Genre gap Beyoncé's new album falls short

Cowboy Carter arrives on the back of booming business for the country genre, drowning out the Black music history it claims to celebrate

- Yasmin Williams

On the first track of Beyoncé's new album, she seems to state the impetus behind the project: "They used to say I spoke too country/ Then the rejection came, said I wasn't country 'nough." That rejection is assumed to be her performance of her song Daddy Lessons with the Chicks at the 2016 Country Music awards. It prompted a racist backlash from parts of the country establishment.

Cowboy Carter is Beyoncé's 27-track response. In the few details she has shared about the album, she said she "did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive". As she became the first Black female artist to have a US country No 1 and top the Billboard Hot 100 with a country song, debate over her place in the genre reigned.