Top 10 Shaboozey Songs — Country Music’s Most Important Modern Artists [No. 9]

To crack the Top 10 on our list of Country's 25 Most Important Modern Artists, it's not enough to simply be a very popular hitmaker. You have to bring something to the table that the genre's never seen before.

And few artists have done something resoundingly new quite like Shaboozey.

The singer's breakout hit, "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," jumped off from a mid-2000s J-Kwon hit called "Tipsy," borrowing from and building on a portion of the song's original framework to create a dance-ready, hooky country sing-a-long.

Just the fact that the song was a hit proved that country and hip-hop's common ground could be more subtle than hick-hop, and more nuanced than a simple rap feature stitched into the bridge of a country track.

Next, fans got to see its extraordinary chart success. "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" galloped up both country and all-genre charts, ultimately breaking multiple Billboard Hot 100 records. It was a certified mega-banger — coming from a debuting artist whose particular brand of country music didn't sound like anything else fans had heard before.

Who is Shaboozey?

Hailing from Woodbridge, Va., Shaboozey was born Collins Obinna Chibueze to Nigerian immigrant parents.

He took his stage name from a high school football coach's Americanized mispronunciation of the last name "Chibueze," and started pursuing music — along with songwriting, directing and producing — after high school.

The singer released his debut album, Lady Wrangler, in 2018, but it wouldn't be until later that year — when he sang a verse for Duckwrth's "Start a Riot," which ended up on the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — that Shaboozey saw his first taste of national acclaim. He moved more into country music, but has continued to keep hip-hop and modern Western themes as strong foundational points to this day.

Shaboozey's Best Songs

Emma McIntyre, Getty Images

"A Bar Song" showed Shaboozey's potential; the rest of the songs on this Top 10 list show his depth.

They show that the catchiness of his mega-hit was no one-time thing: As a songwriter, he's got rare talent for writing an earworm. And they also show that Shaboozey combines that pop appeal with high art and cinematic songwriting, plus a modern-Western take on what it means to be a country music outlaw.

Criteria: This list of the 25 Most Important Modern Country Artists was curated by Taste of Country staff, who considered hard data (charts, streaming numbers, ticket sales etc …), perceived influence, awards and recognition and (most important) recent releases. We zoomed in on who is shaping country music with popular releases today.

Artists who’ve not released an album or notched a hit song on airplay or streaming charts in the last three years need to show their influence in other ways. An example is Carrie Underwood, who’s not released a new album in four years but is the most influential voice on America’s most popular singing reality show.

No: 25 Riley Green's Top Songs | No. 24 Kelsea Ballerini's Top Songs | No. 23 Tim McGraw's Top Songs | No. 22 Blake Shelton's Top Songs | No. 21 Eric Church's Top Songs | No. 20 Jason Isbell's Top Songs | No. 19 Kenny Chesney's Top Songs | No. 18 Keith Urban's Top Songs | No. 17 Dan + Shay Songs | No. 16 Jason Aldean's Top Songs | No. 15 Megan Moroney's Top Songs | No. 14 Tyler Childer's Top Songs | No. 13 Carrie Underwood's Top Songs | No. 12 Zach Top's Top Songs | No. 11 Miranda Lambert's Top Songs | No. 10 Kacey Musgraves' Top Songs | No. 9 Shaboozey's Top Songs | No. 8 June 30 | No. 7 July 1 | No. 6 July 2 | No. 5 July 3 | No. 4 July 4 | No. 3 July 5 | No. 2 July 6 | No. 1 July 7