Shaboozey’s Cowboy Carter Features Were Only the Beginning

Daniel Prakopcyk/Courtesy of EMPIRE

Securing a spot on a Beyoncé album is impressive in of itself for an up-and-coming artist. Shaboozey did it twice. On the Cowboy Carter highlights “SPAGHETTII” and “SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN’,” the Virginia-born country singer and rapper paints pictures of a Black cowboyhood spent traversing claustrophobic concrete and endless fields of wild grass. “I’ve always been on a real mission to bridge the gap between cultures, whether that's hip hop and country or just urban and rural,” Shaboozey tells GQ.

The 28-year old began his career during the SoundCloud-rap boom, a period that continues to inspire his less rigid creative process. “I don't have a traditional music background. I am definitely influenced by a lot of the DMV [D.C., Maryland, Virginia], believe it or not. It’s a big hip hop, big rap scene,” he says. “We have a certain attitude and presence, and a way we go about making music, and just being innovators, in whatever space we're in.”

Shaboozey felt free to stay true to his unique sound on Cowboy Carter. “Hearing the records, at first I was like, I got to do something that Beyoncé is going to like,” he remembers. “And they're like, ‘No, bro—do what you would do.’ It was really cool to fully be able to do me. That was really awesome. She's a creative creator and so am. I really respect her artistry, her visions.”

On the heels of his features on Cowboy Carter, Shaboozey chatted with GQ about the movies that inspired his verses, the Linda Martell film he wants to make, and his upcoming third album Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going, due out May 31.

GQ: Your parents are Nigerian but you grew up in Virginia. How did you come into country music instead of pursuing other genres?

Shaboozey: I think it's growing up in Virginia, my birthplace. My dad, being an immigrant, just loved the culture honestly. When he came here, he moved to Texas and maybe picked up on some things. 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. In Virginia, everyone's always outdoors. There's lakes and bodies of water where people go to fish and hike and camp. But then Nigeria as well. I lived there for two years and it's also the same. Agriculture is a big thing over there. 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. I definitely think there's a connection there.

What country singers did you grow up listening to?

My dad was big on Kenny Rogers. That was one I heard a lot. “The Gambler,” I remember hearing that song a lot. And then Garth Brooks sometimes. My dad would go from playing Kenny Rogers or some of those country songs to then playing some traditional Nigerian songs. And then when I go home, Ja Rule, Usher, and Nelly are on TV. Honestly, music came to me very organically. There was never any point where there was a chase or anything. Being introduced to Prince, who was so eclectic with his music, taught me music is literally about finding yourself, and it's okay to embrace the things that you like that people find odd and peculiar.

You're wearing a Pink Floyd shirt on this Zoom. Did they also influence any of your music?

100%, actually. The Wall is one of my favorite albums of all time. Roger Waters, the bass player, is definitely a big inspiration of mine. I had a huge '60s rock phase. I often was really into The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and just the whole culture of British rock music at that time. Then if you go across the water, you have the whole hippie folk era coming too as well. The bluegrass thing was coming with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

I'm just a fan of music, honestly, and things that created whole movements, which is why it’s so cool to be on a project like Cowboy Carter too. I'm always thinking, "How can someone make a moment?" Because everything's always digital, and social. How can somebody still make a moment in the real world? It's been something that I've been trying to figure out and I feel like Beyoncé was able to do that as well.

Beyoncé’s talked about watching certain Western films for inspiration while she was recording songs for Cowboy Carter. Did you also do that? Did any movies inspire your verses?

Yeah, I love film and movies a lot. I watched No Country for Old Men. A lot of Coen Brothers movies definitely inspired me. But yeah, again, hearing the project, I was like, "Oh, we're twinning." People in my camp that have previously worked with her are always like, "Hey, you guys are pretty similar when it comes to creating and world building and immersing yourself in something..."

I actually started wanting to write a biopic about Linda Martell. I got notes in my phone about it. To be able to also be on a song with her is just showing me that the universe is definitely listening.

What was the moment like when you heard the songs you were featured on? Did you hear the full song for the first time when she released it or did you get to hear it before?

I had heard the songs. She's definitely a mastermind. She puts different things together. She might take a hook from this song, put it over here. Things were just shifting up until the last point. What I recorded sounded different than where it landed. And it probably took infinite shapes before it got to that. But it's crazy to see where it landed and there's no other way I would've done it, especially with “Sweet Honey Buckiin.” The “Honey” part is so amazing—for her to just go into something soulful like that and then still turn it into a party at the end, making you actually feel like you're on a mechanical bull. It's crazy.

When you were starting out, did you imagine yourself becoming a traditional rapper before you started bringing country influences into the mix?

I feel like every artist, at some stage wanted to rap. I had a rap phase, like everybody. “Genres are such a funny concept,” to quote Linda Martell. When you're in school, you're influenced by what's around you with what everyone else is doing. I graduated high school in 2013, so that was the height of rap in popular culture. Drake was having that crazy run with So Far Gone. Joey Bada$$ had just put down 1999, so it was definitely a good year, great year for artists of that caliber.

I think my sound started to just cement after 2015 when I made a song called “Jeff Gordon.” It was kind of a gateway to Virginia culture, honestly, to Southern culture. Starting with NASCAR and then you get deeper and you're like, "Oh, NASCAR jackets, that's cool. Oh wait, Wrangler jeans. Oh, boots." It's all the same universe. These are just items that kind of come from that same world, but it definitely started with the NASCAR stuff.

What’s been your perception of the reception to Black people in country music pre and post Cowboy Carter? From my end, I see so much love and appreciation, and people who haven't really gotten into country music listening to it more, but I’m also seeing that some white people in country music don't really want that to happen.

That space and the sample size is so small, it's such a new thing. You have Charley Pride and Linda Martell, but I go to places like the Grand Ole Opry and I don't see too many Black people there. I think there's a definite stigmatization that comes with country music that even turns us away from it or turns people of color away from it. But we're all definitely here.

For me, it's been super receptive. Because I think music is universal and I don't think you can create anything from hate, to be honest. I respect country music, whatever color the artist may have been. And I think that's been the long standing tradition, and I think that's what Nashville really is. Obviously, like what you said, it's respect. It's any culture you want to be in, you want to understand, submerge yourself in it and do the work in the research and just understanding what it is. As long as that is done, people are always going to be receptive to that.

You're releasing an album soon! Is it going to be leaning more rap, more country, like an amalgamation experiment with new sounds?

Definitely an amalgamation. I was influenced by just a lot of Americana, and bluegrass songs. I just make music that inspires me that I think is going to inspire other people and just show people it's okay to take risks and chances.

It’s definitely a lot of country and less hip-hop, but what is hip-hop? I'm definitely doing something that other people can't always put their finger on what it is. Hopefully, there's a genre that gets created from a project like this. I'm not sure what the name of that genre is yet.

Originally Appeared on GQ