I was surprised by Shaboozey — first in a theater tucked away in Nashville’s Soho House as his answers to my questions weren’t what I expected, and then later, as he took the stage to perform multiple hits on the Ascend Amphitheater stage as part of Music City’s inaugural Red Bull Jukebox, and his cool demeanor from earlier peeled back to reveal a superstar. A few weeks prior, he’d taken the stage for a two-night stand in Brooklyn, New York. Word on the street was that he’d put on a stellar performance in a city known more for it’s hip-hop roots and tough critique of sound more than its love for country music.

“Oh, it was amazing,” Shaboozey tells PAPER, leaning back into a velvet green lounge chair, signature ombré locks framing his face. “It was super cool doing two sold-out nights in New York, a place I feel like traditionally doesn’t have too much of a country scene that I know about. A lot of people connect country music with the South so to go the big city, and people are in their hats and boots and listening and feeling the music, it’s cool to see how far, like, the reach is. “

Speaking of reach, Shaboozey’s has been meteoric as of late. Yesterday, it was announced that his track “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — which interpolates the track “Tipsy” by J-Kwon and has a chorus so contagious you’re probably accidentally humming it right now — had officially made it to 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 song chart, making it the longest-running No. 1 single of the year. He’s also the first Black male No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Hot Country charts. But “Tipsy,” as I learn over my time in Nashville was no flash in the pan. Shaboozey came up in the ranks for country authentically, playing shows in dives and mainstays and getting attention from agents and labels the way you only can in Nashville.

The work has paid off. The city embraces him tightly and country music culture has shown their admiration by handing him a People’s Choice Country Award for being 2024’s Artist of the Year — and he also received a nod from the year’s CMA’s for Best New Artist. Still, he’s pretty humble about the whole thing. When I asked how he felt about the uproar around the track and his new title as a “breakout” star, his answer wasn’t what I expected.

“It was a gradual thing,” he says when ask when he realized that “Tipsy” was going to not just be a hit, but a historic feat. “I don’t think it was that moment. I think it was just seeing how all these moments were connecting. From our first single we put out, ‘Let It Burn,’ and seeing how that was connecting to people to then finally getting a release cadence, and seeing the response to everything. I think ‘Let It Burn,’ then ‘Colors,’ and even ‘Annabelle,’ those singles we were releasing that were all cohesive. [We had a] good team, direction, consistency, authenticity. Getting out there doing shows, doing all the work is what’s going to get you that moment. It’s not just a lucky thing where you just wake up… No, we, we were working.”

I nod before bringing up how it sounds like dominoes, how one thing led to the next and the next. “Exactly. When we made the song, it was definitely like our team and people who were like, “I think you’ve done it. I think you’ve done something special with this song. But yeah, it’s never really a moment. If anything, all of it was just a blessing. I don’t think you plan for like that as an artist.”

His words rang true later that night as fans lined up to dance, tapped their heels, and sang along to every word long before his biggest hit played over the loudspeakers. It’s a juxtaposition to what so many outlets and Tweets and naysayers have said about the genre, who belongs there and how they’re received. But watching it play out in real-time, Nashville, Country, and Shaboozey sound like a perfect fit.

Later, as we talk about the “moment” Country is having right now, with big names like Beyoncé throwing their name in the cowboy hat for the Southern-bred sound, and his own hit sitting pretty on the charts, I get curious about what he sees next for the genre. “I think a reason why it’s such a big genre right now is because the moment is right now,” he says. “You know what I mean? I don’t think it’s a coming or a future thing. I think what I’d like to see is what’s happening currently. You have artists at every level embracing the genre of music. And then the people in Country there are so many different styles. There’s people that are keeping it super traditional, the old western sort of sound. There are people that are doing, you know, like Zach Top, who’s bringing in the ’90s kind of vibe. Everyone’s doing their own thing. It’s like there are subgenres in it now. I’m seeing a lot of people exploring the genre and that’s the thing about country music. It’s about honoring the past. I think a lot of other genres are about ‘How do we move forward’ and they forget the roots of it.”

He adds with a knowing grin: “It’s kind of punk, country. Country needs punk too, but their punk is trying to keep a tradition.”

Photos courtesy of Red Bull