Posted on 05/12/2005 8:42:04 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Rapper wants to 'hick-hop' his way to country stardom
By Mario Tarradell
The Dallas Morning News
Cowboy Troy Coleman wants to become the first black country artist to break out since Charley Pride hit the charts almost 40 years ago.
DALLAS - Cowboy Troy can't walk into a concert venue without turning heads. He knows there's no way a 6-foot-5-inch black country rapper can escape the curious stares. Especially when he's wearing a Superman T-shirt. The spotlight, he admits, can be intimidating.
''There are times where if you let it wear you down, you can feel the pressure,'' says the 34-year-old Dallas-raised artist. ''There are times when I find myself walking through venues and I can kind of feel the looks from people. 'Oh, so he's the one.' I walk through places and I can hear the whispers. When the lights come on and the music starts and you're out there on stage and you hear the people cheering, clapping, it's pretty cool.''
It's also historic. Cowboy Troy Coleman is country music's first rapper, a purveyor of what he calls ''hick-hop,'' a mixture of authentic country instrumentation, hip-hop rhythms and flowing, rhyming words.
And if he's successful, he will become the first black country artist to break out since Charley Pride almost 40 years ago.
Cowboy Troy first attracted the attention of country fans in 2004 during Big & Rich's tour. He rapped on ''Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich),'' a cut from the pair's 2-million-selling debut album, ''Horse of a Different Color.''
When he performed that rap at last year's Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, he was the first black artist since Pride to take the stage at the awards show.
The buzz on him grew louder after five months on the road with Big & Rich opening for country superstar Tim McGraw. McGraw was so impressed with Cowboy Troy's rapping abilities that he asked Coleman to write a rap to perform during ''She's My Kind of Rain,'' one of McGraw's hit country ballads.
''You already had this rap on a major-label release and then you've got one of the biggest names in country music saying, 'Hey man, we want you to do something like that on my set,' '' says Coleman. He rapped during ''She's My Kind of Rain'' every night until the end of the trek.
Now Coleman's on his own. ''Loco Motive,'' which arrives in stores May 17, is the first release on Big & Rich's label, Raybaw, which stands for ''red and yellow black and white.'' He hopes to capitalize on the success of Big & Rich's album and the media attention showered on the Muzik Mafia, the no-boundaries artist collective formed by Big Kenny and John Rich.
''It's important that Cowboy Troy is the first one because it kind of goes along with the whole Mafia theme of music without prejudice,'' says Cory Gierman, general manager of Raybaw Records and one of the founders of the Muzik Mafia. Coleman's time on the Big & Rich tour helped, too.
''He was the first one to get the exposure. So we decided to
"He was the first one to get the exposure. So we decided tokick it off with him and get the train rolling."
Every track on ''Loco Motive'' showcases Cowboy Troy's way with rhymes. His robust voice glides smoothly over country-rocking instrumentation. Big & Rich sing on three cuts, and McGraw and Muzik Mafia members James Otto and Jon Nicholson each sing on one track.
The lead cut on ''Loco Motive'' is the rock-and-hip-hop-influenced ''I Play Chicken With the Train,'' a loose metaphor for his battle to stare down the country music world:
''People said it's impossible . . . not probable . . . too radical/But I already been on the CMA's . . . ,'' he raps.
''I'm big and black, clickety-clack/And I make the train jump the track like that!''
For Troy Coleman, that country, rock and hip-hop combo was the soundtrack of his high school days.
He was enthralled with music, all kinds of it. He moved from the country sounds of Charlie Daniels, the Oak Ridge Boys and Jerry Reed to rockers Kiss, Kansas, Eagles, ZZ Top and Foreigner. But he had a penchant for rappers - LL Cool J, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Run DMC, Ice-T and Ice Cube. Rapping was a fun pastime that got him noticed.
Today, Cowboy Troy's life is on a roller coaster. He and his wife, Laura, relocated to Nashville. He is promoting the upcoming ''Loco Motive'' with the usual media interviews and personal appearances. But he knows the album might face an uphill battle. In a genre guilty of supporting the conventional and ignoring the experimental, his one shot is make-or-break.
Unconventional artists such as Cowboy Troy either explode instantly or fizzle quickly.
Country rap may not be the big stretch it appears. In the original square dancing, the announcer was essentially rapping to an Appalachian beat.
''Cowboy Troy is what he says he is,'' says Paul Worley, head of the artist and repertoire department for Warner Bros. Nashville and a co-producer of ''Loco Motive.'' ''We did not make him up. He's a 6-foot-5 black rapping cowboy that grew up in Dallas loving all kinds of music, and yet his first love is country music. . . . So when I started hearing some of these songs, I thought, 'We gotta do this 'cause it's great.' ''
I put the wrong date of the article in. Can you change it to 05/05/2005?
Why do you punish us God? Why?
Country + Rap = Crap
; )
"country rapper"?
"Cowboy Troy"? Was that the name of the cowboy on PeeWee's Playhouse?
I seriously doubt that since both were groundbreakers in his own right.
Let the market decide. If he's successful, so be it.
And people thought rap was just a fad...
I say let the market dictate the future of "hick-hop", I doubt there's any future.
That was Cowboy Curtis, played by Lawrence Fishburne.
Rap is city, cowboy is country. It won't work.
MC Hammer in cowboy boots.
okie dokie
"I Got Homeys In Low Places". "Gangsta's Honky-Tonk". "There's A Tear In My Crack Pipe".
I don't see it lasting very long.
"Horse of a Different Color" has sold over 2 million copies. So the "music" will probably be with us for a while.
Bubba Sparxxx does this already, but he's not black. He went over to Iraq too to rap for the troops. I want to hear it before I denounce it. Not all rap is crap. Gangsta rap is crap.
That must have been him on the last episode of Nashville Star. C-rap is still crap.
I dont think he will make it. Country isnt rap.
But then most music they call country these days sucks.
Has the Grand ole Opry closed down : I havent heard of them at all lately. Last time I saw it on TV the artists were all Geritol age.
**Johnny Cash and Hank Williams are rolling in their graves. Unbelievable.**
Indeed. Indeed.
Johnny Cash is my hero. RIP.
So? He's a crapper?
I agree. The Old Skool rap is by far the best there is. Old Skool apparently is what influences him.
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