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Singer-songwriter and small-town Georgia native RVSHVD didn’t initially set out to make country music. Then he heard Keith Urban’s 2009 hit “Sweet Thing.”

“I was like, ‘Okay, that ain’t bad.’ 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,” RVSHVD (born Clint Rashad Johnson) recalls to Billboard. “He tried to get me to listen to country and I didn’t like it at first.”

Additionally, RVSHVD’s mother worked in a school cafeteria, and he and his sister would watch television there in the mornings. One day, the television was tuned to CMT and he was introduced to artists like Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker. The combo had him hooked.

Fast forward just over a decade, and RVSHVD (pronounced Ra-shad) has carefully curated his own genre-melding sound, one he describes in his song “Dirt Road” as “a little country and a little street,” and in “Hit Different” as “Alpines bumping dirty south hip hop/ Mix in some country boy Rick Ross, throw in a little Lil Wayne with a little bit of Travis Tritt.” His sound is consequential, given ever-growing presence of hip-hop’s influence on the music of Colt Ford, Jason Aldean, Sam Hunt, Kane Brown and Florida Georgia Line over the past 15 years, as well as the genre barrier-breaking success of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and David Morris’s viral country/hip-hop hybrid “Carrying Your Love,” which incorporates George Strait’s 1997 classic “Carrying Your Love With Me.”

RVSHVD enrolled in the music program at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, before switching his major to music journalism. In 2019, the same year “Old Town Road” became a massive hit, RVSHVD self-released the EP Memories, weaving country lyrics with hip-hop beats. In 2020, he broke through with his country version of Roddy Ricch’s “Ballin’,” which married his rich, Southern drawl vocal with acoustic guitars and bass and has accumulated more than 21 million streams on Spotify alone. The following year, he collaborated with Cooper Alan on “Colt 45 (Country Remix),” which earned over 34 million Spotify streams, and teamed with Trey Lewis on a version of Lewis’ viral hit “D–ked Down in Dallas.

Last year, he partnered with Ice Nine Kills’ Spencer Charnas on “Cottonmouth” — but this year, he’s been largely focused on releasing solo music, including “Hit Different,” “For the Streets,” and his latest, the more traditionally country-leaning “Small Town Talk.”

Written by RVSHVD, Jason Afable, Josh Tangney, Willie Jones and Matty S. Gibbons at a writers camp at The Penthouse LA, the song’s uplifting lyrics about valuing family and hard work reflect his rural upbringing in Willacoochee, Georgia (population: 1,200).

“They came up with the concept of the song and showed it to me. I loved it and tweaked a couple of lines,” he says. “I remember cutting the demo and my wife Angel was there with me. While I’m making the demo, I’m sitting there tearing up. I loved the song as soon as I heard it.”

RVSHVD, who is managed by Jonnie Forster and Empire Publishing, Nashville’s vp, A&R Eric Hurt, is signed to The Penthouse South/Sumerian Records, with an upstreaming deal with Virgin Records for marketing and radio. He also has deals with Empire Publishing and CAA for booking. He also made his Grand Ole Opry debut in September.

RVSHVD, Billboard’s December Country Rookie of the Month, talks about creating his new song “Small Town Talk,” his career journey and his musical aspirations.

You performed during CMA Fest earlier this year, at Nissan Stadium. What do you recall about that?

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.” To be playing in front of that amount of people and have that kind of exposure was crazy.

What was the first music you heard that you loved?

The first artist to get me into music was Lil’ Bow Wow. I had the Like Mike VHS tape and I would play the music video for his song “Basketball.” I was like, ‘That’s cool. I think I can do that.” I initially started rapping for a while. But then, when I switched to country, I wrote a whole EP [2019’s Memories] in the first week, because it just flowed out of me. I didn’t feel like I had to put on any persona.

When did you first start making your own music?

My first entry point was probably around middle school. I wanted to record myself, but there weren’t many people where I lived that do music like that. We didn’t even have internet, so I would take a blank CD, go to the library, download some instrumentals and beats and stuff, put it on the CD, come back home and put the CD in the player. [I would] take my earphones and sit in front of one speaker and rap into the other one.

How did the country version of “Ballin’” come together?

I had done covers of country songs and R&B songs, but I had never done a country version of a rap song. I shot a video for Rascal Flatts’ “Bless the Broken Road.” While I was filming the video, I was like, I might as well record this one for “Balling.” I went to post ‘Broken Road’ and [got] copyright blocked… So I was like, “Well, I’m glad I have this other one filmed.” And I posted it, and then that was the one that took off.

How did you connect with Spencer for the rock version of “Cottonmouth”?

I met with Michael Whitworth [Jelly Roll’s “Dead Man Walkin’”] and Michael Lotten [Morgan Wallen’s “Last Drive Down Main,” Willie Jones’ “Back Porch”], and wrote the song. Spencer got on it because for my first CMA Fest, I wore some Air Johns, because David Morris had that shoe out. I had an Ice Nine Kills shirt that matched it. We got the cover art [for “Hit Different”] made and Eric [Hurt] was in the group chat and he was like, ‘Oh, we might run into issues having another band’s name on the shirt.” But we reached out to Spencer and he was cool with it.

Then Jonnie asked, “What do you think about getting Ice Nine Kills on the feature on the remix?” I was already listening to their stuff, so they got on the song and killed it.

You filmed the video for “Small Town Talk” in your hometown in Georgia. How did it feel going back to film the video there?

It was dope. When we went back, what’s crazy is, it didn’t feel different. It just felt like I was back home and I got to go see all my old teachers and got to see the new band students.

You are working on an album. How is it shaping up at this point?

I have a couple of collabs I’m working on, but the album is basically my life story, what I’ve been through and stuff I feel like people can relate to. That’s one thing I always loved about rap albums, especially an artist’s debut album, was it was always their story. I wanted to do that with my first album, too. We might have about 15 songs on it, but we’re still kind of deciding at this point.

“Small Town Talk” tells part of your story, but what other parts of your story will fans be able to hear for the first time?

I got some of that on the album talking about dealing with depression, anxiety, not really having a lot growing up and stuff like that, things I haven’t said yet.

What do you remember about your first-ever performance?

I remember being super-nervous. My first performance was in a bar in Pearson, [Georgia] called Poole’s Pub. I remember there weren’t many people there, but one guy was like, ‘You sound real good. You should try doing some Conway Twitty.” I did a cover of “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Drinking ‘Bout You.”

What is your dream collaboration?

Probably J. Cole. I listened to him a lot growing up and still do. 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.