RMR Talks His Viral Hit ‘Rascal’ and Singing in Choir on ‘The First Time’

Ski-masked singer RMR, a student of all pop genres who hates to contain himself to only one of them, broke the internet in February 2020 with “Rascal.” The track, and accompanying video full of firearms and blunt smoke, is RMR’s reimagination of “Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts, as reported by Rolling Stone when it first dropped.

“I love country, I love every type of genre,” says RMR, repeating “genre” in air quotes.

He has since collaborated with bluegrass artist Billy Strings. “I just got in my bag and I just did that. I just knew that something was gonna happen. God just spoke to me. He said, ‘do this record.’ I said, ‘OK, cool.’”

But RMR’s love of Rascal Flatts started well before releasing that track, as he dates his fandom back to the sixth grade.

“Gary LeVox, when he sings in that register, in the high tenor register. When he kind of sounds like Boyz II Men, but then he kind of sounds country-ish at the same time, and he can actually run, [sings]. Yeah. All that. He sings almost in his nostril. I was just like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s really good.’ Even when I heard Keith Urban. Those two people alone, that’s where like, they brought me to country,” says RMR.

RMR started singing in public even before that discovery, in his elementary school’s choir. “I had a solo. And I had like two words, and that was about it. And then there was another kid who had more words than me. And like, he’s not doing music right now. I don’t know what he’s doing with his life,” says RMR. “I had two words. And that kid had a whole line. Where is he now?”