Lil Durk encourages Kendrick Lamar to work with Morgan Wallen after racial slur controversy

After scoring his first No. 1 with country artist Morgan Wallen, who was caught on tape using the N-word last year, rapper Lil Durk has said that other hip-hop acts should follow his lead.

On being questioned by TMZ about his recent rap-country hit 'Broadway Girls', Durk said of his collaborator Wallen, "He ain't no racist, that's my boy. We had a long talk; he had his public situation. We ain't behind closed doors."

Durk continued, "He ain't canceled, I talked to him. When I say you ain't canceled, you ain't canceled."

While Wallen was all but banned from the airwaves for months following his controversy, the success of 'Broadway Girls' has enabled his return to radio. Wallen also currently stands at No. 9 on Billboard's country airplay chart with 'Sand in My Boots', his first song there since last February.

Wallen had first expressed interest in teaming up with Lamar on December 29 in an interview on comedian Druski's Clubhouse talk show. When Druski asked the country singer who his ideal hip-hop collaborator would be, Wallen said, "I do love Moneybagg [Yo]... He's definitely at the top of the list."

He added, "But like overall, ever... I'm trying to think of not just in the past little bit... Kendrick Lamar would be pretty cool."

Earlier this year, Wallen addressed the controversy on 'Good Morning America' when he told host Michael Strahan, "I was around some of my friends, and we we say dumb stuff together. And it was, in our minds, it's playful... that sounds ignorant, but it -- that's really where it came from ... and it's wrong."

It's unlikely that Wallen finds a collaborator in Lamar, who in 2018 famously invited a white fan on stage and then booted her off after she repeatedly sang the N-word, as per Variety.

( With inputs from ANI )