Not exactly who I think of when I hear Shaboozey’s music…
There aren’t many new artists – in any genre – who had a more meteoric rise over the past year or so than Shaboozey. The hip-hop country artist, whose real name is Collins Obinna Chibueze, burst onto the scene last spring with his song “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” a “country” interpolation of the 2004 song “Tipsy” by J-Kwon.
The song went #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and spent 19 weeks at the top of the all-genre Hot 100 chart. It was the #2 song on the year-end Hot 100 chart, and has racked up over a billion streams on Spotify alone.
Of course Shaboozey has made the most of his viral hit, performing “A Bar Song” at pretty much every televised event over the past year, from sporting events to award shows, leading many to jokingly wonder whether he even has any other songs at this point.
And naturally, the song has spawned a lot of discussion over whether it’s actually “country” or not. With its pop sound and hip-hop elements that pull from the original J-Kwon song, it’s obviously up for debate as to whether the song should even be considered a country song, but regardless, it’s hard to deny that it’s catchy as hell.
With the discussion around the song, Shaboozey said last year that he went into the studio with the plan of “flipping a 2000s song into a traditional country song,” which was pretty ridiculous. It’s fair to discuss whether it’s a country song or not, but calling it a “traditional country song” is pretty ridiculous.
But as it turns out, Shaboozey was inspired to make country music by some of the traditional country greats.
During a recent interview with PEOPLE, the Grammy nominee revealed that he grew up listening to the legends of country music:
“I would say Johnny Cash was some[one] that resonated with me very early on. Marty Robbins, too. I loved [him]. His voice was just so sweet and distinct. Marty was really cool, especially in my later years and seeing the parallels between country music, storytelling, country music and hip-hop.”
And honestly, I can see where he’s coming from with the parallels between Johnny Cash and hip hop. Of course nobody would argue that Cash’s music was “hip hop,” but he did include elements in his music like spoken verses and focus on social issues that are found in hip-hop. Hell, Cash even worked with hip-hop producer Rick Rubin for his American Recordings series later in his career.
But it’s pretty hard to see the similarities between the music of Cash and Robbins in “A Bar Song.” The genre-pushing song isn’t especially deep or meaningful (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and contains almost none of the elements of “traditional” country artists like the legends Shaboozey grew up listening to.
The singer also credits artists like Waylon Jennings, as well as legendary names like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, with inspiring him to pursue a career in music. And while his first single may not have showed off the depth of his songwriting or his country influence, it’s much more evident on his latest single “Good News,” which still features some hip-hop elements and clap tracks from pop country, but does much more to show off his lyricism and has more of a folksy sound on the verses than you may have expected if you were only familiar with “A Bar Song.”
Now I’m not under any delusion that Shaboozey is going to be putting out music like Tyler Childers or Sturgill Simpson any time soon. But it’s at least encouraging to hear that he was inspired by some of the great country songwriters in history, so maybe we’ll see more of that in the future.
After he gets done performing “A Bar Song” at every event, that is…
