Woodbridge, VA · country · hip-hop

Shaboozey

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'A Bar Song (Tipsy)' made him the crossover story of the decade — country hooks over hip-hop bones.

Shaboozey, born Collins Obinna Chibueze, grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia, the son of Igbo Nigerian parents. His father, once a farmer in Nigeria who later attended college in Texas, favored a cowboy style of dress and a love of country music that shaped his son's ear; his mother worked as a nurse. He watched hip-hop videos on 106 & Park, spent two years at a boarding school in Nigeria, and graduated from Gar-Field Senior High School in Woodbridge, once intending to become a novelist.

His stage name came from a high school football coach mispronouncing his surname, which in Igbo means "God is king." He founded a production company, V Picture Films, in 2014 and released his first single, "Jeff Gordon," that same year. His debut album, Lady Wrangler, followed in 2018. A guest verse on Duckwrth's "Start a Riot," included on the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, brought him national attention.

That direction carried into his second album, Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die (2022), which draws a line between contemporary hip-hop and nineteenth-century outlaw ballads of the American frontier. His music sets acoustic guitar, slide and drawled melodic hooks against programmed drums, with lyrics that lean toward drinking songs and small-town narrative detail delivered in a low, unhurried voice.

Wider recognition followed his appearances on two tracks from Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter and the release of his own album, Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going. Its single "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," which interpolates J-Kwon's 2004 hit "Tipsy," spent nineteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, tying Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" as the longest-running number one in the chart's history. The follow-up, "Good News," topped Country Airplay and reached the Hot 100's top fifteen.

In 2025 he teamed with Jelly Roll on "Amen," which won the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. He has also collected three Billboard Music Awards, two People's Choice Country Awards and two iHeartRadio Music Awards.

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countryhip-hop