Jordan Peele has assembled an impressive roster of Hip-Hop heavyweights to help tell the untold story of America’s first cowboys in his new Peacock documentary series “High Horse: The Black Cowboy.”
The three-part docuseries, executive produced by Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, features Texas rap legend Bun B, Miami mogul Rick Ross, and other prominent voices from the culture to illuminate how Black men dominated the American frontier long before Hollywood created its whitewashed cowboy mythology.
Bun B, one half of the legendary Houston duo UGK, brings authentic Texas credibility to the project as an ambassador for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and as the first Black male Hip-Hop headliner in the event’s 90-plus-year history.
“This is not Black people trying to assimilate with this country Western lifestyle. Black people across this country – East Coast to West Coast – have been prevalent in this space for years,” Bun B explained to The Associated Press.
The documentary arrives at a crucial moment, as Hip-Hop artists increasingly embrace Western aesthetics and themes. From Lil Nas X’s record-breaking “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s success, to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album, rap culture has been reclaiming its rightful place in cowboy heritage.
Peele’s documentary builds upon decades of scholarship, most notably William Loren Katz’s groundbreaking 1971 book The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States.
Inspired by conversations with Langston Hughes, Katz’s comprehensive work presented long-neglected stories of daring pioneers like Nat Love and other Black frontier figures who helped shape the American West.
The book, which has been revised and expanded multiple times since its original publication, documented how African Americans participated in Western development as explorers, fur traders, early settlers, cowboys and soldiers from the 1500s onward.
Black artists have deep roots in country music, dating back to DeFord Bailey becoming one of the first Black stars of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s.
Trailblazers like Charley Pride broke racial barriers in the 1960s, while contemporary stars including Darius Rucker, Kane Brown and Mickey Guyton continue expanding the genre’s diversity.
This musical heritage connects directly to the cowboy culture that Hip-Hop artists are now reclaiming through their art and public platforms.
The documentary uses archival footage and photographs to provide historical context while following current Black cowboy communities across the country.
Bun B told The Associated Press that the project is essential American education rather than a niche in Black history.
“It’s not a Black story — this is an American story,” Bun B said. “This will turn everything that you know about the American cowboy on its head in the right way, and put these things into proper historical context. And that benefits all Americans.”
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