Jimmie Allen’s debut single, “Best Shot,” reached No. 1 on both the Billboard Country Airplay and Mediabase charts this week.

Jimmie joins Darius Rucker as the only African-American country artists to hit No. 1 with their debut singles. Darius, who became a household name in the early 1990s as the frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish, accomplished the feat in 2008 with “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.”

“If someone asked me two years ago if I thought that this would be my life today—that I’d be on the red carpet at the CMAs or my song would be the No. 1 song on country radio, I would have honestly said ‘no,'” says Jimmie. “Did I think it would happen eventually? Absolutely! Just not this soon. I’m humbled and grateful—it’s such an honor to get my first No. 1 and to know that my song is connecting with people and resonating in a way that hopefully makes us all better people in the end, because that’s really what ‘Best Shot’ is all about.”

Written by Jimmie, Josh London and JP Williams, “Best Shot” is the first single from Jimmie’s debut album, Mercury Lane. The hit single also ended Luke’s Combs’ four-week run atop the Billboard chart with “She Got the Best of Me.”

“In writing this song, we just wanted to be honest with ourselves and write something that others can empathize with,” says Jimmie.