Return of the cowboy: How musicians in 2019 are rewriting an American icon

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Ladbroke Grove rapper AJ Tracey released the song “Country Star”, on which he sings: “I’ve come too far, I’ve come too far/ Horsepower whip with a star/ Cowboy spins in the car/ Cowgirls rippin’ off bras/ When I ride then I scream, ‘Yeehaw’.” In the video for “Necklace” ft Jay Critch, also from his debut album, he also went for a Wild West theme. Then there’s rapper Lil Nas X’s song “Old Town Road”, which appeared on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart last month, causing an unprecedented row on the country music scene. We’ve had to rewrite what black history means for us since the beginning of time … It’s not just an aesthetic, this is something that we actually live.” open image in gallery Solange’s 33-minute film accompanied her ‘When I Get Home’ album “Solange’s film is an homage,” says Professor Alexander, “not to the mythic or romanticised cowboy on film and television that is often linked with Texas writ large, but the real Black cowboys who work and labour in her native Houston. “They were always ready to share their blanket and their last ration with a less fortunate fellow companion and always assisted each other in the many trying situations that were continually coming up in a cowboy’s life.” open image in gallery An African American sheriff in Pocatello, Idaho, in 1903 However, gay crooner Orville Peck – who has a Stetson permanently fixed to his head – is convinced the cowboy ethos is about feeling “intrinsically outside of things”.