RVSHVD Dishes on How Keith Urban Helped Shape His Country Music Career

From an early age, RVSHVD, pronounced RA-SHAD, knew he wanted to work in the music industry. Genres like hip-hop and R&B often intrigued him as he believed his path would follow that same vein of music. At least, that is what he thought until he found singers like Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Alan Jackson, and George Strait. Hearing the rich sound of country music, RVSHVD found himself entering the genre when he heard the 2009 hit from Keith Urban, “Sweet Thing”. 

Although he recalled first falling in love with music thanks to Lil’ Bow Wow and his song “Basketball,” RVSHVD thanked his father for introducing him to different genres. “My dad would listen to all kinds of music, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, gospel. He did all kinds of jobs, and had me out working with him, washing cars and hauling scraps. He would listen to country while he worked.”

Besides his father, RVSHVD’s mother, who worked in a school cafeteria, also steered the singer toward country music. He explained how his mother was working one day and happened to put on CMT. It was at that moment, RVSHVD found himself listening to Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. 

Bringing His Own Style To Country Music

Changing his direction to country music, RVSHVD broke into music with his 2020 hit “Ballin’”, which received 21 million listens on Spotify. The next year, he once again dominated Spotify with his country remix of “Colt 45.” It garnered 34 million listens on the streaming platform. 

Blending genres not only helped RVSHVD break into country music, but earlier this year, he found himself performing at the CMA Fest. Discussing the massive opportunity, the singer joked, “When they told me I was going to be playing CMA Fest, I thought it would be a little stage outside in the front of the stadium, and my wife Angel kept telling me, “No, it’s in the stadium.” I couldn’t believe it, and when we started walking out there, I was like, “Oh, man, this is playing in the stadium.”

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While RVSHVD will never forget Urban’s “Sweet Thing” for hooking him to country music, he insisted that his dream collaboration would be with J Cole. And the reason why, “I always like how just real and honest his music was, and I always related to it, the way he talks about coming up and stuff.”

(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)