Lana Del Rey plants seeds for country crossover with Quavo collab 'Tough'

Via "Tough," her newly released collaboration with rapper Quavo, Lana Del Rey's forthcoming explorations into country-inspired music are taking greater shape.

An acoustic guitar-driven track buoyed by a thick trap-style break beat features Del Ray singing: "Tough like the scuff on a pair of old leather boots / Like the blue-collar, red-dirt attitude / Like a .38 made out of brass / Tough like the stuff in your grandpa's glass."

After weeks of hype on social media, the Wyatt Spain Winfrey-directed music video arrives with traditional pastoral country imagery clashing with traditional urban pop tropes. Quavo holds a shotgun, while Del Rey carries a guitar. The duo then slow dances together while singing the song, followed by Del Rey playing her guitar on a rural cottage porch.

"Tough" is co-produced by rock-favoring Grammy 2021 Producer of the Year Andrew Watt (Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Ozzy Osborne) and pop favorite Cirkut (Charli XCX, Kesha, Kim Petras). The song is country-inspired but also favors Del Ray's hip-hop collaborations from years prior, including those with The Weeknd ("Lust for Life"), A$AP Rocky ("Groupie Love"), and Playboi Carti ("Summer Bummer").

"Tough" is not likely to appear on "Lasso," Del Rey's January-announced 10th studio album due in September.

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On Jan. 31, while honoring her longtime producer Jack Antonoff at Billboard's Power 100 Party 2024 pre-Grammy event in Los Angeles, Del Rey stated the following:

"If you can't already tell by our award winners and our performers, the music business is going country. We're going country. It's happening. That's why Jack has followed me to Muscle Shoals, Nashville, Mississippi, over the last four years."

"Lasso" will be her fourth album in four years and her sixth audio project with Antonoff since 2018. It could earn another Top 10 appearance on the Billboard 200 albums chart, including two No. 1s (2014's "Ultraviolence" and 2017's "Lust For Life").

Lana Del Rey's country history

Del Ray's ventures into country music have considerable historical precedent.

The Americana and country underpinnings of her 2011 tracks "Ride" and "Video Games" are apparent.

Fast forward a decade and alongside Kacey Musgraves — another country to pop and back again favorite — she appeared during NBC's 2024 holiday season "Christmas at Graceland" special

About a Septeber 2023 appearance at suburban Nashville's FirstBank Amphitheater, The Tennessean noted Del Rey "waltzed onto the stage in a white flowing dress and cowboy boots," then, mid-show, stated the following:

"Even though we had Nikki Lane, my favorite singer, open here with all her amazing outlaw country, we still want to do one of my favorite standards, that's (Tammy Wynette's 1968 classic) 'Stand by Your Man.'"

Returning to her foundational days as Lizzie Grant, she covered Skeeter Davis' 1962 hit "The End of the World" and Donna Fargo's 1972 classic "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A." Alongside "Stand by Your Man," in recent years, Del Ray has covered John Denver's 1974-released "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

Del Ray make frequent trips to California's longtime country outpost of Bakersfield to record country tracks in 2021 and 2022.

In a 2021 Contact Music feature, she noted that she had a "cover album of country songs" and a "collection of other folk songs" waiting to be released.

"So let's see how these things come out — I'm not going to have pedal steel guitar on every single thing, but it is easy for me to write."