Billboard Puff Piece Calls Shaboozey the 1st Black Country “Outlaw”

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‘Tis the season for ludicrous and obsequious puff pieces to hit the internet as power publicists are sent into hyperdrive attempting to garner Grammy nominations and wins for their deep-pocketed clients.

This practice is nothing new unfortunately. What’s new is the nakedness of the process, the slavish and slobbering nature of the coverage that’s so transparent, it insults the intelligence, and setting the expectations so high that the Recording Academy now sometimes feels hostage to nominating and awarding certain artists like it has a proverbial gun to its head. See Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter, which fell from #139 to #171 on the Billboard Albums Chart last week, and will still probably win Album of the Year.

Shaboozey and his track “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” don’t need a boost to be considered for the 2024 Grammy Awards. It was the biggest track in “country” music all year, and arguably the biggest song in all of music in 2024. This probably guarantees him a country nomination or two, along with some all-genre category love, including a New Artist of the Year nomination. This is all Shaboozey’s to lose.

But to ensure Grammy voters know their obligations, Billboard has published one doozy of a Shaboozey puff piece, which among other uninformed proclamations claims he’s a country music “Outlaw,” and that he’s the first Black country music Outlaw to exist. You’ve got to love the irresponsible erasure of Black legacy in country music that often comes with these activist and obsequious spreads.


“As Shaboozey picks at his final few French fries, I take in the man sitting across the table from me, who, though he’s currently relaxed in the booth of a Brooklyn eatery, has more than a little of a classic gunslinger’s gleam in his eyes,” writer Kyle Denis gushes at one point. “When he picks up his final oyster, it feels nothing short of poetic.”

Are you serious with this? Did a human being who purports to be an objective journalist actually write the above paragraph with a straight face?

And to dispel any consideration of any other motivation than painting an alluring picture for Grammy voters through the article, the below paragraph is also included.

“I think it’s something for me to bring home to everybody,” Shaboozey muses about his potential first Grammy wins. “This is the peak of the mountain as far as recognition comes. This is a long-standing ceremony, it’s history and tradition, and hopefully we’re able to take it home.”

We haven’t even seen the nominations yet, and the guy is already banking “potential Grammy wins” in a plural form. Then Shaboozey’s label owner adds,

“The Grammys are always going to matter to me,” says EMPIRE founder Ghazi, whose commitment to a genreless future brought him out to Nashville years before he crossed paths with Shaboozey. “From being a 14-year-old making my first records to now being a seasoned executive, I never lost sight of that journey, and the Grammys never [lose their] luster.”

This “commitment to a genreless future” comes up in wildly contradictory moments throughout the article. You have to love it when people try to tell you that genres don’t matter, but then expend an exceeding amount of effort to lobby for genre-specific Grammy Awards, like Shaboozey and his entourage do in this very Billboard piece.

Without genres there is no Grammy for “Best Country Album,” and we know this is what Shaboozey and his label are aiming for. The article compliments Saboozey on his big year “that could still get even bigger if “A Bar Song” gets likely-looking Grammy nominations for record and song of the year; or if the album it’s on, the Billboard chart-topping ‘Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going,’ gets album of the year and best country album nods; or if Shaboozey himself contends for best new artist.”

The genre confusion gets even more convoluted deeper into the article. Have fun trying to navigate through the logic of the following paragraph.

…while Shaboozey could promote songs from this album that don’t cater to country audiences, he doesn’t currently plan to. “Shaboozey is a country artist—that’s what he’s passionate about,” [Jared] Cotter (Shaboozey’s manager) stresses. “What we’re seeing across all genres is artists don’t need to be in one box. Shaboozey is the first one that’s genuinely both in hip-hop and country music; he can rap as well as he can sing. We’re definitely going to promote that because it’s who he is. It’s not a new thing that we’re trying.”

So wait. Shaboozey’s manager Jared Cotter first said, “Shaboozey is a country artist—that’s what he’s passionate about.” Then the very next thing out of Jared Cotter’s mouth is, “What we’re seeing across all genres is artists don’t need to be in one box. Shaboozey is the first one that’s genuinely both in hip-hop and country music.”

So which one is it? Is it that Shaboozey wants to be a country artist, or is it that genres don’t matter? Is it that Saboozey doesn’t need to be in one box, or does he deserve to be in the country music box? They’re all over the place here, talking out of both sides of their mouths, because they want the country Gammy love without recusing themself from the all-genre Grammy love too.

But this whole idea that Shaboozey is a “country music Outlaw,” and the first Black one is really the most offensive and over-the-top assertion of the entire piece.

With “A Bar Song” — which has racked up over 771 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate — Shaboozey became the first bona fide Black outlaw country star.

What exactly makes Shaboozey an Outlaw country star compared to scores of Black country artists who’ve come before him? He certainly doesn’t have an Outlaw country sound, denoted from two-tone bass lines, the half-time bass drum hits, or phase effect on the electric guitar. Is he simply an “Outlaw” because he’s Black and having success in country music?

If that’s the case, why wouldn’t Charley Pride get this designation? Or Ray Charles who broke down racial barriers? Most country music historians wouldn’t consider Pride or Charles as “Outlaws” either. But successful Black country performers like Stoney Edwards, O.B. McClinton, and Linda Martell probably could be considered in this category.

And well before Shaboozey’s success, modern Black country performers with an Outlaw spirit such as Charley Crockett, Arron Vance, and Chapel Hart were doing their thing in the darkness of Billboard and big media puff pieces.

You want to talk about “Outlaw”? Zach Bryan didn’t even submit his music for Grammy consideration this year. That is an Outlaw move, not prattling for voter consideration with pandering and fawning press pieces. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” isn’t even an original song, it’s a derivative of a 2004 J-Kwon song, while borrowing heavily from Zach Bryan’s musical approach.

And while we’re talking about all the streams that Shaboozey and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” racked up, let’s also mention the numerous controversies surrounding the song’s promotion on Tik-Tok, from the pay-for-play schemes where influencers and trend-setters were literally paid to feature the song, to the wild story of a company lying that Dolly Parton was Shaboozey’s Godmother, and then openly admitting to it, and in Billboard no less.

Any objective piece of journalism would at least mention these concerns and attempt to get Shaboozey to speak on them. Instead we get stanzas like, “Standing at around 6 feet 4 with broad shoulders and lengthy wicks, Shaboozey is a dark-skinned Black man who wears his racial identity with pride. He’s a magnetic presence in any room he enters…” At this point this Shaboozey article enters the realm of idolatry.

It’s great and heartening that Black performers are finding success in country music. But since Billboard has also reported that Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter was accepted in country categories by the Grammys despite saying herself “This ain’t a country album,” we could have a scenario where Beyoncé and Shaboozey edge out actual country artists like Charley Crockett, Brittany Spencer, and Kashus Culpepper for important nominations while also receiving nominations and wins from the all-genre categories. How does this help the Black cause in country music?

The Grammy Awards are one of the few awards shows where artistic merit weighs heavier than commercial appeal. When the “have’s” like Shaboozey are able to put huge publicity behind their Grammy marketing campaigns while performers like Charley Crockett just don’t have the same purse strings to pull, it creates the an unfair advantage.

What the Billboard article is right about is that multiple Grammy Awards are Shaboozey’s to lose. So why fete him even more, and with such obvious puffery? Instead, present the full picture, and an objective one, so that Grammy voters can make more informed decisions.



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