Collins Obinna Chibueze, better known as Shaboozey, has to fit in interviews as and when he can; his schedule is “crazy”. He is peering into his phone’s camera, his dreadlocks silhouetted against the stark white of the photo studio where he is ensconced. He is answering questions about his eclectic musical passions – he loves the War on Drugs, Lil Yachty and the gruff-voiced Canadian country singer Colter Wall – and how growing up in the small town in Virginia where his Nigerian parents settled influenced his cocktail of hip-hop and country.
On the one hand, Virginia has its hip-hop heroes – Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and Clipse among them – but on the other, “Virginia is a southern state, very rural, a lot of emphasis on being outdoors. A lot of stories were made there, from the colonial days to civil war to political stuff, so I just wanted to continue that tradition of telling stories.”
