Clearing up some misconceptions with rather convincing facts, figures and finality, Wammo, of Austin's Asylum Street Spankers, says Cowboy Troy is a hick-hopper come lately:
"Some media publications are claiming that the artist Cowboy Troy has invented a new genre of music infusing rap and country called "hick hop." That simply is not true. As far as I know, the term Hick Hop and the idea for fusing country and rap were the brain child of Jeff Smith, lead singer of The Hickoids. Jeff pulled me aside at the Cannibal Club in Austin, Tx (where I worked as a DJ) and told me that he wanted to start a hick hop band.
"Now, Cannibal closed around '90-'91. So Jeff probably told me this somewhere between 1988-1989. I thought it was genius and the idea never left me. When I started work on my Faster Than The Speed Of Suck CD, Jeff still hadn't done anything with his brilliant idea, and I figured enough time had passed to pursue his vision.
"Hick Hop" seemed an obvious vehicle for the radio parody theme of the record. The tune practically wrote itself, the title was obvious and the song has since become a staple at Spankers shows. I wrote and recorded the tune in 1997. Faster Than The Speed Of Suck was released in 2001. The song was also released on the Asylum Street Spankers' DVD, Sideshow Fez (2003) and CD, Mercurial (2004)."
And now you know ... the rest of the story.
Article comments
1 - Huck
Corporate America's next bid to make money, there's nothing real about Cowboy Troy's music, only the conspiracy of lies that weaves itself around our culture.
2 - brooklyn twang
I'm a country-hip-hop artist in Brooklyn, and its true, hick-hop didn't start with Cowboy Trow. I think those of us doing this music should know the roots, and the TRUTH is that hick hop was first done in the early days of hip-hop, around 1982. An NYC party jam hip-hop group named Disco 4 did a song called "Country Rock and Rap", which featured banjo loops over a beat, and rapping about country stuff. The problem with talking about people starting the genre is that the genre wasn't started with people dedicating themeselves to it, merely trying it for one song - as did Disco Four, Asylum Street Spankers, Morcheeba, Jim White, and Spearhed, to name a few from the 90s. The thing is that now we are going so see artists who consider themselves country-hip-hop artist putting out country-hip-hop records and really exploring the music in a serious way, not just dipping a toe or doing it for the novelty of it. Unfortunately, Cowboy Troy is not representing the genre well since he can't rap well and the music is not really combining actual country and hip-hop. Wait till the real stuff starts coming up.
3 - Tomm Keeper
check out the kuntry killaz new cd....where we live....Hill Hop keepin' it real.....From South East Ky!!