AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Shaboozey has a new concept album that imagines life in the Wild West.
SHABOOZEY: This outlaw group came into this town and took over. In the chaos of all that, they accidentally took the life of this sheriff. But what they didn't know is the sheriff had a daughter, and their daughter was coming for vengeance.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWEET REVENGE")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) Nineteen, left home. She's a renegade with one goal, to find every man that did her wrong - .45 to ya dome, you can't get away from this smoke. Before you know it, you're dead and gone. Goes down smooth.
RASCOE: Shaboozey's new album is called "The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales." The Grammy-winning musician says he found inspiration for his title character, Cherie Lee, close to home.
SHABOOZEY: I have a lot of women figures in my life, you know, some I've been in relationships with, some - my older sister, my mother. So it's kind of just, like, going in my sister room and take some shoes. You know what I mean? Or take something from her.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SHABOOZEY: You know what I mean?
RASCOE: Yeah, yeah.
SHABOOZEY: You know what I mean? She just - she out for vengeance.
RASCOE: And then...
SHABOOZEY: You know what I mean?
RASCOE: She out for blood (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWEET REVENGE")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) Oh, the bitter taste of sweet revenge.
RASCOE: The concept album - it is a combination of songs with lyrics, instrumental numbers and, like, these spoken-word pieces by these really big stars.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELL IS HOT")
JAMIE FOXX: Hold your fire before that fire gets ahold of you.
RASCOE: That's Jamie Foxx. I mean, obviously, it gives the album this theatrical feel.
SHABOOZEY: 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 think my goal with this was to create an album that did feel like a movie. And not only that - and have features that felt more like an ensemble cast than just music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELL IS HOT")
FOXX: When you stare down that barrel, remember, hell is hot. (Laughter) And you're going by yourself. At least when you die, you will never die again.
RASCOE: Your album obviously follows Cherie Lee, a fictional character. But is any part of her story rooted in your actual life experience?
SHABOOZEY: I think as an artist, everything is always rooted in some sort of life experience. The beauty of this whole album is how much I'm also learning about myself. Everyone has a little outlaw and a little cowboy to them, you know? And maybe there's someone out there that wants to get vengeance against me, you know? And...
RASCOE: (Laughter) Well, there probably is.
SHABOOZEY: I'm just playing (laughter).
RASCOE: You're a man, so there probably is. Is that - can I say that?
SHABOOZEY: Yeah, looking for me - you know, an outlaw. So 100%, and maybe it's my way of just coming to terms with it or playing it out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOUNTY ON MY HEAD")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) 'Cause God forgives, but they don't. Saint Joseph...
RASCOE: I mean, you're from Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb in the D.C. metropolitan area, and your parents are Nigerian. What led you to fall in love with country music?
SHABOOZEY: 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 - you know, a lot of times, when you think of Virginia music, you think, you know, Pharrell, Missy, Timbaland. But 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, you know, what I grew up listening to, as well as the country music that I came to love later and some - and what I was exposed to early on in my life.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOUNTY ON MY HEAD")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) Saint Joseph, sweet Mary, oh, there's a bounty on my head. Step back, be afraid, for there's a bounty on my head. How can one rest in bed when you're wanted alive or dead? Saint Joseph, sweet Mary, oh, there's a bounty on my head.
I've been making country music way before it became what it is now, right? Topping all the charts, and everyone's playing it, and everyone's wearing a cowboy hat. Like...
RASCOE: Well, I got a cow - I got my hat. I got my hat.
SHABOOZEY: Come on, put it on. Yeah.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) This ain't Texas.
RASCOE: I got my hat. Yeah (laughter).
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) Ain't no hold-em.
RASCOE: You know - ain't no hold em.
SHABOOZEY: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
SHABOOZEY: But no, way before that.
RASCOE: Yeah.
SHABOOZEY: Writing songs with acoustic guitars and talking about being outside and having a couple acres - you know what I mean? - I could raise my kids on and trying to help people, like, just connect back to nature and connect back to the simple things they have.
RASCOE: 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, to "Tipsy"? I mean, it's telling everybody to get to the dance floor. You know what I'm saying? It's that party song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COWGIRL")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) We be at the bar till 6 in the morning, throwing back shots like some whole alcoholics. Wild lil cowgirl, shoot 'em up, darling. Ma'am, I want to see you dance.
I actually wrote "Cowgirl" four years before I wrote "A Bar Song."
RASCOE: Oh.
SHABOOZEY: I remember...
RASCOE: OK.
SHABOOZEY: ...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 - he was like, man, we need this song for the ladies. I'm listening to all this.
RASCOE: Yeah.
SHABOOZEY: You ain't got nothing for the ladies on here. You know, you need a song that people can kind of dance to and have fun.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COWGIRL")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) Yeah. She's on the run. She's on the run. I'm trying to catch her. The baddest thing I ever seen, I had to ask her, do you like whiskey? Why not try some Tennessee? Girl, if you like this song, let's put it on repeat. Hit the dance floor, two-step to the left. Girl...
RASCOE: Like, in terms of Black Western history, are there specific people or, like, historical moments that inspired you?
SHABOOZEY: Yeah, I think a lot of classic, like, Western characters like Bill Pickett, Bass Reeves, who was a historical lawman back in the West, and 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHABOOZEY SONG, "BULLETS AND BLADES")
SHABOOZEY: The cowboy image - you know, we tend to think that was just a white man, you know, on a horse with a cowboy hat, but one in every four cowboys were Black.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BULLETS AND BLADES")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) Hell, I know we're broken. But it won't go to waste 'cause there's gold in those pieces. Thank God you didn't throw them away. Yeah...
RASCOE: Returning to the album, "Bullets & Blades" - it's a beautiful piece, and Kehlani is on it. Who wrote that?
SHABOOZEY: Man, you know, I would say everybody. All of us collectively as people wrote it, you know?
RASCOE: Yeah.
SHABOOZEY: And that's what I love about a song like that. It just feels like it connects with everybody. Like, it's a hard song not to cry to because, you know, I know all of us - we've all been through a lot of things, 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 I felt pain and the things we experienced and the trauma. You know, it made us who we are. And it's beautiful, those imperfections.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BULLETS AND BLADES")
SHABOOZEY AND KEHLANI: (Singing) Bullets and blades have left scars that won't fade, but I like how they look on your face.
Cherie Lee - obviously, she's experienced this loss. She's lost her father. 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'm playing is - falls in love with.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BULLETS AND BLADES")
SHABOOZEY AND KEHLANI: (Singing) I know your past was a god-awful place, but look what it made.
RASCOE: I love your song "Coyotes Point."
SHABOOZEY: I was going to pick my guitar up and play it right now.
RASCOE: What? Bring it. Bring your guitar out. Go ahead. Yeah, bring it out. Bring it out.
SHABOOZEY: (Playing guitar).
RASCOE: Oh, my gosh. Wow. Oh, my goodness.
SHABOOZEY: (Playing guitar).
RASCOE: That is beautiful.
SHABOOZEY: (Playing guitar).
RASCOE: You got to sing a little bit. I got to hear a little. I got to sing. Come here (laughter).
SHABOOZEY: (Playing guitar).
You got to come to the show for the rest of that (laughter). But she actually becomes the coyote.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yes.
SHABOOZEY: You know what I mean?
RASCOE: Yeah, yes.
SHABOOZEY: She's pretty much saying she's - I'm a bit of an outlaw myself. Like...
RASCOE: Yeah.
SHABOOZEY: You know what I mean? She's like...
RASCOE: Yes.
SHABOOZEY: Dang, like - all this stuff, like, I didn't hung out with these guys. Like, I didn't became a part of the whole world. Now - you know, now I love moonshine, you know?
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SHABOOZEY: So...
RASCOE: Yes.
SHABOOZEY: So "Coyotes Point" is actually from the perspective of Cherie Lee, and I didn't really realize that till I was singing the song on the microphone. And I was 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. That's what the whole album is about. 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COYOTES POINT")
SHABOOZEY: (Vocalizing).
(Singing) In canyons of sagebrush...
RASCOE: That's Shaboozey talking about his new album "The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales." Thank you so much.
SHABOOZEY: Thank you so much. You are awesome.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COYOTES POINT")
SHABOOZEY: (Singing) Taking their lives and their wealth. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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