First of all Death Row Records while successful, is not "big". Big is Columbia, Sony, Warner Bros, and so on. Being able to having some staying power in a competitive and difficult market does not make a small label like DRR anything but resourceful and determined.
Now if you look at the discography of Moonshine Bandits, this is a group that looks to be determined in their own right. Each album is released on a different label, starting with JLM Entertainment, IMN Records, and MSB Entertainment. Actually it looks like they only did one release with Suburban Noize Records, and have released their last three albums with Backroad Records. Now Backroad Records is part of Average Joe Entertainment, which lists 5 artists/bands it represents. I think that qualifies as small, and I will take a stab and say I doubt they are getting rich. Of course I got no proof of that, but its not much of a stretch to form that opinion. It looks like it strikes a cord with quite a few listeners though, as on the CMT chart the last three albums have peaked at 22, 13, and 19. Now one can argue that popularity does not equate to quality, and this music is certainly not technically challenging, its entertainment at best. But others do seem to find value in it, of some sort. Of course it does not appeal to everyone. And the intriguing part is that it gets dismissed by real country people because its rap, the rockers dont like it because its country or rap, and rappers see it as hick hop. Yet with everyone hating it, how does it climb the CMT chart, and two of the albums peaked at 10 and 11 on the rap chart, and the Billboard Heatseakers list had them at 3,2, and 1. A lot of interest in them for making music that everyone dismisses. Go figure. And yet they also shot a video with David Allen Coe, who doesnt have to do music with anyone he doesnt want to. And the Lacs shot one video with Montgomery Gentry, so not even established musicians hate this kind of music
No social commentary? Oh if you look its there. Alcohol fueled? Sure its there, just like its in rock and roll, rap, pop, country, and a whole bunch of other music. Hell i got sea shanty music about booze. I don't see it being a problem.
Besides, everyone knows that Animal Farm was funded by the National Coalition of the Betterment of Chickens. Character assassination has been a long standing tactic against the swine society. It is nothing we have not seen before.
Regards
Mister Pig