Shaboozey’s country success is special. But can a Grammy win bring acceptance?

UPDATE (Feb. 3, 2025, 2:00 p.m. ET): Shaboozey failed to win in any of the five categories he was nominated on Sunday night.

Shaboozey goes into this Sunday’s Grammy Awards with five nominations, including song of the year, country song of the year and country solo performance for his cross-genre smash, “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The song was released shortly after Shaboozey was featured on two songs on Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album, and he’s also up for a best melodic rap performance Grammy for their collaboration “Spaghettii.”

The Grammy nods are just the latest milestones for Shaboozey, who will be starring in a Super Bowl commercial for the candy Nerds before performing at both the pop/rock-oriented Coachella festival and its country cousin, the Stagecoach Festival, in the coming months.

Historically, only a very small number of Black artists have ever built sustained careers in country music. So far, they’ve all been men. Darius Rucker has been a country mainstay for years, but his success with Hootie & the Blowfish provided a crossover leg up. Arguably no Black artist has ever burst onto the country music charts with a bigger splash than Shaboozey.

The 29-year-old Virginia native was raised on a mix of his dad’s Kenny Rogers albums and the pop and hip-hop he heard on MTV and BET, leading to a sound that mixes country and hip-hop. Rissi Palmer, the musician, activist and host of Apple Radio’s “Color Me Country,” played Shaboozey’s music on her show long before he released his crossover megahit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” last year. As Palmer told me, his music has long “straddled the line,” with “vibes of Norman North and early Jelly Roll.”

Though he appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards and performed at the BET Awards over the summer, Shaboozey has also performed at country spaces like the Grand Ole Opry, the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, and the CMA Awards, where he was nominated for single of the year and new artist of the year. A few comments made about Shaboozey’s name during the CMA Awards drew criticism, but Shaboozey himself has steered clear of making too many statements on political issues or the lack of diversity in country music.

Lyrically, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is in line with country music’s long-standing penchant for celebrating around-the-clock drinking. The song was a massive hit in the country format, becoming the first song by a Black man to simultaneously top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart — which it did for 27 weeks — and its Country Airplay chart, for a seven-week run. The country radio support is noteworthy; the format has not typically supported viral hits from Black artists.

Black artists have slowly but surely been gaining traction. But the reception from the various country institutions continues to be mixed, if not contradictory.

With 19 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 chart, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has now tied Lil Nas X’s 2019 country-rap smash “Old Town Road” for the most weeks atop that tally. However, “Old Town Road” was removed from Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which measures radio play, streaming numbers and sales figures for country tracks. Despite its Western themes, the artist’s Georgia twang and a remix featuring country star Billy Ray Cyrus, Billboard claimed that “Old Town Road” “does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.” “Old Town Road” eventually won a CMA Award for musical event of the year in 2019, but that trophy was presented off camera. Lil Nas X went on to find further success in pop music with his next album, 2021’s “Montero,” which was not promoted to the country format.

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Also in 2019, hip-hop producer-turned-artist Blanco Brown scored a viral hit with the “The Git Up,” which was touted as a “sequel” to “Old Town Road.” Unlike Lil Nas X’s song, Blanco’s track did go to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart but stalled out at No. 44 on the Country Airplay chart.

Also unlike Lil Nas X, Brown had the backing of a Nashville-based record label, Broken Bow Records. He scored a top country radio hit in 2021 with “Just the Way,” a collaboration with his label mates, country group Parmalee. Since then, Brown has not charted another song on either country chart, and he recently posted about having a gig canceled due to rising racial tensions.

Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” going all the way to No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart marks progress in this narrative. But membership in Nashville’s inner circle is signified by consistent play on country radio, and charting one massive hit doesn’t guarantee more will follow, especially for artists of color.

“We know that Black women have virtually no shot at gaining traction in mainstream country music,” writes The Tennessean columnist Andrea Williams. “Black men seem to be doing a bit better — there’s Charley and Darius, after all — but it’s all a façade. Black male artists like Blanco Brown, like Breland, like Shaboozey are given one hit — an uptempo, hip hop-tinged hit that has those “Song of the Summer” vibes — and then they tend to disappear. Rather, they lose all industry support, so it feels like they’ve disappeared, even though, in most cases, they’re still grinding behind the scenes and trying to build something sustainable.”

The country music radio scene is particularly complicated and often based on personal relationships. Artists have to prove they belong.

Shaboozey is signed to independent record label Empire, the same company that previously helped launch Kane Brown’s country career. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was the the first No. 1 country radio hit for Empire’s Nashville office. Along the way, the Empire team helped Shaboozey develop relationships with the decision-makers at country radio that would program his singles. That practice of artists having to personally win over program directors is unique to country music.

Global superstar Beyoncé did not engage in a charm offensive to win over country music insiders when she released “Cowboy Carter,” and it didn’t go unnoticed. The project hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and she became the first Black woman to have a single top the country charts with “Texas Hold ’Em.” But she received zero nominations at last year’s CMA Awards.

Notably, white male hip-hop artists seem to have an easier time achieving crossover success on country radio. Jelly Roll is up for two Grammys in country categories this year, after previously releasing seven hip-hop albums. He’s also racked up five country radio chart toppers since 2022. Rap/pop superstar Post Malone has made a similar leap, earning two No. 1 country radio hits (so far) from his star-studded “F-1 Trillion” album, which is up for best country album at Sunday’s Grammys.

Shaboozey’s follow-up singles to “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” are not racing up the Country Airplay chart. Some Grammy wins could give those follow-up singles — like “Good News” and “Highway” — a boost. Regardless, Shaboozey is doubling down. He recently told Billboard his “next project is going to be even more country.”

For Palmer, seeing Shaboozey achieve country radio longevity would be a welcome and surprising development. “Shaboozey has put down roots as a country artist,” she told me. “Personally, I would like to see him treated as a viable country artist and not just a novelty or a byproduct of Beyoncé stopping by.”

Williams has a less optimistic view. The fact that he didn’t win any trophies at the CMA Awards, despite having the biggest country single of 2024, may indicate where Shaboozey’s story is headed.

“He’ll have the hit song that makes everybody dance, but he won’t have the follow-up success that will allow him to book shows and make music and win awards in the future,” she said. “By limiting Shaboozey to just that one hit, it also ensures his name is just a footnote instead of a full entry in country music’s history books. This way, the status quo stands.”