How Shaboozey Channeled Zach Bryan and Pharrell Williams to Make ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’
When Shaboozey was writing “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” he wanted to keep the arrangements sounding as organic as possible. He built the track around J-Kwon’s 2004 hit “Tipsy,” and within an hour, he had his very own ode to raising a glass — with a country twist. The megahit quickly went viral and topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart, surpassing “Texas Hold ’Em” by Beyoncé. (Shaboozey had actually teamed up with her for two songs on her recent country LP, Cowboy Carter.) Together, they became the first two Black artists to lead that chart back-to-back.
The Influences
Around the time that he wrote the song, Shaboozey had been listening to a lot of music by artists like Zach Bryan and the Lumineers. But although he was inspired by their stripped-back acoustics, he was also channeling hip-hop heavyweights like Pharrell Williams for the four-to-the-floor instrumental breakdown. (And of course, he wanted to pay homage to J-Kwon’s knack for partying.) “Some people said it reminds them of [Oasis’] ‘Wonderwall,’ ” Shaboozey says. “I don’t hear it.”
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All Together Now
In the same way that J-Kwon captured the essence of the club on “Tipsy,” Shaboozey wanted his song to channel the liveliness of a packed dive bar. Shaboozey achieved the stomp-and-shout elements of the single by bringing in friends to layer on vocals. “We love incorporating gang vocals and all our friends singing things,” the Nigerian American musician says. “I think the more energy and the more people you put on a song, the more it’s felt.” He adds that because he was working with producers Nevin Sastry and Sean Cook, the studio “definitely turned into a party by the end of the song, which is a good sign.”
Country Essentials
To get the country vibe just right, Shaboozey refers to what he thinks of as a treasure chest of essential sounds. “You can’t have a country song with no 12-string, can’t have no bluegrass song with no 12-string guitar,” he says. “It’s got a brighter tone to it.” His other must-haves include fanlike drum brushes that create a sense of warmth within a song’s percussive pattern. “You don’t have an Americana song without brush loops,” Shaboozey explains. He also likes mixing classic and contemporary touches: “I always try to incorporate some super traditional element into the music.”
Trendsetter
Shaboozey was born in Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. His upbringing gave him a front-row seat to Southern rap’s imperial era. Before Missouri’s J-Kwon found a hit with “Tipsy,” North Carolina’s Petey Pablo burst onto the scene in 2001 and made a fan out of Shaboozey, who still wants to experiment with his music. “He had a record called ‘Raise Up’ that I thought would be really cool to turn into a country song,” he shares. “I’m thinking about still doing it.” He’s considering an entire project around reimagining hits from that time period — and it already has the potential to become a genre-wide trend. “I got some friends in Nashville who are from St. Louis and all these areas, and now they’re talking about flipping old hip-hop samples into country songs, too,” he says.
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