimmy Butler Has Written 60 Country Music Songs and Plans to Write 200 Before Releasing His First Album

Sports Illustrated - In a Tuesday interview with The Guardian, Butler told Claire de Lune that he has written about 60 country songs for an album to be released at an indeterminate future time.

"There’s so many people out there, and I’m one of them, that are like, ‘Man, I can do that,’ and you really don’t know how difficult it is to make a No. 1 song," Butler said. "Humble yourself. It is incredibly fun, I’ve had a blast while doing it. But I will tell you that it’s not easy"

Does it surprise you that Jimmy Butler is a fan of country music? Do you find it strange that Jimmy Butler is an aspiring country artist? Do you think he seems like more of a RAP fan? I hope not. That would be racist of you. 

I am however surprised to learn that Jimmy Butler is amassing a Juice WRLD type of catalog to the point where if he passed away tomorrow would be able to release music posthumously for the next several years.

Butler hopes to record around 200 tracks before choosing the songs that make the cut for his debut country album.

That's an aggressive number of songs. I respect his strategy. I've never attempted to write an album myself. There was one week of my life where I decided I wanted to write raps. But after a few songs my stay in rehab was over and I moved on with my life. But if I were to get back into the rap game, and decided to cut an album, I'd imagine there are a couple ways to go about it. You could spend copious amounts of time on each individual song, making each one as good as it can possibly be. Then once you get to a reasonable number of tracks, throw every song on an mixtape and force everyone you know to listen to it against their will. Or you could go the Jimmy Butler route. Be a volume shooter. Write a million shitty songs and hope that one day your brain magically strings together a few stanzas worth of palletable rhymes. Then put the 10 best on an album and force everybody you know to listen to it against their will.

I think I like Jimmy's strategy better. And maybe he's onto something. A professional basketball playing/country music aritist combo is a rare one. He might be the first ever. Jimmy Butler actually is a great name for a country star. He's also a likeable enough guy that I think the general public would give him the benefit of the doubt. If he writes even a halfway decent song people will say, "Ya know, that's actually pretty good!" Unlike LeBron James, who could write the greatest country song of our generation, and would be tarred and feathered across the internet for even having the audacity to do anything other than play basketball. 

Looking forward to the album Jim. I'm rooting for you.