Hear Keith Urban and Stevie Wonder Team Up With Jason Derulo

With “Raise ‘Em Up” continuing its reign as the most popular song on country radio, Keith Urban — who teamed up with Eric Church for the chart-topping Fuse single — is adding another duet to his catalog. This time, he’s the special guest, not the frontman, playing guitar and banjo on Jason Derulo’s new single, “Broke.” 

On the surface, Urban’s work in “Broke” echoes the sideman role he played with Tim McGraw’s “Highway Don’t Care.” Both songs feature a quiet, microphone-free Urban who makes his presence known with his fretwork, not his vocals. While “Highway Don’t Care” is a country power ballad, though, “Broke” — with its drum loops, DJ breaks and “mo’ money, mo’ problems” refrain — is a hip-hop tribute to sitting back, getting stoned and avoiding the rat race. Urban’s banjo riff and Stevie Wonder’s harmonica solos help represent the twangier side of the Dirty South, but “Broke” is an example of country music assimilating itself into another genre, not the other way around.

“Broke” is the kickoff single from Derulo’s Everything Is 4, whose roster of guest artists also includes Meghan Trainor (no stranger to the occasional collaboration with a country artist herself) and Jennifer Lopez. The album arrives June 2nd.