Up First from NPR - A Wild West revenge tale and the Black roots of cowboy culture

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

Country singer and rapper Shaboozey is probably best known for his features on Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album, or for his viral, chart-topping single, “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Now he has returned to the scene with a new, star-studded record about an outlaw out to avenge her father’s death. It’s a genre-defying concept album that fuses hip hop with country, spoken-word and ballads – and that features Jamie Foxx, Kehlani, Leon Bridges, Gunna and Sam Elliott. On The Sunday Story, Shaboozey joins Ayesha Rascoe to talk about the inspiration – and intentions – behind “The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales.”Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday story from Up First. Recently, we lost one of country music's greats, Dolly Parton. I love Dolly. My kids receive books through her imagination library, her children's literacy program, and I just loved her larger than lifestyle. You know, she embraced her big hair and the rhinestones, and the cleavish, which I also enjoy. And I think I saw a little bit of myself in her,

or really she gave me permission to be more of myself. I am not subtle. I don't have like a classic style. I can be a little bit over the top. And I love a bit of gaudiness, right? And so I loved that Dolly embrace that. and allowed me to embrace being me. In honor of Dolly, I wanted to bring you a conversation today

with a member of the next generation of country musicians, somebody who also won't compromise his vision and his style, Shibuzi. Now, you may know the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Shibuzi from his features on Beyonce's Cowboy Carter or from his chart-topping single, a bar song, Tipsy. Well, his latest From the song Sweet Revenge from the Outlaw Sherry Lee

and other Western tales. 19 live home. She's her rindicade with one goal To find every man that did her wrong. Sweet Revenge is the fifth song on a genre-defying album all about the epic life of the titular outlaw Sherry Lee. And about how far she'll go in her quest for vengeance. Shibuzi wasn't sure how this album would go down.

It's a high-concept feat of storytelling, fusing hip-hop with country, spoken word, and ballads. It even comes with a comic book that builds out Sherry. Lee's world. But also Shibuzi hopes it's a reminder and a celebration of the black roots of Western cowboy culture. I hope that people can understand that like just me, I'm a representation. I am black. I am in country music. I am. There's nothing you can do to take that from me. Today on the Sunday story, Shibuzi tells me about the inspiration behind his outlaws and how his cinematic album came together.

Stay with us. We're back with the Sunday story. Shibuzi joins me now. I would say howdy, but where I come from, we must say, hey y'all. So hey y'all.

That's what I'll say, too. What up, y'all? So Shabuzi, your new album tells the story of an outlaw named Sherry Lee. Please introduce us to her. Honestly,

the way Sherry Lee kind of birthed in my brain. It was like a character that just hit me out of nowhere that needed to just be brought to life when I started working on this album six, seven years ago. I remember writing the first song just wanted to create this outlaw group who came into this town and took over. And in the chaos of all that, they accidentally took the life of this sheriff. But what they didn't know was the sheriff had a daughter. And that daughter was coming for vengeance. So really, she just, you know, when I write stories, sometimes these characters are just birth.

out of nowhere, and then they take on a life of their own, and then I just start following their journey, and I just document what I'm seeing. So sometimes when people ask the question, who's Sherry Lee? I'm like, man, you got to find out for yourself. Well, I mean, she's out for revenge, right? She is out for revenge, and that comes up over and over on the album. Like, why did you want to really delve into this idea of revenge

and whether it's sweet, and then also looking at how you've got to deal with the consequences of your act, Is any part of her story rooted in your actual life experience? Yeah, I think as an artist, everything is always rooted in some sort of life experience, whether you know it or not. I think the beauty of this whole album is how much I'm also learning about myself and helping process a lot of different things that I've experienced in my life about, you know, everyone has a little outlaw and a little cowboy to them, you know. And I think for her it's the same thing. I think a lot of the women that have existed in my life where I've come across in my life have all, like, changed me in some way.

So it's definitely rooted in some reality. Maybe there's someone out there that wants to get vengeance against me, you know. Well, there probably is. You're a man, so they probably is. Can I say that? Well, I'm just looking at you. I think somebody's going to get some vengeance on you. Look at me.

You know, the outlaw. So 100%, and maybe it's my way of just coming. the turns with it or playing it out, you know, in my own way. Trying to get ahead of it. Getting ahead of it, making it right. It's probably a little bit of that. Yeah. I mean, so you're, and speaking of women, like, your last album was like a huge hit.

In particular, of course, a bar song, tipsy. It spent 19 weeks at the top of the billboard charts. Is Cowgirl, which is on this album, is that a follow-up kind of? Kinda to tipsy. I mean, it's telling everybody get to the dance floor. You know what I'm saying? Girl, shake your face.

Let me see a hang. Got another bar song for you and all your friends. Shooters got to shoot so I got to take a chance. Girl, go on your boo's song. Thank me in advance. Hey, meet me on the dance floor. Two steps to the lift. Girl, you found a right one.

Dottie City, bitch. Treated like a night. You want to hear something crazy. I actually wrote Calgirl four years before I wrote a bar song. Oh. It's in a different form. Honestly, more in like a, it was actually a little more hip hop before. But it was actually an older song that I had wrote for the first iteration of this album,

which initially it was called We Ran the Sheriff Out of Town. And obviously continuing to work on it, I came up with the idea of changing it. And I think I have like a notes on my phone with a hundred different titles for the album. And then I remember starring the outlaw Sherry Lee and other Western Tales. So Calgirl was definitely a song birth in that. generation of the album, and I just brought it back to this one, you know, having a song just for people to dance to. Yeah. I mean, was that important for you? Because this is a concept album. It's a high concept album, and we're going to get into that. But was it important for you to also

have those numbers where people could feel like they could just dance? They don't have to know the whole story. They don't have to be into the whole thing. Yeah, 100%. I remember exactly how it came about. You know, I was in my high concept world where I'm like, you know, this song got to make sense with this song and this song and this song. And my manager, you know, he was like, man, we need a song for the ladies. I'm listening to all this. You ain't got nothing for the ladies on here. In that way, you know, Sherry Lee, the whole thing is about that.

But, you know, you need a song that people can kind of dance to and have fun. And I remember at first, he said that. And then another friend came to me and said the same thing without even hearing the music. He was just like, yo, man, I hope you got something for something that's a little bit more, you know, easy going. Yeah. And I remember we threw a party that night. And I remember we were playing all the classics, Wagon Wheel, chicken fried, you know,

Miss American Pie, all that stuff. And I noticed that people really started dancing to those songs. And I was like, man, I want to do a new version of those kind of like fiddle tunes. You know, so that's kind of how a cowgirl got birth. The next day I made the song in the studio. Well, and the concept album, getting into the deep. part about it. Like, it is a combination of songs with lyrics, instrumental numbers, and like these spoken word pieces by these really big stars, like, Hell is Hot. I think we have a clip of it.

Jamie Fox. Yeah. Hold your fire. Before that fire gets a hold of you. Obviously, that's Jamie Fox. Remember, hell is hot, but it's damn cold in a cell. I mean, obviously, it gives the album this theatrical feel. But, like, why did you want to include spoken words on your album? Because I thought when I saw Jamie Fox, I thought he was going to be singing, giving us the grooves. I'm like, what is like? I'm like, oh, this is different. He's giving us the acting.

You know, I'm a mad, madman sometimes. You know, what comes out, you know, I think for me, I have such a, I've always wanted to be a, filmmaker, you know, and it's really cool to see. I know my childhood self is probably like, dang, he's really doing it. But I've always been trying to make films and movies and write stories like that. So I think my goal with this was to create an album that did feel like a movie and have features that felt more like an ensemble cast than just music. I'm always a guy, like, anytime anyone's dropping an album, I'm always like, who's on the, who's on the album? What's the features? What's the features? And I think what's really cool?

about this is the fact that, you know, getting Jamie Fox, Kalani, Leon Bridges, Gunna, but also Sam Elliott. Yeah, yeah. Time's up, outlaw. Your ropes run short. Someone's got to pay for

all the blood you took. It's only you and us now. The rest of your bootcut boys are dead. I mean, how did you get all of these people? Because, I mean, you got like everybody. So I'm like, was anybody hard to get?

Was it just like Shibuzi? Everybody was like, yes, we're doing it. I think so. And that's why I think it's like, it's really just dope. So you're saying you that guy. That's what you say. That's what you just, because I said Shaboozy that said, he said, yep, that's exactly what happened.

Hey, look, what's really amazing is how a lot of the people on the feature, like the feature that start connect, you know, connect with it. Like Sam Elliott was telling me, you know, a lot of his family members love the song too. And like he loves the song and loves my music. And I think really, man, you know, sometimes you just got to just, you just got to stick to it. You know, I know, I had this crazy idea for this outlawed Sherry Lee for a while. And, you know, and I always wanted to do it and do a concept album. But it was about timing.

So it's cool that every step of my journey helped create. You know, I made a lot of friends and fans along the way that, you know, just weren't. to be a part of it. You know, I just asked, really, and that's what I love about it. It's, you know, everybody came and brought something unique. And Tiana Taylor, she heard it. And she was like, she was like, this, this like, this like, this like, this like sinners. It's like, it's like some sinners.

I was like, you know, I was like, that's crazy. So. Well, I mean, you know, speaking of, and Kailani is on it. And she, it's a beautiful piece. It's bullets and blades. Let's, let's play a little clip of that. I know your past That's a barred

I know your past was a god-offal place But look what it made That's a line That's a bar You know what I'm saying? That's a bar Who wrote that? Man, you know

I always say everybody All of us collectively As people wrote it You know And that's what I love about a song like that It just feels like it connects with everybody Like I remember playing that song with some of the little listening meetings I did and I couldn't help but to cry.

You know, it's a hard song I have to cry to because, you know, I know all of us, we've all been through a lot of things and, but each one of those things that we went through, I wouldn't be who I was if it wasn't for those moments that, you know, I was, I felt, you know, pain and and the things we experienced and the trauma, you know, it made us who we are and it's beautiful, those imperfections. So I really wanted to do a girl, you're amazing just the way you are. But, you know, Sherry Lee, obviously she's experienced this loss. She's lost both her parents. I mean, she's lost her father.

But prior to that, she also lost her mother. And she's obviously going through all of these different emotions. But it's created this strong, beautiful woman that the character who I play in is, Booz, which is myself, falls in love with. And all the other characters, all the other outlaws, everyone's kind of, they have a story before those moments. So it's just about celebrating stories in our past But also, you know, looking to hopefully have a better future always When we come back, Shibuzi tells us why this was the perfect moment for Sherry Lee And about his black country heroes, stay with us

We're back with Shibuzi on the Sunday story You know, well, you talked about like timing And I have to wonder because, okay, you have to have, you know, bar-stom. song and it's a huge hit, that puts a lot of pressure on any artist. Like, okay, when you're going to make the next one? When you're going to make the next bar song? And it could have also put you in a box in a way, right? Like, okay, we want you to make that song that's going to be hot on TikTok, right?

Was there any resistance to you doing a concept album and saying, because you, like, going in a different direction and say, let me do this high concept. thing instead of like letting me just give a bunch of, you know, songs. Because, I mean, as someone else who you worked with famously said, Beyonce, people don't make albums anymore. They don't make albums anymore. Man, I think for me, that's a great question. And it's come up a number of times and there's definitely been some, you know,

a lot of like emotions around that whole idea of, you know, doing what's familiar and just doing what maybe some would consider the safer thing. And I think when I brought the idea, you know, everyone was on the team was really supportive. I was actually very surprised. I mean, this is an idea. I mean, I brought this up a couple years ago. And I remember at that time, you know, people were like, we need to get to know who you are before you, you know, get into this concept world. But now it just feels like they feel like, you know, they said, you know, you've earned this.

and I'm just really grateful to have the team I have that support the idea. And anytime I have any doubt, say, like, what are you talking about, brother? Like, this is exactly what you need to be doing. I mean, you're from Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb of the D.C. metropolitan area. And your parents are Nigerian. What led you to fall in love with country music? I think a mix of a lot of different things. I think just being in Virginia and just trying to.

understand the history of music there. You know, I knew a lot of times when you think of Virginia music, you think, you know, Farrell, Missy, Timberland, the clips, Teddy Riley. I mean, I keep going on, you know what I mean? But there's history beyond that as well with Patsy Klein, you know, a Winchester, Virginia, native, Emmylou Harris, who went to our high school, Carter family as well, in Bristol, Virginia. They did the Bristol recordings, which they recorded a lot of that with Leslie Riddle,

who also penned a lot of those songs or wrote a lot of those songs. There's just a lot of a rich history of country music in general in Virginia. And I just wanted to figure out a way to celebrate it all, combining, obviously, the hip-hop elements of what I grew up listening to, as well as the country music that I came to love later and what I was exposed to early on in my life. I think it was really just meditating on where I'm from in Virginia. And I've always been kind of just like talking about nature and just,

trying to help people like just connect back to nature and connect back to to to the simple things they have you know in life so it was really me just trying to celebrate those things you know what do you feel like um you know you mentioned obviously Beyonce and Cabo Carter and obviously there's been all of this attention even way before that on you know black artists and country music and I know you probably get asked this question all the time um and Because of that, I kind of want to ask you, what do you think, like, in terms of black Western history, are there specific people or, like, historical moments that inspired you? Yeah, I think a lot of the, a lot of classic, like Western characters, like Bill Pickett was definitely one I read about Bass Reeves, who was a historical lawman back in the West.

And, you know, George Fletcher as well, there's been so many things. Ever since I started this project, I feel like my algorithm has been just showing me more and more stories that. I wish I was able to read before, you know, and I wish more people saw these stories because I think for the longest time, obviously, like, in the 1950s, 1960s, like, even earlier, like the cowboy image, you know, we tend to think that was just, you know, a white man, you know, on a horse with a cowboy hat. But, you know, one in every four cowboys were black. And a lot of them even, most of them even, like, vackeros, like Latin Americans.

So it's cool to just, like, I hope. people see this as a representation and, you know, more people feel brave, not even brave, they shouldn't even feel brave. Like, this is natural to us. And, you know, when people ask me, why do you make, you know, why are country music and why this? I'm like, why not? You know, this wasn't, it wasn't a choice. It almost just felt like it was a part of a part of me already. So, man, just to be able to continue that history is everything. Well, thank you. That is lovely. And returning to the album, just to, as a, we close. I love your song, Coyote's Point. Or Coyote. We got a clip of it. I was going to

pick my guitar. I've been playing it right now. What? Bring it. Bring it up a guitar out. Yeah, bring it out. Bring it out. Is that y'all playing it? Is you playing it? Oh my. That is beautiful. You got to sing a little bit. I got here a little bit. I got here. I got to sing. Yeah, come to the show. I got to come through this. Okay. I knew that were going to say that. You're like, look, you got to get some tickets. Yeah, get to the show for that.

For the rest of that. That was wonderful. That was, but that's Coyote. That's Coyote's point. And we'll play a clip with a clip. Go ahead. With the thing. We'll play a clip.

I love me some moonshine. And it knows me well. It guides me. a night time and fills up the jars on the shelf I've heard it makes coyos

sing ballets and hunt like hill I think I might be a bit of a coyote myself no spoilers but there's that song is that's what the whole album is about

she doesn't start out as an outlaw You know, if you listen correctly, pretty much what happens to her makes her, creates that. And that's what the whole, that's what coyote's point is about. So, you know, she actually becomes the coyote. You know what I mean? She's pretty much saying, she's like, I'm a bit of an outlaw myself. Like, you know what I mean? She's like, dang, like, all this stuff.

Like, I didn't hung out with these guys. Like, I didn't, I didn't became a part of the whole world. Now, you know, now I love moonshine, you know. So, Coyote's point is actually from the perspective of Sherry Lee. And I didn't really realize that until I was. singing the song on the microphone. And I was like, oh, no, like, this whole thing is about her going from small town, Prairie Girl, daughter of a sheriff, to then becoming a coyote by the end of the album.

But is that where you want people to go on where we all got a little bit of this in us? A coyote, yeah. A little bit of it in us. We all, yeah, you know, it just takes, nothing's black and white, you know. There's experiences that happen to you and there's how you respond to the world around you, you know. know. Yeah. Well, that's Shibuzi, talking about his new album, The Outlaw, Sherry Lee, and other Western

Tales. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. You are awesome. Amazing. This episode of The Sunday Story was produced by Rennie Svornovsky. Jenny Schmidt edited this episode, special thanks to Andrew Craig and Jacob Finston, who worked on the original interview.

The Sunday Story team included. Leanna Simstrom, Andrew Mambo, and Justine Yan. Anli Huang mastered this episode. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. I'm Aisha Roscoe. Up First is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.