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Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" Samples Lyrics From a 2000s Hip-Hop Classic
"It’s cool to take something that I grew up on and bring it into this space that I’m currently in," Shaboozey said.
Shaboozey solidified his spot on party playlists when he released his mega popular hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The hip-hop country artist and SNL Musical Guest, whose real name is Collins Obinna Chibueze, took inspiration from a classic 2000s song every millennial knows deep in their bones.
Since its release in April 2024, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has become the longest-leading number-one song on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart “by an artist with no accompanying credited acts.” Shaboozey’s song does, however, incorporate another artist’s catchy lyrics and hook. We break it all down below.
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What song did Shaboozey's "A Bar Song” sample?
That would be J-Kwon’s wildly popular party song “Tipsy” from 2004 on his debut album Hood Hop, when he was just 17 years old. Shaboozey incorporates many of J-Kwon’s lyrics in his 2024 country song, including the instantly recognizable line: “One, here comes the two to the three to the four.”
While J-Kwon’s version continues with “Everybody drunk out on the dance floor,” Shaboozey added a country spin, singing: “Tell 'em ‘Bring another round,’ we need plenty more / Two-steppin' on the table, she don't need a dance floor / Oh my, good Lord.”
Shaboozey also includes the “tipsy” hook in his version. J-Kwon raps “Now, everybody in this bitch gettin’ tipsy” and Shaboozey sings, “Everybody at the bar gettin' tipsy.”
J-Kwon says he’s "proud" of Shaboozey’s remake of “Tipsy”
In an interview with Billboard in April 2024, J-Kwon talked about the legacy of his song “Tipsy” and said he’s pleased with the success of Shaboozey’s remake. “I got a crazy percentage,” J-Kwon revealed. “The clearance process–can’t nothing go down unless J-Kwon say it goes down. That’s facts. Of course, when I come in, I’m talking strong numbers. That’s all of my song. But I’m proud of him.” J-Kwon’s manager added in the same interview that Shaboozey had the rapper’s “blessing” to sample his iconic song.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in November 2024, J-Kwon said he turned down “maybe a thousand” requests to sample “Tipsy” before Shaboozey ultimately reached out. Not only did he think Shaboozey’s version was “incredible,” he also appreciated how he approached him about it.
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“I wouldn’t have signed off for anybody else,” J-Kwon told Rolling Stone. “No one else would’ve used this because you have to go through me to even use it. You have to get the OK, the stamp, the cosign. That was just one person that I really truly wanted to cosign. I liked how his energy was. I liked how he was persistent about me cosigning it. I just liked everything around it. It felt really good. And I talked to God about it. He told me it was the right thing to do, and I did it.”
Shaboozey and J-Kwon performed a remix of “A Bar Song” and “Tipsy” together
The two musicians joined forces on stage at the 2024 BET Awards in June 2024. The live performance started out with only Shaboozey singing “A Bar Song,” along with his band and dancers in a country saloon setting featuring a mechanical bull and line dancing. Just as you think the performance is coming to an end, J-Kwon appears on stage from underneath a bar to perform a remix of “Tipsy” with Shaboozey.
Needless to say, viewers loved the surprise moment. “This crossover hit something different,” one fan commented on a video of the performance, while another wrote, “Absolutely LOVE that they included J-Kwon .... such a class move.” One more said, “Middle School me came out when J-KWON came out, he deserves just as much credit!”
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Like most millennials, Shaboozey, also grew up on J-Kwon’s party anthem. “I had just been wanting to flip an early 2000s song because that’s kind of the stuff that I saw on TV … a lot of just 2000s R&B and hip-hop,” he told ABC Audio. “It’s cool to take something that I grew up on and bring it into this space that I’m currently in and currently just such a fan of. And it was cool to bring those worlds together so seamlessly."
