Hick-Hop?!
 

I'm actually all for this trend, as this would save me the time of having to despise two totally different types of music by combining them into one...




'Hick-hop' pioneer Troy wields a unique brand
By Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY
Meet Cowboy Troy, billed as "the only 6-foot-5 black rapping cowboy in country music."

		Plays Chicken with charts: Former shoe salesman Troy Coleman capitalizes on “different.”
		Warner Bros.

Well, yeah.

Cowboy Troy is the latest — and perhaps most commercially daring — act to come out of the Musik Mafia scene that produced multiplatinum acts Gretchen Wilson and Big & Rich last year.

Troy — born Troy Coleman in Victoria, Texas — appeared on Big & Rich's double-platinum Horse of a Different Color album. He toured with the duo on last summer's Tim McGraw tour and wound up rapping during McGraw's set as well.

Big & Rich are co-producing Troy's album, tentatively set for release in May. I Play Chicken With the Train, a single that features country fiddles and hard-rock guitar riffs, is getting pockets of airplay, most notably in Michigan and Florida.

Troy's self-described "hick-hop" owes as much to the talking-blues country records of Jerry Reed and Charlie Daniels as it does to the old-school raps of Sir Mix-A-Lot and the Sugarhill Gang's Wonder Mike. "I grew up listening to country music, rap music and rock 'n' roll," says Troy, 34. "I figured, 'Why can't I take my favorite elements of all three and mix them into one style?' "

And Troy takes pride in being different. He's something of a Renaissance man — a University of Texas psychology major and professional wrestling aficionado who speaks fluent Spanish and started taking Mandarin Chinese lessons when he got bored with the story lines on Monday Night Raw. He also can tell what size and width shoe a person wears just by looking at his or her foot.

But Troy left his job at a Dallas Foot Locker last year after appearing on the Country Music Association awards show with Big & Rich and signing as the flagship artist of the Musik Mafia's Warner Bros. imprint Raybaw Records. (The acronym stands for "red and yellow, black and white.")

In a radio climate in which Big & Rich can sell 2 million albums and still struggle for a top 10 single, a rap record could encounter serious resistance. Warner Bros. Nashville chief Bill Bennett says early reports show Chicken splitting country listeners' reactions at almost exactly 50%.

"It's doing almost exactly what we thought it would do," he says.

Warner Bros. hopes a series of TV bookings — including Nashville Star and April's CMT Video Awards— will help country fans warm to Troy's style. CMT could begin running the Chicken video as early as this week.

"We're going to use TV to help the country audience understand that he's a country artist," Bennett says.

Says WBCT-FM program director Doug Montgomery: "I don't think what Troy's doing is any farther out than a lot of the Shania Twain stuff. It's just a little bit different."

yeeeeeee haaaawwwwwwwwww

hick - hop!!!!

Blame Nelly.

I dont think this guy could make it as a conventional rapper either. He just doesnt have a decent flow.

He's bucking to be the black Kid Rock, I guess.

The first track, the "Single" "Chicken with a Train" is a decent track. Im listening to the CD right now, and man, i think i could rap about as good as him on most tracks tho.

Country + Rap = Crap

SD better watch out, or his first BK commercial is going to be his last...this guy's primed for a hostile takeover.

This reminds me when someone redid Gin & Juice into a country song. I think I still have it on my hard drive. :D

yep, I agree - "Chicken" is the only song I've heard (dling album as I type). I like it, but I wouldn't really say there's much "rap" to it. Maybe the rest of the album is different.

his only good songs are the ones he does with Big & Rich, like Chicken and the ones on the Big & Rich album.

I got this CD a few days ago- and I have to say I like it...
My favorite songs would be: Aint Broke Yet, Somebody Smiling on Me, and If you dont wanna love me.

I thought it would be a little better- but its still a good listen.

I thought it was Skydog at first...

tangent alert:

interesting sidenote about country music, that I'm not sure I really understand. I've been downloading a lot of country lately, and I've noticed a HUGE disparity in encoding quality. I've found high-bitrate files that sound like ass, and low-bitrate files that sound ok. For example, downloaded two copies of this CD, both were 128 bitrate. One sounds terrific, one sounds like it was recorded underwater. I've found that quite a bit with country tunes, but not so much at all for any of the other genres I download. odd.

I'm pretty much with Doug on this one I think, and that's with the full disclosure that this was one of the more eagerly anticipated releases for me in quite a while.

The influence of Big & Rich are all over this album, with bits of the Pyschadelic 60s in one track, a little touch of Lakeside or Cameo in another, and so on. Very eclectic but entertaining on the whole nonetheless. The other standout track, that hasn't been mentioned here yet, might be Crick In Your Neck which I think is actually cute enough & catchy enough to have been decently received if a straight rap artist had delivered it as a serious track for consideration, kinda oldschool in its humor.

If you really like quirky stuff, this is worth picking up but if you're fairly strict about genre rules, I'd have to say run from this as fast as you can. And if you don't like rap or country, there's nothing here for you at all.

i thought bubba sparxxx had this trademarked.

Country music fans are hicks who don't know how to properly convert CDs to MP3 format :D

It's hit or miss translating the banjo into an MP3.

dola

that picture at the top is disturbing.

Is it yo or y'all then.

yo'all

honestly, I'm beginning to think that.

See, I'm all over the first part of this, and actually can handle country and/or rap in small, well-done doses if mixed properly with other genres - for instance, Extreme's Cupid Is Dead, Hawksley Workman's Smoke Baby, or anything by 24/7 Spyz or Fishbone for rap, or Matthew Sweet's Wynona or Faith No More's Take This Bottle for country. But mixing them with each other, even with the promise of rock guitar....I just don't see it working for me. I just envision a black stereotype country crossover version of Kid Rock.

[sarcasm]
but what's wrong with Kid Rock?
[/sarcasm]

I wrote a review on this a while back. It's selling relatively ok. His rhymes aren't that great, which is the weakest part of this.

He needs to tighten them up, a lot. But I actually hopes this paves the way for guys like Bubba Sparkxxx to say, actually do something more like this country-rap fusion, because it could work.

I think the production was well done on this release, given that he's not that talented a lyricist and can't sing. But the material is good, overall. Just not all that great to listen. I first heard it back in April and after I did, it got stuck in my head..that's for sure.

So it's catchy and I like that part.

He has his place, I guess. It's just not anywhere near me.