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Shaboozey 长期钟情于亡命之徒式的浪漫主义观念，他将这种痴迷灌注进第三张专辑《Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going》。“这个人站在一群人的对立面，身上有一股狠劲，就像是，‘我要把他们全部拿下’。”Shaboozey 告诉 Apple Music 他的专辑创作视角。这位美国乡村说唱歌手来自有着浓厚乡村音乐传统的弗吉尼亚，经过对西部电影、低俗小说和 Marty Robbins 的枪手民谣的仔细研究，他意识到 Hip-Hop 音乐和老派牛仔文化一样，与美国反主流的叛逆文化有紧密关联。

只要听过 Beyoncé 2024 年那张创造了乡村音乐专辑历史的《COWBOY CARTER》，便不会对其中围绕乡村音乐的黑人根源展开的对话感到陌生。Shaboozey 则是唯一一位在专辑中出现了两次的音乐人。“Beyoncé 在美国黑人社群中扮演了相当重要的角色。”他心怀敬畏地说道，能参与她的专辑，让他感到与有荣焉。“我们生活的每个时刻，她或多或少都有过一些文化影响。”过去十年，Shaboozey 一直试图在 Hip-Hop 和乡村音乐的融合中找到自己的一席之地，以改变游戏规则、重新定义乡村歌手的现代面貌。

《Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going》就像一部经典的美国公路电影，以钢棒吉他、马蹄疾驰以及刚抽完一支烟的 Shaboozey 猛踩油门却不知行向何方的音效开场。他邀请三位音乐人加入这场电影，与 BigXthaPlug 在《Drink Don’t Need No Mix》探讨享乐主义冒险；Noah Cyrus 加入了《My Fault》，演绎一段陷入困境的情感关系；在坚信自己独一无二的《Last Of My Kind》中，Paul Cauthen 雄浑的歌声为其增添自信的能量。我们也能在专辑中感受到许多音乐人的影响：《Let It Burn》里，Shaboozey 的男中音一半让人想起乡村乐歌手韦伦·詹宁斯和 Willie Nelson，一半是未来感的迷幻蓝调说唱；他还演绎了 Imagine Dragons 式的舞台摇滚，其中分手歌曲《Anabelle》甚至找到了兼具 Fleetwood Mac 与 Post Malone 风格的最佳平衡点。专辑中最出圈的单曲，还属《A Bar Song (Tipsy)》，它是 2024 年 Stagecoach 音乐节的突破性热门单曲，改编自圣路易斯说唱歌手 J-Kwon 20 年前的成名曲《Tipsy》，以南方乡村摇滚式的表达呈现了愉悦的假日氛围。

Shaboozey has long been inspired by the romantic notion of the outlaw: “The guy who’s standing against a whole bunch of folks and it’s like, ‘We’re going to take them down.’ Yeah, you can try!” the musician tells Apple Music’s Kelleigh Bannen. The obsession is less quaint than it sounds. Having pored through old western films, dime-store pulp novels, and gunslinger ballads à la Marty Robbins, the Virginia native noticed that old-school cowboy culture and hip-hop share a preoccupation with all things American renegade.

The conversation around country music’s Black roots will sound familiar to anyone who tuned in to Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER, which featured Shaboozey on two tracks. (“Beyoncé’s been such a big part of being Black in America,” he said, still in awe of the opportunity. “At every point in our lives, she has had some sort of cultural impact.”) But the 29-year-old singer/rapper has been staking his territory in the space between hip-hop and country for a decade, redefining what it means to be a modern country star.

His third album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, plays out like a classic American road movie, opening with steel guitar, the gallop of horse hooves, and Shaboozey with his foot on the gas, fresh out of smokes and headed nowhere in particular. On tracks like “Let It Burn,” his rich baritone is equal parts Willie, Waylon, and woozy blues rap à la Future. Elsewhere, he channels Imagine Dragons’ arena-ready roots rock, where breakup banger “Annabelle” hits the sweet spot between Fleetwood Mac and Post Malone. But the star-making moment is “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” the breakaway hit of 2024’s Stagecoach Festival: a Southern-fried riff on a 20-year-old J-Kwon club classic with TGIF vibes.