The Intro Rvshvd

• 1For The Streets02:45
• 2Looking Out For You02:50
• 3Hunnids In A Honky Tonk03:18
• 4Cottonmouth (Rock Mix)02:45
• 5Deal With The Devil03:03
• 625 To Life02:39
• Total Runtime17:20

Info for The Intro

South Georgia singer songwriter RVSHVD (pronounce RA-SHAD) is set to release The Intro his debut EP on April 19th. “The Intro” validates his contribution within today's country music expansion while featuring rock star collaborators Ice Nine Kills, Asking Alexandria and hip hop icon Paul Wall.

“My EP, The Intro, is a collection of everything I'm inspired by sonically and lyrically. We've been drilling down to make sure these songs are my own from production, the story telling, and everything else that goes with it. Being that it's my first EP in over five years, I pushed myself more than ever but made sure I didn't forget what got me my fans in the first place. I can't wait for everyone to hear them and see ya on the road the rest of the year.” - RVSHVD

A warm, out-of-tune fiddle carves out a hoedown-ready groove as a propulsive acoustic guitar chugs through some familiar chord changes. By the time the twangy electric guitar intro arrives on RVSHVD’s single ‘Dirt Road’, you think you know what you’re in for: a country-song-by-numbers, in the best way possible.

But then you hear a woman remark, “Troy Taylor, you da GOAT” — a producer tag; musical shorthand that’s as ubiquitous in contemporary hip-hop and R&B as it is unheard of in country.

Troy Taylor has a lengthy list of credits to support his alleged “Greatest Of All Time” status: he’s worked with Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, The Isley Brothers and more. But Taylor had never attached a tag to a country song. He’d made a hit country song — Breland’s ‘My Truck’, an undeniable country-trap-pop ode to America’s favorite vehicle that just went platinum. The idea to attach the tag, though, came from Taylor’s co-producer and frequent collaborator, Kal V. Kal took an outtake from his sessions with RVSHVD — the singer saying “C’mon, Kal” — and put it right at the top of ‘Dirt Road’. It’s now his tag for making country music with RVSHVD.

After the tags, a bouncy trap beat drops and RVSHVD starts singing, his lilting tenor adorned by a gentle, unaffected Southern drawl. The result is truly not like anything you’ve ever heard - “a little country and a little street,” as RVSHVD puts it in the song, but without any of the appropriative tension of so many previous country/hip-hop marriages. In its place are richly layered plays on country’s aesthetic cliches, and a new take on one of the genre’s most tired topics: the appeal of dirt roads.

“They'll listen to ‘Dirt Road’ and be like ‘This isn't country, these are trap lyrics’” says RVSHVD about some of the responses he’s received to his music. “I'll be like, ‘Naw, that's just what we do down here”. Essentially, the song epitomizes what country music’s gatekeepers have always pretended the genre is about: honesty.

RVSHVD

RVSHVD
(pronounced RA-SHAD) is a twenty six year-old country singer-songwriter hailing from the small town of Willacoochee, Georgia (population 1200). As a teenager he was into hip hop and making beats, but his world turned upside down when he heard “Sweet Thing” by Keith Urban. Soon he discovered the music of Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Brooks & Dunn; all of whom he credits with influencing his love of country music. He immediately found writing songs in the country vein to be more personal and rewarding, saying, “I can be myself in country music, talking about the real things I do and feel without trying to be a persona you need to be successful in hip-hop or other genres.”

With the help of his signature vocal tone and a bare bones home studio, RVSHVD hit the jackpot on his country version of Roddy Ricch’s “Ballin.” The song went viral on Spotify, TikTok, Apple and YouTube amassing over 25M streams and lifting his catalog of songs to over 125M streams. A preview of his most recent single, “Shoebox Money,” struck a national conversation racking up 15M plays, 1M likes, and 450K+ shares on Instagram Reels alone, a testament to his unique position in the country music lexicon.

Gifted and prolific, RVSHVD’s songs cover a wide variety of topics, from his love of the gentle, inclusive urban life in “Small Town Talk,” to battling anxiety in “Deal With the Devil (ft. Danny Worsnop).”

Along the way, RVSHVD has earned praise from Billboard who named him Country Rookie of the Month, applauding that he “…has carefully curated his own genre-bending sound.” CMT has dubbed him as one of their “Artist To Watch 2024.”

Live, RVSHVD has played Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest, debuted at the Grand Ole Opry and done dates with Dwight Yoakum. He’s set to play Stagecoach Festival Golden Sky Festival, CMA Fest again this year.

RVSHVD will be releasing an EP The Intro and his debut full length album later this year.

This album contains no booklet.