Shaboozey: The Forbes Interview

I used to manage myself I used to email people and be like I'm the manager of myself I've always had that kind of like um creative entrepreneurship like you know the enterprising that was always been a part of [Music] me shabui thank you so much for being here today thank you well it's been a massive year for you a number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 two features on a Beyonce album your first VMAs and a tour across major cities in North America how are you feeling I feel great you know dream dream come

true I can't even I can't complain no complaints it's it's been a long time coming right yeah and I hear you're quite the story teller so I want to hear the story of you before shabui so I want to hear the story of Collins who were you before you became an artist and how did you kind of find your passion for music I feel like I was just like a curious child um ever since I can remember just being in school preschool at that like I was always just like acutely aware of just like man

like as just just the power I have as a human being just like having this mind and being able to be curious and play and have friends and communicate and like watch TV and watch movies and like all these different things I was just so curious about how all of those things honestly were formed you know and I was very I was very just like just super just I was just in love with ideas you know like I was just like man like this thing came from an idea and that piece of art came from

an idea and that clothing and that you know so I was just always like very infatuated and loved ideas and the power of ideas so um yeah was there like a light bulb moment or a certain year you remember where you were like okay I can sing I want to sing I want to write and I want to pursue music I want to be a m musician well I personally never thought I could sing I think for me it really does come back to the ideas you know I think that I don't know that that

age of four I just always go back to the age when they asked me a teacher asked me my favorite color and I was like I heard everyone go around the classroom and all the boys pick blue and all the girls pick pink and the guys guys pick red too and I was just like why are we why is everyone picking the same color you know what I mean like I was just like very curious so I was like you know what I'm going to pick Green and I think it's as soon as I did

that I kind of realized I'm like I can pick whatever color I want you I mean I can do whatever I want you know I mean um so I think for me it wasn't really knowing that I could sing but knowing that I had like this Freedom of Choice you know what I mean to like I can take that thing and do like that and I can sing this thing like that and I can you know what I mean like I was always the one with the weird creative zany bold ideas and taking those risks

so yeah no but clearly you could say yeah thank you and I watched your show in New York it was incredible and seeing all the people show out in their cowboy boots cowboy hat a full house Jack Daniels was a big part of it you always have that um on the stage as well but I even overheard someone in the audience being like if this is not the place to have a Jack and Coke then where um I'm actually curious is there anything in the works with Jack Daniels a brand partnership something going on or

man um no jet Daniels they're they're really good they're really good friends they're always in my corner supporting things we're doing I was able to I was fortunate enough they invited me to the to the distillery in Lynchburg Tennessee and I learned how to you know make whiskey in the process of it and learned about just the history of Jack Daniels and and the Green family uh I don't know if you know the story of that but like Jack Daniels um actually Uncle n yeah was taught how to make a whiskey from uh an ins

slate you know yeah slave um and then when Jack Daniels went and started his own Distillery he brought Uncle nerys with him and they continue to make whiskey together so I was able to learn that that was a cool story drank some really some whiskey water like it's weird they make all their water from like these quaries or the waters like filtered through this natural spring and that's why that Distillery is in Lynchburg is because of that like I think it's lime rock or something I don't know but um it's really cool process but it's

it's really awesome so yeah so I mean you see my tour bus Jack D everywhere no it's it's interesting cuz you sing about boobs Ando your songs your name is shabzi so I think that's fitting but the name actually comes from people mispronouncing your last name which is chib yeah nice you're did it great you might me the first person to ever pronounce that name am right yeah so what was it like you know people in high school like where did you and why did you decide to make it your artist name is the real

question yeah you know you know I think for me it was you know it was always that thing of like you know being like a first generation you know uh Nigerian it was always about like fitting in and trying to figure out where do I kind of you know where is my group of people you know and trying to you know it came from playing football and I was like man I want to be the best football player because everyone around me is doing that or being the best this and I think the name for

me was just like it's about just like stand it was just about standing out you know what I mean um and it's really cool to have a name that's as crazy as that one it stands out you know i' I've definitely had moments I'm like I think I want to change my name and people are like no it stands out and that's good and like I said it's spinning with the booze too the booze but it's in it works so well yeah it's very interesting though that you like mentioned like you know you wanted to

fit in um in high school but now your music what's so revolutionary about it is that it doesn't fit in with the rest of the genres it's you been genres and that's what's been so you know that's what people are loving the country and the hip-hop coming together since when you started making music at 19 MH was it from the beginning that you were like okay I can make music mixing both of these genres or was it kind of a period of trying to find your footing and be like what can I own yeah it

was definitely a gradual process for me um you know I think I'm also like very blessed to come from the place I'm from also in like Virginia you know growing up in Virginia was was very inspiring to me just because we didn't have too many archetypes or different people to kind of look up you know there wasn't like a cultural identity in Virginia all the way you know you have some of like if you think about forel think about what he's done he's made happy he's made pass to cavasier he's done the kis record he's

done so many things this guy is like a is is a morph you know he kind of can fit in so many different boxes categories you got Missy Elliott which I just learned you know her big song um is a if you reverse you know what I mean if you think it then reverse is it's just like so creative like who thinks of an idea to take a lead vocal and reverse it so KY uchis who's also from our area like people who don't don't even know that she was also someone who was you know

she's Latin but she was doing like do if you go back in the day she's mixing like 50s mid-century like Aesthetics with like this Soul R&B thing now she's doing lightting you know what I mean like we're able to kind of be in all these different genres without people being like well you're from you're from New York you should be like making New York type of music or you're from Atlanta you should be making trap music or you're from the bay you should be you know they know you mean like or you know so it's

like where we're from I think since we have that like lack of like um everyone I think individuality I want to say lack of anything like our culture is like creating these really um unique individuals you know and it's it's really cool to just be in that you know that history of those people now and you've been making music since 19 as they said do you think when you finally found your footing with mixing hip-hop mixing country that's what kind of changed the trajectory for you cuz again it's been a long time coming people have

been saying for years like this is your year but 2024 is really your year so what do you think it was that finally had the world listening to shabui there's so many ways I can answer that question because I feel like when I started doing it I was definitely definitely like I don't think anyone's going to like this you know cuz a lot of a lot of times you hear people just like I like every genre music but country it's almost like one of the hardest things to get people to kind of like connect with

for some reason yeah you know so I was definitely like what am I doing I should probably like you know not do this but um I think for me you know I'm lucky enough it's I'm lucky enough to be in a class of other you know Americano full country artists that are really writing some really just amazing music and they inspire me when I and whenever I go into a studio I'm like let me go write something that I know is going to connect with these people so I just have so many friends in in

music right now and um yeah I'm just always I'm just lucky to be able to to that to just be inspired by my friends and speaking of that inspiration and friends in music yeah Beyonce did her country album two features on it yeah how did that happen I think back to kind of what I was saying just um you know just being in this kind of space creating this sound and working on it for the past almost like 10 years you know seriously I'll say the past three three years um you know I've been always

inspired by like the Western Americana the country and mixing all those things together and I've done like probably made like three projects that are all in that world so you know I think when heard she was making that project almost like a year before before it came out I think I heard in Nashville there were some rumors stirring she was working on a project and I was like man that would be that' be so awesome to be a part of that however that could happen um and then I was called in the studio to kind

of you know write some write some records or write some things for the project and and I was able to meet one of her anrs and we were talking and I was like I was like man y'all need to get like Chris steton on his song and like you know what I mean like you should be and we need to get like uh like who I'm like trying to pitch ideas for them of features they should get on their album and I'm like we should get Mark magori to do the cover who's like this big

French uh painter who does a lot of like Western oil paintings and then they're like yeah maybe maybe you can get on it I'm like me get on a Beyonce album I'm like yeah right I was like you know mean like you make no sense you know what I mean at that time um you know because for some reason I'm like I'm not you know you I'm not one of these I'm not there yet so um it's just it's just so surreal that they would um you know and humbling for me for them to like

choose me to you know be a part of the album you know not once but like twice yeah it's it's incredible crazy crazy crazy crazy what are your other kind of dream collaborations who do you want to make music with man I mean I'm you know I think what's really cool about music now it's like you can't force anything right um I'm just really excited about the next stuff I can create like the next stuff I'm going to make I don't really have you know I'm not always like a feature person like if it really

makes sense it has to really make sense but there's no one in particular but there's you know a lot of the people I wouldn't make music with I was able to on my last album Like Love Noah ciris and like love that song my favorite one love Noah Cirus and she's someone that Inspire like a a friend that inspires me and I was able to get her on my project and big X plug is also artist I'm like super that's my home you that's my brother like he's you know I'm inspired by his music his

tone and just the way he approaches his songwriting you know what I mean and just he's just an entertaining figure from Texas as well so he country too so got him Paul I got all I kind of got the people I wanted on you know but what I would love to see I want to see a lot more like crossovers for sure like you know I would love to do like just a lot more of this like bring a lot of other hip-hop artists or pop artists into this space and just see how they would

approach it because you know I think that's what I did I just took I just got into the space and approached it the way I would I would do it you know has having your own label so you own your own label American Dogwood you're initially signed a republic but now you have your own under Empire has being able to take ownership of that you know played a role in the success we see today or or you know I also just wonder like how involved are you in like the Productions and the music videos like

what has changed for you since owning your own label um you know I think what's beautiful about what Empire has been able to do with you know with me and other artists too it's like they're able to just like they really really understand like artist business first you know what I mean like that's that's what we're in you know we're in we're you know we're in music business so it's music first so I've always been someone that feels like artists are going to be the best anrs artists are going to be the best producers they're

going to be the best artist managers they're going to understand and other artists they're going to they got great ear so I've always been even when I was at Republic I was like you know I told my you know my team at that time like I was like y I want a JV you know what I mean they're like you got to work your way up I'm like no like I know you know what I mean as in like how I got into artist for myself was like I used to manage myself I used to

email people and be like I'm the manager of myself because um I was emailing blogs doing writeups like going to different um venues and getting tickets and selling tickets and doing things like that like just just um you know for me I wanted to I just felt like artists just needed that infrastructure and I was really ready to like find an artist I believed in and stop making music to give them that infrastructure but unfortunately there was no one around so I was like let me just do it for myself um so I think like

I take those things and I've always had that kind of like you know creative entrepreneurship like you know the enterprising that was always been a part of me you know like my dad was an entrepreneur and always like gave me different business books and told me about different people I should like look up to and read their stories so I apply a lot of that to my to my music so you mentioned your father was an entrepreneur yeah what exactly did he do and how did that influence you in your lifetime uh yeah my dad

he um he brought himself over to the United States and went to school in Texas and got his U Masters in Business Management so I think for me just always seeing him his it's kind of crazy I always see him like starting ideas and he's like he's a big dreamer he's always like he had this company called like Empower Africa and like his goal was to go and create these like entrepreneurship programs or or just like figure out how to I mean Empower Africa you know what I mean especially like where he's from so I

think for him he tried a lot of different things some successful some not you know I think he he started like a chicken farm at some point like um was just like doing like had like like 10,000 or something chicken and just like just being a wholesaler of like eggs and chicken productss and stuff like that try to sell cars did you ever participate in any of that yeah I went you know and I you know it was it was it was like it was very like Primal the way he was he was doing it

you know what I mean like he was he was he was he was he had his methods of of getting the chicken you know that's a whole thing that's another story more traumatizing but um you know I love my dad but I feel like you know obviously like um he got somewhere and I feel like I just took that and I saw his dream and I just figured out how he was so passionate about those things I was like I wanted I want to make sure you know that he feels like his son took that

and excelled with it you know what I mean yeah does he love the success 100% he lives in Nigeria now he's not here but you know what I mean but a lot of just a lot any idea he's like that too he if he has an idea he's like let me try it out not not all of them work out but you know so what can we expect in 2025 from a and to be honest like selfishly you know I want to you know I want to continue to like kind of like just give people

just music that's like that's hurt across the world you know what I mean just keep kind of just yeah making songs that resonate with people I think this album was really different because that's what I did that's what I went in when I went in there this kind of album cycle and this create this like process I was like I was like man I want to write really big songs and not big in the sense of like sonically but also deep you know what I mean like like just writing things that were super meaningful and

I think we're going to connect with people and I think that's kind of what is happening in music with everybody that's that's killing killing the charts right now or it's a lot of really authentic songs in there it's so beautiful to just see people like you know like Tommy Richmond and like you know what I mean and like hearing him talk about you know he's from where I'm from and he's talking about Queen's Gambit which is like a small little bar in Manasses or Northern Virginia like nobody in the world knows that but the fact

that you can put that in a song and it still has that reach um and you know even Chapel's music like the stuff she talks about it's so personal to her it's it's really I want to I'm excited for like music you know yeah so do you have any predictions for the music industry in the next five 10 years what do you think is going to be big you know I was it was actually crazy I was going to answer that qu answer that question without even even bringing it up but it was just I

always think about how like there was like an article I saw on Billboard like about like a year or two ago they were like where are all the stars at you know what I mean and it's like now there's like so many so it's beautiful to just see all of these acts coming in with like like Teddy swims you know he's got this super super Soulful voice it almost sounds like something straight out of like you know I mean like old Hollywood and then you got all these all these things coming out um I don't

know I mean this AR thing is like I know a lot of people hate it AI like it's it's it's it's a pretty inter tool you know when when when you know when utilized in a way that you know obviously can help people like I think I think it can it can you know you're supporting I I mean I support like you know rep placing people Stu I feel like I have mixed feelings about that with like musicians but it can make your job it's just it's just like different things to just figure out how

to like even if it's organization systems and and just helping certain things out like sometimes you even use it to like figuring out like the keys of which songs work and stuff like that um you know yeah might I might be the first artist to say I think so oh know I'm just you know what I mean it's just like you got of have to have you know it's just it's it's something that's coming and you know it's it's it's something that people can get ahead of and just figure out how to just help it

help you do your craft better you know I mean it doesn't have to replace you it it does yeah you know what I mean exactly like with reference vocals you can take someone's vocals and reference and figure out like oh this person fits in this song or just so many different ways you can use that you asked me the future of music I'm just telling you you know what I mean my last question for you do we have a name for your fan base yet oh man uh d uh I mean I like the boot

cut gang the boot cut kids or the boot cut boys boot cut girls I love the boot cut jeans so um like booze cruise the booze cruise oh God maybe I mean I'm I'm going put a hat I'm going ask them at the next show I'm going to take like a you know I mean have like a little little hat in a bag or something or no what is it piece of paper in a hat and pull it out and see what everyone kind of respond to what do you think sh bro Cru Bru Cru

the bruise cruise I do want to open a bar in Nashville though called Boozies Boozies or shab brues or something booies be hard though boo on Fifth Street on Fifth Street yeah my gosh yeah crazy all right well thank you so much again for being here it's been a pleasure thank you so much