Tow Down is a wild anomaly in the world of white rappers. “Country Rap Tune” is a certified all-time banger, featuring Big Hawk and Big Pokey, and getting the screwed and chopped treatment with a voiceover from DJ Screw himself that probably done got more plays than the original album version, by a lot. The video is hilariously of the era, with Tow Down driving a little ass car painted up like the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard, and set in all the normal “I’m mixing country and rap together” locales you’d expect from that time – a farm and barn and farmer’s daughter getting tow down in the hay loft, and an overall poor dental hygience redneck chasing him with a shotgun. The whole video is basically an episode of Dukes of Hazzard, with Hawk rapping in the barn and Pokey sitting on a Boss Hogg Cadillac outside a drinking hole. Tow Down’s verse is hot, and up to snuff with the two Screwed Up Click heavyweights on this one. I still think that “I’m not Garth Brooks, but I got friends in low places,” line weekly in my head.
The wild shit is you never really heard nothing else come from Tow Down. But that first CD he had featured a slew of Houston legends. Looks like he did a little stint with his brother for a marijuana bust a decade back, but he’s still chasing those hip hop dreams, with his own record label, promoting shows, and flipping houses maybe (according to a linkedin account). But the phrase “country rap tune” ended up describing a whole genre, which after that initial wave of guys like Bubba Sparxxx and Haystak, has steadily declined into some weird ass reverse psychology rural minstrel show. And a lot of those old southern white rappers are making money off paid features, to stay semi-relevant in this country rap genre.
I find it weird, because a lot of Prolo’s releases over the years would fit this genre, before it was a genre, but I’d be embarrassed if a lot of these newer dudes ever asked me to spit on a track. I’d take that shit is a sign of my own inherent wackness. But to Tow Down’s credit, he’s not in that realm, and he’s putting out music by new Houston rappers, and keeping it multicultural (as it should be) instead of disappearing into the weird “whites only” hip hop lane some of these guys shifted into.
But the most amazing thing, to me, is back then, when this song dropped, Tow Down had his own signature hairstyle. And I’m not really even sure how to describe it. When he’s wearing a ballcap, it looks kinda like he’s got Willie Nelson braids, but in four instead of just two. But what he actually was rocking was these four super curls styled to come off his head in quadrants. It’s a wild style, even for back then. But get this… HE’S STILL GOT THAT SHIT. Except now he’s 25 years older, got a grey fox beard going on, and those four super curls are super long. It’s like a whiteboy was all of a sudden hanging out with DJ Quik and Suga Free in that imitating Michael McDonald clip.
Anyways, this song is still an all-time banger. Don’t get it twisted (like Tow Down’s hair).
The wild shit is you never really heard nothing else come from Tow Down. But that first CD he had featured a slew of Houston legends. Looks like he did a little stint with his brother for a marijuana bust a decade back, but he’s still chasing those hip hop dreams, with his own record label, promoting shows, and flipping houses maybe (according to a linkedin account). But the phrase “country rap tune” ended up describing a whole genre, which after that initial wave of guys like Bubba Sparxxx and Haystak, has steadily declined into some weird ass reverse psychology rural minstrel show. And a lot of those old southern white rappers are making money off paid features, to stay semi-relevant in this country rap genre.
I find it weird, because a lot of Prolo’s releases over the years would fit this genre, before it was a genre, but I’d be embarrassed if a lot of these newer dudes ever asked me to spit on a track. I’d take that shit is a sign of my own inherent wackness. But to Tow Down’s credit, he’s not in that realm, and he’s putting out music by new Houston rappers, and keeping it multicultural (as it should be) instead of disappearing into the weird “whites only” hip hop lane some of these guys shifted into.
But the most amazing thing, to me, is back then, when this song dropped, Tow Down had his own signature hairstyle. And I’m not really even sure how to describe it. When he’s wearing a ballcap, it looks kinda like he’s got Willie Nelson braids, but in four instead of just two. But what he actually was rocking was these four super curls styled to come off his head in quadrants. It’s a wild style, even for back then. But get this… HE’S STILL GOT THAT SHIT. Except now he’s 25 years older, got a grey fox beard going on, and those four super curls are super long. It’s like a whiteboy was all of a sudden hanging out with DJ Quik and Suga Free in that imitating Michael McDonald clip.
Anyways, this song is still an all-time banger. Don’t get it twisted (like Tow Down’s hair).
