Collins Obinna Chibueze grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia, the son of Nigerian immigrants, and the name everybody knows came from a high school football coach misspelling his surname. Country reached him through his father, who played him Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. He moved to Los Angeles in 2016 and spent years making records that sat somewhere between hip-hop and country. Then 2024 cracked it open. Beyoncé put him on two Cowboy Carter tracks, "Spaghettii" and "Sweet / Honey / Buckiin'," and a couple of months later came Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going, with "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" on it. That song sat at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for 19 non-consecutive weeks, tying Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" for the record at the time.
His first Grammy arrived in February 2026: Best Country Duo/Group Performance for "Amen" with Jelly Roll, a first win for both of them, and he dedicated it to immigrants from the stage. Two months later he announced The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales, a revenge Western that runs continuously through every song, following a sheriff's daughter who hunts down the gang that murdered her father. He's called it a "revisionist Western" with a woman at the center. It came out July 31, 2026 on American Dogwood, his imprint with Empire, after the singles "Born to Die" and "Cowgirl," with sound effects and spoken interludes stitched between songs and a traditional cowboy ballad to finish. The Outlaws Never Die Tour carried it through North America in September and October, Brittney Spencer and Kashus Culpepper among the openers on select nights.