The Untold Truth Of Country Artist Shaboozey

It's fair to say that Shaboozey has had a pretty good 2024. At the start of the year, he was a virtual unknown without a solitary Billboard hit to his name. By the end of the year, however, the Virginia native became a viral artist who racked up no fewer than 14 weeks atop the Hot 100.

Along with scoring the longest-running No. 1 of the year with "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," Shaboozey also made two contributions to Beyoncé's criminally ignored country album "Cowboy Carter," picked up nominations at the VMAs, CMAs, and People's Country Choice Awards, and reached No. 5 in the U.S. with his third studio album, "Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going."

But where did the man behind 2024's ultimate drinking anthem come from? How is he coping with his new-found fame? And which model has he been spotted with? Here's a look at the chart-topper's untold truth.

Shaboozey was born Collins Obinna Chibueze, with his last name translated from the Nigerian language of Igbo as "God is king." We're not sure whether his musical moniker has such lofty connotations, but we do know that it was born from people not being able to pronounce his name.

During an interview with Billboard, Shaboozey revealed that his pseudonym stems from his Virginia high school years when his football coach continually misspelled and mispronounced his surname. Instead of correcting him, the chart-topper decided it was simply easier to accept it: "You felt like you had to make it easier for everyone else to understand."

"It could be a little confusing at times," Shaboozey went on to add, referring to his experiences of growing up in the suburbs as a Nigerian-American. Luckily, his parents instilled a sense of worth that's helped to propel his career to superstardom: "If I'm going to do anything. I'm going to make sure I'm damn good at it."

Nigeria has become a musical hotbed in recent years thanks to the likes of Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Davido. And no one could be prouder than Shaboozey, the country star who spent two years at a junior high school in the African country. But as someone fast approaching his thirties, the "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" hitmaker's experiences there were very different to the crop of Gen Z artists.

In an interview with GRAMMY.com, Shaboozey explained that while his younger cousins in Nigeria are immersed in social media, he had to go without the entire internet during his brief spell there. "Everything is spreading out. But as far as Afrobeat, I mean, that music is incredible, the production," he gushed. "It's so infectious when you hear it, but it's cool to see people of Nigerian descent, me as well, having our reach everywhere."

So what did Shaboozey take away from his Nigerian experiences? Well, an impressive knowledge of the country's agricultural structure judging by his reflections with GQ: "There's a lot of herdsmen. There's a lot of people growing crops. A lot of your food is grown outside of where you live. You don't go to a market and you get it. It's you're growing the stuff you eat." The chart-topper explained that's why he believes he feels a kinship with the similar back-to-basics way of country music life.

So, how exactly did Shaboozey become so enamored with the world of country music? Well, as he told GQ in 2024, the star has his immigrant father to thank for his eclectic musical education.

Shaboozey told the magazine that his dad immediately soaked up the local culture after moving to America, namely Texas, as a college student, and not just what was on the radio, either. "It's cool to go back and see pictures of my dad dressed up in Wranglers and military camo. And before I could even walk, that was his style," the singer recalled.

Of course, it was his dad's love of Don Williams and Kenny Rogers that had the biggest impact on Shaboozey's career, even if he didn't always know exactly which was which. "Outside of MTV and BET, I wasn't getting the specific names of the artists my parents played around the house and spoke about," he told Billboard. "It was all just music to me."

Shaboozey is living proof of the old adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Indeed, six years before scoring the longest-running No. 1 of 2024, collaborating with Beyoncé, and essentially becoming country music's hottest new star, the singer was ruthlessly dropped by his record label.

Shortly after the release of his 2018 debut album, "Lady Wrangler," Republic Records — whose executives are no doubt now kicking themselves — decided to let Shaboozey go. Neither party has explicitly explained what happened behind the scenes. But the artist himself has hinted that the company got impatient about the lack of instant success.

"Major labels can get pretty cluttered" he explained to GRAMMY.com. "Sometimes they just don't have the bandwidth to develop acts that aren't going to take off in a couple weeks or a month or a quarter. They have these quarterlies they have to meet." The "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" hitmaker went on to theorize that his reputation as a musical "disruptor" probably didn't go down too well with the men in suits, either: "It's very important for me to be innovative and push things, and change the way people consume."

In 2024, ESPN chose to soundtrack its coverage of Atlantic Coast Conference college football with "Last of My Kind" by Shaboozey. No doubt the country star gave the network the thumbs up, because before making it big as a musician, he was a key member of his Virginia high school's football team.

This isn't Shaboozey's only affiliation with the sporting world, either. Longtime fans will already know that he's a massive fan of NASCAR racing, hence the title of his viral hit, "Jeff Gordon." "Being from Virginia, I was inspired by the that were things around me, [by] the cultural landmarks and the things I would see," the chart-topper explained to The Tennessean (via USA Today). "NASCAR was a big thing I took and put into my sound and agriculture ... all the things were exposed to me I put in my music." The country star's dreams came true in May 2024 when he got to meet the man he named his first big song after.

To an outsider, Shaboozey may have appeared to come from nowhere to join the contemporary country music revolution. But he first pursued his love of the Nashville sound long before seemingly every other pop star jumped on the bandwagon.

Indeed, while Shaboozey's first studio effort, 2018's "Lady Wrangler," was grounded in hip-hop, it was initially intended to be a pure country record. But as he told Harper's Bazaar six years later, he soon realized that his venture into the genre might not go appreciated: "I started it, and then for whatever reason, I felt like the world, or the culture, or even I wasn't ready for it yet. I wanted to do something first that would ease me in."

Of course, thanks to the likes of "Old Town Road" by LGBTQ pioneer Lil Nas X, barriers are now being broken left, right, and center. Shaboozey eventually decided to fully commit to the sound that's given him the biggest hit of 2024: "I want to make music like this for the next couple of projects, and tell stories from this point of view. I'm going to keep picking up a guitar and figuring out how to get better at crafting and telling this story, which is what I've been doing for the last 10 years."

Shaboozey had quite the memorable experience at his first MTV Video Music Awards. The country star was nominated for best new artist and song of the summer at the ceremony, rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift, and had his red carpet interview hilariously crashed by Chappell Roan. But the Nigerian-American later admitted that he felt out of place on one of the music industry's biggest nights of the year.

"Love the VMAs, but sometimes it felt like they weren't there for me, to be honest," he told Billboard the day after the night before, referring to the crowd mostly there to see more established stars. "But there were more Black folks and people working the event that were showing me love, and that's what it's about."

Shaboozey also felt slightly uncomfortable at how people reacted any time he wandered into the same vicinity as Lil Nas X, another artist of color who's taken the country world by storm. "It's like everyone is like, 'Do they know?'" he explained. "We haven't had deep conversations, but I can tell what's happening to me now is probably very similar to what he experienced."

A full 20 years after being denied pole position on the Hot 100, J-Kwon's hip-hop smash "Tipsy" finally got the chance to taste chart-topping success thanks to rising country star Shaboozey. Indeed, as its title suggests, "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" interpolated the 2004 crunk anthem to help tell the story of an everyday hard worker letting loose with a few drinks.

Shaboozey, however, had to wait a while until the sample was legally cleared. In fact, in a chat with Audacy St. Louis' Hot 104.1, J-Kwon revealed that talks nearly fell through altogether. Referring to his cut of the royalties, the rapper explained, "The percentages was kind of too low for me ... So once we worked that out, it happened."

The rest, of course, has become hip-hop/country history, with "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" spending multiple weeks atop the Billboard chart. Further proving that J-Kwon was fully on board, he appeared with Shaboozey for a special performance of the track at the BET Awards. The latter told The Cut, "It was really cool to bring my world to that space, bringing a genre of music that isn't usually showcased at an event like that — coming out playing guitar with the choreography and the fiddle in the background. And you know, J-Kwon is a good friend of mine; he gave me that stamp of approval for the song. So it was really a dream come true."

Don't be too surprised if you see Shaboozey gracing the Oscars along with the Grammys in the future because the country star has plans to take the movie world by storm. He's already started, having launched his own production company, V Picture Films.

But Shaboozey is conducting his business with the goal of paying it forward to those in his home state. Instead of basing the company amid the bright lights of Hollywood, the "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" hitmaker has laid down its roots in his hometown. "The long-term goal is to build this production company up and to have a film studio in Virginia where mid-Atlantic artists can come together to create," he told Colors X about his cinematic ambitions.

Shaboozey — who cites "Rebel Without A Cause," "East of Eden," and the films of Robert De Niro's best friend Martin Scorsese as his major inspirations — shared that he always wanted to be a storyteller first and foremost. "V Picture Films pays homage to my younger self and is a token reminder to keep that childhood dream alive," he explained. "The fantasy is to be a full on writer, director, and producer one day. I want to create stories on a high level and to earn the trust of other creatives to build worlds together."

Shaboozey found himself making the gossip pages for the first time in August 2024 when he was allegedly spotted engaging in some public displays of affection with oft-revealing model/actor Emily Ratajkowski. The pair reportedly entered Big Apple hotspot Musica holding hands with each other and remained glued to each other until leaving the venue in the early hours of the morning.

Ratajkowski, whose former boyfriends include Harry Styles, Brad Pitt, and — like pretty much every other female celebrity — Pete Davidson, had previously been spotted enjoying a Shaboozey performance at the Z100 Summer Bash in New York. The pair added fuel to the fire just a few weeks later when they were pictured leaving a showing of the Channing Tatum flick, "Blink Twice." If that wasn't enough evidence that Shaboozey and Ratajkowski were an item, the morning after the screening, he was seen leaving the model's home wearing the same clothes as the night before.

So how did the two get together? Well, they may have first connected when they both attended a Fourth of July party in the Hamptons hosted by Michael Rubin. A TMZ source, however, claims that their "their relationship is very casual and nothing serious," adding, "They are hanging out and seeing where things go."

Don't expect Shaboozey to give any tell-all interviews about his alleged relationship with Emily Ratajkowski any time soon. For the Nigerian-American is fast building a reputation for becoming monosyllabic whenever he's asked about his private life.

When pressed by Esquire about his relationship status in 2024, for example, Shaboozey simply responded, "Pass." It's not just the media who the country star is less than forthcoming with, either. He also gave one particular fan the brush-off when questioned if he was single during a performance. "People ask that question all the time," he added wearily. "I'm pretty private about that stuff."

But fans shouldn't completely give up hope when it comes to learning more about Shaboozey's love life. They might just have to pore over his lyrics instead. "I think it's a very big thing in West African culture," he explained about his approach to songwriting. "There's a lot of emphasis on storytelling. Passing things down."

Shaboozey's profile further skyrocketed in May 2024 when he appeared on Beyoncé's unlikely pivot into country music, "Cowboy Carter." The Nigerian-American lent his talents to two tracks which subsequently entered the Hot 100, "Sweet Honey Buckiin'" and "Spaghetti." And he couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity the superstar gave him.

"Beyoncé. I don't think you can beat that in life," the "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" hitmaker gushed to People. "At all. She's such a huge part of culture, and big in my life and my family's life, and just everybody's life." Shaboozey went on to explain how the former Destiny's Child star has also influenced his future musical career, particularly the way she's constantly looking to innovate.

"I learned a lot about the work ethic [from her], for sure," Shaboozey said. "I say you got to continue to be inspired. Once you lose inspiration, it's kind of over for you as an artist, you know? Just continually being inspired and trying to just trace that inspiration, because the world is full of wonders and mysteries, it's infinite." Continuing to get philosophical, the chart-topper then hailed Beyoncé for continuing to pursue these infinite possibilities.

As fellow chart newcomer Chappell Roan can attest to, going from virtual unknown to world-conquering superstar within the space of a few months can be a shock to the system. Shaboozey has certainly found out the hard way that fame can come at a cost.

"Coming from a small town, you don't really think, 'I'm gonna be this person that people recognize around the world,'" the country star told the Los Angeles Times after topping the charts with "A Bar Song (Tipsy)." "Sometimes I can't go to certain places," he added, describing this period as a "complete 180." "It's hard for me to come to grips with a lot of people being familiar with me."

Shaboozey further established his "regular guy" credentials while talking to Billboard about how his genre of choice appealed to him back in the day: "I found country music could teach people that the little things in life are where the value is. Just having a working truck that you can take your girl in to ride to a cliff and watch the sunset is enough."

Following the mammoth success of "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," Shaboozey decided he wanted to buy himself out of his publishing contract with Warner Chappell. But when he attempted to exercise the administration deal clause which would help foster his exit, the country star discovered that cooperation wasn't in the company's vocabulary.

According to Rolling Stone, subsidiary Warner-Temerlane had ignored a letter sent by the Nigerian-American's representatives inquiring about any unrecouped balances. As a result, Shaboozey ended up filing a lawsuit against Warner Chappell in August 2024, arguing that by deliberately withholding this information, they were in breach of contract.

Their agreement stated that Shaboozey had to pay 110% of this figure off, allowing him to look for another more lucrative deal. But the suit alleged, "To date, Warner has refused to disclose to plaintiff the total amount of the unrecouped balance for the prior advances in violation of the Administration Agreement." The plot further thickened when the star also accused his former label Kreshendo of conspiring with Warner to ignore his request.