It’s been 20 years since J-Kwon released his hit song “Tipsy,” but it’s still bringing in money, as it’s sampled on Shaboozey‘s now-Grammy-nominated song “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
“That’s the goal that we was shooting for. Me and Boo had talked about this when we was doing the BET Awards. I told him off the muscle, ‘This is going to be one,"” J-Kwon tells Rolling Stone about the Grammy nods. “I think I told Billboard magazine as well. They was like, ‘You think it’s going to be Song of the Summer?’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s going to be Song of the Year.’ So this is exactly what I wanted to happen.”
While he believes his song already “had all the components” — discussing the dangers of teen drinking, being educational, having a catchy beat and more — he thinks Shaboozey being a 6-foot, 5-inch Black man helped “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” reach this level of success, as did the country spin.
“Just to see what I bring to the game merge into other lanes and be super successful – I wouldn’t have signed off for anybody else,” J-Kwon says, noting he’s turned down thousands of sample requests over the years. “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.”
Besides anticipating a Grammy, J-Kwon’s working on a clothing line, entertainment space and album that may possibly be called Sobriety Check. “I’m so grateful for everything that’s coming my way and I just want to keep going,” he says.
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