If there’s one thing Baton Rouge residents love, it’s songs about Baton Rouge. From “Callin’ Baton Rouge” to “Louisiana Saturday Night,” we chant these anthems any time we get the chance, and thanks to rapper Shaunzy, the University now has a song of its own.
Shaun “Shaunzy” Vaughn is a 21-year-old singer, songwriter and rap artist from New Albany, Mississippi. Vaughn has been writing music since he was just nine years old. In 2014, he began attending the University. However, after working on two short films for class, Vaughn quit school to pursue music and filmmaking.
Inspired by the way Louisiana Ca$h’s “From Louisiana” energized and united University students at football games, Shaunzy wrote his own LSU-themed song, aptly named “Louisiana State University,” in hopes of having the same effect.
“I was like, ‘I want to make a song that gets played at football games,” Vaughn said. “That was the initial thought process behind the song, but when I started writing, I was just creating a song from the perspective of someone working hard toward what they want to achieve in life.”
With lyrics like “We should share racks, me, Shaq, Leonard Fournette and Ben Simmons” and “Shouts out go to Death Valley, walk through it’s like a pep rally,” it’s no surprise Shaunzy’s song resonated with University students.
“The song became more of a motivation to myself than a game chant,” he said. “The chorus … comes from my original intention, while the verse is more what the song grew to be.”
But it wasn’t until Vaughn released the music video featuring some of campus’s most iconic spots that the song really took off, garnering more than 12,000 views on Facebook.
“I normally just do little lyric videos. I did one for the LSU song, and it got a couple thousand views, so I was like if I can just film a video on campus I know the song will get more exposure,” Vaughn said. “Maybe Leonard Fournette will see it.”
As for the future, Shaunzy’s music career is just beginning, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. For Vaughn, music is a combination of work and passion, all woven into his daily life.
“My writing process is a very scattered thing, and it comes in random sparks,” Vaughn said. “I can be driving and words come to me, or sometimes when I was in class, I would just see something that sparked me to write a rhyme. All I need is the chorus as a foundation, and the verses are where I have the fun.”
Shaunzy does a weekly Facebook show called “For a Minute,” in which he releases new songs, and his music can also be found on Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify, Youtube and SoundCloud.