A singer/songwriter who blends the honest lyrics of classic country with the swagger of hip-hop and the insistent hookiness of pop, HARDY is a Nashville star for the 2020s and beyond. Born in Philadelphia, MS, in 1990, Michael Hardy moved to Nashville in the early 2010s; he signed his first publishing deal in 2014 and had his first charting hit three years later, when Morgan Wallen recorded his track “Up Down.” Wallen’s collaborators on that boat-party-minded jam, the duo Florida Georgia Line, liked HARDY’s style, and they released his strummy love song “Simple” as a single in 2018. While writing songs for FGL and other Nashville superstars like Blake Shelton, HARDY embarked on a solo career, releasing his first EP, THIS OLE BOY, in 2018, and following that up with the EP WHERE TO FIND ME in 2019. Later that year, his first full-length, the boisterous HIXTAPE, Vol. 1, showed off his versatility, his appreciation of 21st-century country’s anything-goes mindset, and his contact list—he snagged cameos from Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, Lauren Alaina, and other big names. HARDY’s first proper solo album, A ROCK, came out a year later, placing him front and center, with the honky-tonk sing-along “UNAPOLOGETICALLY COUNTRY AS HELL” summing up his songwriting aesthetic—and the reason his writing has been so in demand since he landed in Nashville.