Emmy award winning rapper Frzy joined the Bubba Show on 100.7 Star in Pittsburgh to share another Black History Month fact, this time discussing the history of cowboys and teaching about Bass Reeves.
"Well you know I want to keep it cool, this is a cool thing for me," Frzy said. "Growing up I loved my alien movies, I loved the action heroes, but no one was cooler than like Clint Eastwood. My cowboy swag, the walk in the door at sunrise, that was big for me."
Frzy went on to talk about a current Western movie out now featuring Regina King, Idris Elba and Jonathan Majors.
"There's a cool movie out called "The Harder They Fall" and it's a Black cowboy movie, which is amazing on Netflix, everyone should check it out, produced by Regina King... But check this thing out right, Black men had a strong presence in the Wild West. You'd be hard-pressed to find much diversity in old time Western films, however, according to the Smithsonian magazine, 1 in 4, 1 in 4 cowboys were Black."
Frzy then went on to explain how Black cowboys inspired numerous Western and cowboy characters throughout films and TV.
"In fact, it's believed that the fictional characters like The Lone Ranger was based on Bass Reeves, who was actually in the movie, in the Netflix movie when you watch it. Bass Reeves was in the movie, he is a real person, he's a real sheriff, The Lone Ranger was based on him."
"What's crazy is Bass Reeves was born into slavery, but he fled to the West during the Civil War. In time, Reeves became the Deputy U.S. Marshal, which is nuts. So 1 in 4 cowboys were Black, and the U.S. Marshal who was one of the most famous and was now made into The Lone Ranger, was Black, Bass Reeves."
Reeves was born in 1838 in Arkansas and eventually became the first Black deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi River, working mostly in Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is said to have recorded more than 3,000 arrests of felons during his career.
Frzy finished up his Black History Month fact by telling the audience to go and watch the movie.
"Please go watch it, it's crazy... Thank you man, I'm excited about it. Yee-haw baby!"
Related
Related
