Songs Rhino loves, #107: Tow Down - “Country Rap Tune” (ft. H.A.W.K. & Big Pokey, prod. Grizz)

Perfect twangy Texas rap!

Tow Down is an entirely unexciting, barely functional white rapper from Houston, and his guests on this song, the venerable Big Pokey of the Screwed Up Click and the late Big Hawk (alias H.A.W.K.), are only marginally better than he is. But they all have authentic chemistry together, and crucially, producer Grizz supplies a perfect twangy “country rap tunes” beat, and they somehow find the ideal no-name middle-aged white male country singer to lend his thick-as-molasses twang to the chorus; I’ve never been able to learn his name, even after scouring the internet, but in this context he might as well be Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson or Hank Williams, that’s how good he sounds. Big Hawk sounds so happy to be rapping on an unusual beat that I’d say he nabs the prize for best verse, but the raspy-voiced Big Pokey, noted for his cameos with relative stars like Paul Wall and Z-Ro, does his thing too. This one is loads of fun! Definitely one of my favourite rap songs of its era, which seems to be roughly the year 2001. Enjoy!

The video is fun too, so here it is: