Shaboozey recently visited Genius to discuss his hit record “Vegas,” produced by Nevin and off his upcoming album Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going. Fresh off the success of his features with Beyoncé on Cowboy Carter, the Virginia native delves into the realities of his life’s journey, the origins of his name, and his target audience on today’s episode of Verified.
“I make music for the modern cowboy, the frontiersmen, the outlaws—those who are out there chasing their dreams.”
“I make music for the modern cowboy, the frontiersmen, the outlaws—those who are out there chasing their dreams.”
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Being on Cowboy Carter, it just feels like a chapter in the larger story or the mythos
00:05of my universe of the Western world.
00:08It was a cool crossover episode for my movie and her movie.
00:12I'm a big storyteller, you know?
00:14By the end of this, I hope everyone realizes that everything has been connected the whole time.
00:24Yeah, I make music for the modern cowboy, the frontiersman, the outlaw, those that want
00:27to go out there and just chase their dreams.
00:29I make music that motivates people to be themselves, to be free, honestly.
00:47Growing up, my pops, he always loved the damn 4Runner.
00:50He was just always big on having something that you can travel that's reliable.
00:54So Dirt Roads to me represents just, like I said, where I'm from, that things aren't
00:59always going to be straight and smooth.
01:01It's going to be rocky.
01:02You better bring your four-by-four.
01:14Smoke, you do that when you want to take the stress away from a situation, but at the same
01:17time it's smoke.
01:18It kind of represents a lot of things.
01:20Is there fire?
01:21I think it's just talking about being on this journey with this lady.
01:23Somewhere on this journey, these people need to get away from each other.
01:29My biggest mistake is leaving my town with a pretty lady.
01:33Shredding my heart like a day old paper, revved me wild and drove me crazy.
01:39I had just gotten back with one of my producers who helped me on my earlier stuff.
01:42We were in the studio and he said this line, like, you've lived a lot of life and I think
01:46your biggest mistake is...
01:48And he was saying it just casually, and I was like, that's kind of like a fire line.
01:52Lived a lot of life and my biggest mistake is...
01:54And then, insert your biggest mistake.
02:00Hollywood is supposed to be the glamor on the big screen.
02:14We look at it like everybody wants to be there, and then every time you see on the flip side
02:20of what really goes on behind the scenes.
02:22So to see that coming from where I'm from, a small town in Virginia, kind of felt a little
02:26low vibrational at first.
02:27You ever met some low vibration familiar faces?
02:46I love dirty things.
02:48I like dirty trucks, you know what I mean?
02:50I like dirty jeans.
02:51A lot of my friends are into vintage and they're going into old bandos and abandoned farms
02:55and they finding rotten jeans that have holes in it.
02:58We're looking at it like, yo, that's so cool.
02:59Yo, let me get that from you.
03:00They're like, ugh, it's going to be 20 bands.
03:02What are you talking about?
03:03I'm like, what?
03:04We paying it too.
03:05So we love some dirt on some things, you know what I mean?
03:07We like a little texture.
03:17Going from the demons calling you to I don't have any commas, it's also saying I'm going
03:21to keep my soul.
03:23I might not have much at this moment, but I'm going to keep being me and my authentic
03:26version of myself and not selling out.
03:28I remember I did have the whip stuck in the pound and I was like, dang.
03:31I had a camera in the back of the car.
03:34I went to the pound and I said, can I get my camera out?
03:35And I shot a video for my homie.
03:37He just paid me for the video.
03:38That's how the car came out.
03:42Everyone needs a favorite at some point, but you hope that you can stand on your own.
03:46So it feels good to be able to give back and be the one that's helping other people.
03:50Helping people bread is not a great feeling, you know what I mean?
03:52I'm still thankful for the homies and the people that did look out, because there was
03:56definitely times where I was looked out for.
03:58I appreciate all y'all, seriously.
04:01I'm Nigerian-American, so my last name is actually pronounced Chee-Bweze, and just growing
04:06up in Virginia, everybody just did not know how to enunciate my name.
04:10So they was just like, Shaboosie, and I was like, okay, I guess I'm going to just run
04:13with that.
04:14Telling my homies, should that be my artist name?
04:16I was pretty skeptical about it, but they was like, nah, that's hard, keep it.
04:18I think they fucked me over.
04:19In the long run, but I love it, man.