Sunday, May 01, 2005
Rapper wants to be country's first black star since Charley Pride
From the Earthlink
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.
Read the article
Earthlink
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.
Read the article
Earthlink
# posted by Dave Sichak @ 9:45 AM 
