Philly Plain Dealer

Earlier in March,  Amari Newman of Sleepwalker Entertainment, and I pulled up to Cowboy Killerrs Derby Day listening event.

The Derby Day listening session was a promotion for his newly released 12 track mixtape,  Kentucky Derby. 

So far in terms of artist creativity and vision in Philadelphia, Cowboys listening event had to be up there for what I’ve attended for underground music events in 2024.  Since then, it’s been two weeks since the show. It’s still leaving me with a feeling of wanting to hear more of his music live. 

Hopefully more artists will continue to host listening sessions such as this one. Nowadays, it seems like a lot of redundant Instagram promo for album rollouts.

Cowboys RSVP and contact through Instagram only event did not miss at all. I came late as per usual, but it seemed like that’s when everything was getting started. Once Cowboy got on the mic to start a few tracks he didn’t stop until Midnight, to deliver the new sounds of his tape.

You walk in, and everyones under these red lights posted up in the studio waiting. Cowboy provided his own beverages and food. It was pretty lowkey, about 40-50 people, I personally felt like the only dude in attendance who wasn’t hip to his music. 

He had a DJ in the background spinning and a projector that had his old music videos on loop, which was a great build up for the premiere of the new video. 

If there’s one thing I can understand about him as an artist is that he puts the gas to the pedal and there’s real energy when he’s performing. He sang every bar from every track using all the air in his lungs. If you listened closely enough when he was off mic you could hear him saying to his right hand man that, “they not really hearing me”. 

Midnight hit, and before he put the track on, he let everyone know how much work he’s put in on this project and how much emotion and time went into it. 

He debuted the first track “Kentucky Derby” on the projector. You can tell he’s a deep thinker by the way he raps,  but also when he explained to the congregation of how he stumbled upon the setting and idea for shooting the music video at the specific location.

Cowboy continued to play a few tracks to give the crowd a taste of the tape, and it had everyone cranking. After the show, we were able to chop it up with him. He’s a very personable dude who appreciates anyone tapping into his music. A personal favorite of mine was “WWM”. 

From what I observed, he’s got a solid following of supporters behind him and I hope the kid keeps going. There’s bigger things to come for dedicated artists such as himself.