Switched on Pop - The hick hop renaissance (BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman)

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

One of the biggest country hits of the year has been "All The Way," by Texas rapper BigXthaPlug and country rocker Bailey Zimmerman, which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is a perfectly mixed cocktail of trap sonics with country melodies, held together by a shared southern drawl between the two artists. As the genre of "country" expands and morphs to include different sounds, artists, and styles, "All The Way" serves as an exemplary example of the country-rap hybrid done right. But the song isn't the first to feature an unlikely collaboration across the genre aisle. This episode of Switched On Pop, we go deep on this collab and others, to see what works and what doesn't when the gates that keep the country music industry separate are swung wide open. Songs Discussed: BigXthaPlug, Bailey Zimmerman – All The Way BigXthaPlug – Texas War – Slipping Into Darkness BigXthaPlug – The Largest Bailey Zimmerman – Where It Ends Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus – Old Town Road Eminem, Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie Nelly – Country Grammar (Hot Shit) Nelly, Tim McGraw – Over And Over Florida Georgia Line, Nelly – Cruise - Remix Ernest, Snoop Dogg – Gettin' Gone Lil Durk, Morgan Wallen – Broadway Girls Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're tired of endless scrolling to figure out where to eat, same. I'm Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater. We've just launched the new-ish and way better Eater app. It has all the restaurants we love, gives you personalized picks wherever you are, and serves up smarter search results just for you. You can find my list of the best places for martinis and fries in New York City. And save your favorite spots, share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. Download the Eater app at Eaterapp.com.

It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switchdown Pop. I'm producer Rianna Cruz. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan, and I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And welcome back to what I lovingly like to call Switched On Country, where this week we're looking at some of the biggest country songs on the Billboard Hot 100. There's been one country song in particular that has captured my attention. And it's called All the Way by Down the Day.

Dallas rapper Big X the plug featuring Bailey Zimmerman. Take us all the way. That is fun. It kind of sounds like if a Neil Young riff had a baby going to leave me. Baby going leave me all the way. I'm not sure if anybody's put the words Neil Young and Zatovan in the same sentence before. It's got the Americana. It's got that trap thing going. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Bailey Zimmerman sings the chorus on that, John.

Big X the plug does the verses. And it's a collaboration that bridges together trap music with country in a way that feels seamless and natural. You know, as we've previously talked about, country has these trap influences in the genre's current sound. But this is explicitly country trap. Yeah, in a Morgan Wallen song, we might hear a trap high. had in the background on a Sam Hunt song, we might hear lyrical stylings rhythmically indebted

to bone thugs in harmony. But here we're hearing a more explicit crossover. I mean, these are two artists meeting and joining their distinct musical styles together. Yeah, and I mean, country people specifically love it. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, has spent over seven weeks in the top 40 now. And it's the highest term. starting single for both Big X the Plug and Bailey Zimmerman, who's at quite a few Billboard hits to date. So today, as a part of Country Week, I'd like to go all the way into all the way and explore why this song specifically is connecting with people. And then I'd like to look at other unexpected country rap collaborations and see if we could see the formula of all the way

pop up on both sides of the genre line. Great. Important question. Who's Big X the Plug and Bailey Zimmerman for a neophyte? Yeah, I think it makes sense to start with some background on both of our artists here. I'd like to start with the main artist on the track, Big X the plug. I love this dude. Bro is 27. He's from Dallas and is a Texas rapper, and meaning his sound is heavily influenced by the southern culture in which he comes from. One of his first hits off his first debut album was the song appropriately titled Texas. And I think you guys are going to like the beat on this one. Because you know everybody around this bitch got guns, niggins.

Hey, see y'all from Texas. We got Beyonce, try the truth, and we can't forget Devon. Big shout out to them boys and I can't forget back to Texas. I've been feeling like Luca, how about that shit a blessing? Number one ruling Texas, keep it solid. Ain't no telling. It's such a classic hip hop track in that it's like, here's who I am, introducing myself, and here is what I'm representing.

I'm representing Texas, and I'm doing it with the sound of Texas, both Texas blues, some of the sort of blues guitar that we discussed on our Sinners episode, and then obviously a sort of Texas Southern style hip-hop beat too. So fun. Yeah, and I also like the lyrical references to Texas in this song. We got a call out to Luca Donchick, who was on the Dallas Mavericks, now is on the L.A. Lakers. But Big X is from Dallas, and he mentions other artists like Devin the dude along with... Beyonce.

Houston's very own. Beyonce, exactly. And that's not the only connection between Big X and Beyonce. Fun fact. Now, I didn't go to the Cowboy Carter tour, but maybe Charlie, let me ask you as an attendee. Yeah. Do you remember an interlude where Beyonce was perhaps the biggest and the largest stomping around different cities? Yes.

She was the 400-foot woman cowboy stomping through all the cities, yes. That little interlude is actually scored by a Big X song titled The Lepin'Lew. titled The Largest. You know, I'm the biggest, the largest. You know, I really like this big, my mom's stayed in them apartless, regardless. My daddy told me keep the heat even when I'm in Forrest. I'm horridless. Because these niggas is hating on me just because I'm the biggest, the largest, the biggest.

You know, I really like this Big X the Plug vocal, too, because even though it's not chopped and screwed, he has such a low voice that it reminds me of a DJ Screw kind of production, who is also from Texas. Totally, he's from Houston, and the cities of Houston and Dallas in this larger tapestry of Southern rap are very intertwined. Even the beat of the largest starts with this kind of chopped and screwed sample. Oh, yeah. I recognize that immediately. That's slipping into darkness by war. Oh.

Played at, you know, one-quarter speed or something. That's the slow-down screwed part of it. Nate's high school band Function with a K once again. comes in with some essential funk knowledge. We'll do an episode all about war one day, but I totally hear what you're saying about Big X the plug's voice, his draw, his basso profundo, he's like natural chopped and screwed.

Just, you know, his larynx is permanently chopped and screwed. It's awesome. So Big X shouted out Beyonce on Texas. Beyonce repays the favor in her 400-foot woman, Biggest, the largest interlude. And this kind of amplified Big X's, presence, this song the largest, is going viral on TikTok because people are walking around their house going, I'm the biggest, the largest, stepping around everywhere.

I feel that. But more metaphorically, Beyonce using this song in the Cowboy Carter show places Big X into this larger thesis of Cowboy Carter and country music, which is speaking in the broadest of terms, the borders of country are more fuzzy than most people would like to admit. Okay, so that's Big X the plug. What about our other star of this track, Bailey Zimmerman? First of all, is he Jewish? I got to know.

Is he, you know, Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan's long lost grandson? Right. Or is he just a Protestant dude from Texas? Like, what's the deal here? That's a good question. I don't know much about this dude, but I think maybe that's by design. He is fairly new. to the country music game.

He only has one album, and it's titled Religiously, the album. Full title. His appeal is his voice, and we could hear it in the chorus of all the way. Don't let me down easy. If you're going to leave me, baby go and leave me all the way.

Don't ask for all your things back, cussing out my name, yeah, just to go and take back what you say. My quick research says that Zimmerman is a Christian. I'm sorry, Nate. Not Joe, no, not Josh. What's this guy's deal? Tell us about him.

So he, interestingly enough, is also kind of an outsider to the traditional Nashville country music machine. He's from Illinois, and he actually got discovered from singing on TikTok while doing construction work, building pipelines. So he's coming from a working class outside the borders of Nashville background. And he also kind of doesn't traditionally fit within the caricature. of a country music artist, in part because his voice, right? So we talked about Big X having this distinctive voice.

I think Bailey Zimmerman has a really amazing voice as well because it feels a little bit more rugged than what we usually hear in country. There's some strong grit to it. And it feels like something in between traditional country and then like a nickelback, 90s rock, Chad Kroger type tone. There's a little growl at the margins of that twang.

Burn all the bridges. Don't ask forgiveness. Walk away like I'm someone you hate. Don't let me down easy. If you're going to leave me, baby, go and leave me. You mentioned nickelback. You know, another big nickelback lover was Morgan Wallen, who has actually given his vote of approval to Bailey Zimmerman.

Bailey opened on Morgan Wallet's 20203 tour. So he's kind of made his way into the Nashville machinery. Yeah, he's worked his way in, and he's had quite a few. Billboard hits at this point in time. You could hear his voice shine in songs like Where It Ends. You're the last thing that I thought I'd lose. Back in and I gave you a second chance.

I've got too much pride to let that happen. So this is where it ends. You could hear on Where It End and other songs from Religiously Period, the album period. He has like a pop punky drawl to the way he sings some things. Like when the music drops

out and we just hear his voice. Like, it's kind of nasally, but also gritty in the way that a lot of emo music is. Like, I think if I heard his voice on his own, I would think, oh, this is a pop punk singer with a country twang rather than somebody doing full country music. I came shining down on all of your lives. I got too much pride to let that. So this is where it ends. All right.

I'm looking forward to hearing him on the next paramour feature. I think he'd like that, to be honest. Okay, so you're kind of saying that stylistically, his voice is a little bit of a chameleon. He could fit in lots of different sounds, and thus pairing up with Big X the Plug makes sense, because he's someone who's also playing with genre. Yeah, I think both of these artists are expanding the sound of country music in their own particular ways. Big X the Plug being a Texan rapper who centers his southern sound and Texan experience. and Bailey Zimmerman, who actually hails from Illinois and has this more rockish aesthetic,

doing what sounds like more traditional outlaw country music. So let's take a look at their collaboration all the way and see how these two artists mesh together. Let's start with the chorus, which comes in at the beginning of the song. Don't let me down easy. If you're going to leave me, baby, go and leave me all the way. Don't ask for all your things back cussing out my name. Yeah, just to go and take back what you say. All right away, there's a few things happening here right off the top.

I want to talk about the beat. It starts without the 808s. There's just this twanging guitar under Bailey Zimmerman singing the chorus. And then as the chorus moves along, there's a pedal steel or steel guitar kind of reverberating in the background. Bailey Zimmerman sings this chorus for over 30 seconds. It's quite long. And I want to hypothesize that maybe a reason for this song's success, is that people wouldn't necessarily be privy to the fact that this is a hip hop song

until they're already past the 30 second mark of the track. They got hip hop held. We're too far in already to change the channel, you know? Which is kind of interesting that Big X the plug is the first artist on the release of this. It's almost like bait and switch a little bit, but I like that. Yeah, it's kind of like a backdoor hip hop song. You know, country music really relies on radio play. and I could see people getting into this being like, ooh, who's this dude with this new funky voice that I like?

And then boom, a little bit more than 30 seconds in, you're hit with Big X the plug. But at that point, you've already committed. You know, you're already like, I like how this song sounds, you know? Right, 30 seconds is the point at which people get paid on streaming. If you listen more than 30 seconds, it count as a listen. And this isn't to hate on the first 30 seconds of the track. Bailey Zimmerman owns this chorus. His voice here is very biting and it's very forward.

And I think his voice, as we've been saying, is Bailey's biggest straw. So it's smart to put him front and center, kind of have his voice be the focal point over this beat that starts very sparse and then kind of filters in. Burn all the bridges. Don't ask forgiveness. Walk away like I'm someone you hate. Don't let me down easy. If you're going to leave me, baby, go and leave me. I feel like that vocal tone matches the defiance of the lyrics, right?

Yeah. If you're going to leave me, leave me all the way. You can't sing that in a gentle belconto vibrato. You've got to be like, leave me all the way. Like, just leave it all on the floor. Like, this person is wanting you to leave this relationship. But there is some deceit going on here because we don't realize that Bailey is not being totally truthful to us about where we are in this song.

Like, it starts off sounding like it could be a verse. moving into a pre-chorus, and then we expect to hear the even bigger chorus. But the thing that makes us absolutely a hip-hop track is that it's in a hip-hop structure, which is like you have a little hook, and then a rap verse, and then a hook, and then a rap verse, and then a hook. Like, it's not a chorus in the traditional sense. You know, a song like, Love the Way You Lie, Rap verse Eminem, Hook, sung by Rihanna. That's all right, because I love the way you lie.

I can't tell you what it really is. I can only tell you what it feels like. Eminem and Rianna did this years ago. But there's another song that has a similar structure that I think serves as more of a country trap precedent for all the way. And that's, of course, Old Town Road by Lil Nas X. Of course.

All roads lead to Old Town. The Old Town Road, I'm going to ride till I can't no more. So Old Town Road follows this same. format as all the way and love the way you lie. Kind of this backdoor hip-hop song that presents itself in the specific case of Old Town Road as a country track. I mean, this is the remix in which Billy Ray Cyrus sings the chorus and he has more of a traditional country voice. And then out of nowhere, 30 seconds into the song, again, left hook, Lil Nas X. Old Town Road is a sillier song. It's kind of ironically playing in the vein of country.

but also riled up the entire world about what is and what is not country. Like that feels like it really started an important modern debate. Right. In the case of all the way, you have the country beat. You have Bailey Zimmerman. But I could imagine somebody in perhaps bad faith could make the argument, oh, but this isn't a country song. This is a hip-hop song.

Hip-hop has no place in country. And to that point, I present the song's lyrical through line. I think it's safe to say that one of countries' core lyrical, is a lost love, right? This forlorn sense of blues. That's what this song is about. The tone of the song is so fucking. Just don't act like my love wasn't nothing. Like I wasn't the one you was holding that night till I'm all of your secrets and hug. I guess you write is too good to be true. Was the point all I needed was you. But shit time after time I just fussing and fighting. It's time that you do what you do. The tone of the song is bitter, but also sensitive in a way that I find is similar to a lot of country music. Like Big X here, says, fuck it, right, about this relationship that he's recounting. But he also evokes specific

memories like kissing at night and huggin. And there's a specific line where he's talking about something his mama told him, which feels tied into this larger country narrative. Yeah, family. Kissing and hugging and hugging, keeping it a little PG. Not totally PG. It's an emotional song. And I think there's this pretending going on in the song, right? This front that Bailey and Big X are bitter about this relationship and they're angry and there's these brazen metaphors like burn all the bridges don't ask forgiveness but there's a tenor to the lyrical content that I find quite upsetting I think of this line that Big X says that's like as it went on I was fighting for you sent the text it turned green why the fuck it ain't blue it makes it feel very lived in I mean Big X is 27 that's my age bracket so his metaphors and the way that he speaks feels very tied to like young Gen Z-ish cusp lost love. But as it went on, I was fighting for you. He even raps in these lines that he's singing sad songs.

Again, another evocative country metaphor. Okay, so you're saying that these guys, despite being kind of outside the country system, know how to use the grammar of country. order to appeal to the country audience. I mean, this is a song which is playing on country radio. Do you say country grammar, Charlie? I did say country grammar. Play it. That was an accidental invocation for Nelly's country grammar, but I'm so glad it's here. I don't think it's too accidental. I'm happy you brought it up, Nate. So let me couch this and say this is not the first time that country and rap have been brought together before. UGK. used to call their songs, quote,

rap. There's obviously genre bridging artists like Kid Rock and Bubba Sparks. We had Old Town Road a couple years ago. But I think there's an art to the bona fide reach across the aisle type hip-hop and country collaboration record. And speaking of Nelly, we're going to get to the lineage of songs like this after the break. Attention Spotify. Has arrived on the new Qigel Jasmine Absolute of Caroline Herrera. Aragoncy intense with character Kourman and has Imagine a jasmine-envolventy, taffy caramelized and tonka-tostata. A combination that seduce

from the first instant and he has a wea. Good Girl Jasmine Absolute, hypnotica irresistible. Discover it now and let's get emvolver for suenia. So all the way by Big X the Plug and Bailey Zimmerman is a genre bridging chart success. But it isn't the first collaboration of its kind.

There's been quite a few reaches across the aisle when it comes to the usually separate worlds of country and hip-hop. I want to take a quick spin through a few of the classics and see how they're similar or perhaps different to all the way. And I think we have to start

with what feels like the gold standard of these songs and collaborations over and over by Nellie and Tim McGrath. Now that's what I call music. Thank you, Rihanna, for the millennial fan service.

Of course. I love that song. I haven't heard this song in so long and hearing it now, I'm like, oh, that wasn't just a fever dream that actually happened? I think it's so incredible at capturing a very specific vibe and energy. Like, it's sort of in between both genres of country and hip-hop. It's not quite either.

And I think its power comes from one of the fundamental strengths of all the way. The blues-focused lyrics. All the way has more anger and bitterness to it, but over and over is a sad. song. My gosh, it is sad. And it's got such a radically different vocal approach than all the way to reflect that bluesiness, that sadness. They're singing so quietly and softly.

It's like they're whispering into the mic almost, which I feel like is really uncharacteristic for both of these artists. But it's very effective. Yeah, and I also think that the collaboration between Nellie and Tim McGrath is weirdly kizmet. Like, it feels like a lot of thinking went into matching. these two artists up, Tim is very obviously country. You know, Tim McGrath is one of the biggest names in country. But Nellie, you wouldn't immediately expect until you remember his very first

single, which we played earlier, country grammar. And through songs like country grammar, Nelly, similar to Big X the plug, incorporates a different side of country, not always appreciated or worked into the narrative by larger Nashville. And as we said in the first episode, we're always kind of wrestling with this idea of who country music lets in and out. Country grammar and over and over weren't Nellie's only direct forays into the country music industry. There's, of course, the song, which I hadn't heard in maybe a decade, Cruise by Florida Georgia Line featuring none other than Nellie. Oh yeah. Wait, that sounds more like it belongs next to Katie Perry's roar than anything on the country

charts. That is a ridiculous EDM country hip hop. Oh, it's so extremely 2013. Yeah. I rarely hear songs that evokes scents to me and hearing the Nelly version of Florida Georgia Lines crews

the smell of chlorinated water park woffs into my nose. Like, I think I heard that song no less than 30 times at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Jackson, New Jersey. I was hoping that you're going to say it's more offensive than a Yankee candle store's scent as you walk

by, but I appreciate you taking us back to your youth. Of course. And Cruz carries more of a playful energy, right? It's more relaxed. Maybe you could go so far as to say more fun. If we could pick a fault with Big X the plugs all the way, is that maybe that song's missing like a little bit of playfulness. It's so funny to me because on the one hand, I'm thinking, you know, the more you sort of present the politics of country and who belongs and who doesn't in the song, the more invites backlash. But you go back to Old Town Road, and that song is just kind of silly and fun, and it feels like a natural sort of internet meme-like co-lab.

Right. He just riding a horse. Isn't that fun? Exactly. And yet, it receives so much backlash. So I'm kind of uncertain how much sincerity and how much sort of invoking division actually plays apart in creating that conversation. Well, I think in the mid-2020s, where we are now, there's been a renewed interest in this

genre intersection of country and trap. We spoke about it broadly in the introduction to the series, but zoning it on specific examples, if you want a country hip-hop collab that is much more fun in this vein of Old Town Road, look no further than the dynamic duo of Ernest and Snoop Dogg and their song getting gone. You mean Ernest like the Ernest goes to camp? That earnest? Not Jim Varney.

I have to, I have to say the country music singer-songwriter, Ernest. Oh, get on about getting half gone. Hey, baby, do you want to go to? Oh, tell them snoop. Play full of chicken, mama's in the kitchen talking on the telephone. Kids outside while sliding on the sliding. Daddy said, leave me alone. I'm getting gone.

Gone. She. Is this a Bob Dylan interpolation? John is in a basement mixing up the medicine. I'm on a paid man thinking about the government. A man in a trench coat batch out laid off. Says he's got a bad call for it's to get a paid off. Subterranean homestick blues.

I think it's just a vibe. It's not just a vibe. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I never thought that Snoop would stoop so not lower high, just, in that direction. And I like it.

Sideways, perhaps. Sideways. Lateral. A line dance grapevine. Sideways. I almost feel like this is the one that doesn't belong in our lineage in a way because it's more like Snoop is just singing a country song, more or less. He's barely rapping.

Yeah, I hear you. I like the song. I like the Johnny Cash-esque bounce to it. I actually thought of including it because it was released the same week as all the way. So clearly there was. something in the water at the time with getting rappers and country artists together in the stew. I'm noticing on these country rap crossovers, you have to do this thing where you like shout

out the other person. You know, you're like, hey, Snoop, what's up, Nellie? You know, you have to be like, hey, we're friends, you know? Yeah, that's the one thing I'd add to all the way. Yeah. I think that would give it the slight playfulness. That is the secret sauce, right? the sleigh like, what's up Bailey? Hey, Big X.

Take it away, Big X. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But getting gone between Ernest and Snoop Dog is interesting because it feels like on paper, it shouldn't work at all, right? Like, Ernest is a famous country music songwriter, has written hits for artists like Morgan Wallen, had a writing credit on I had some help from Post Malone and Morgan Wallen. So it feels like we're getting further and further away from the quote unquote. common sense collaboration and into what kind of feels like AI generated country madlibs. Like, oh, hey, what if we got this famous behind the scenes country guy in front of the mic with, uh, I don't know, snoop dog? I do have to correct one thing, Nate, which is that maybe he's doing a sort of Bob Dylan

like cadence, but lyrically he is referencing another song, right? Like, Mama in the Kitchen is a feature that he did with Eve. And so he's tying it back into his lineage, even if it's not exactly his typical thing. Wow, so less random than I had thought. Play full of chicken, mama's in the kitchen. Mama's in the kitchen talking on the telephone. Or is he just referencing the folk song Shortenbread about Mama in the Kitchen? I don't know.

Nate, you're really throwing a wrench in this one. Get the hell out of here, Charlie. How dare you? How dare you? The secret to a successful podcast is having props that the audience can't see. Yes, I've been holding a wrench this entire time that I was just waiting to show you at the right moment. Well, it's been a good run. How are we going to conclude our last podcast ever?

I got one more unexpected country rap collab for y'all. Okay. Redeem us. I don't know if this will redeem anything, frankly. it is the track Broadway Girls by Lil Dirk and Morgan Wallen. What? There's a lot going on here. Is there, really?

I mean, okay, maybe less than the other songs that we've discussed. Let's see. The intro lyric, 2 a.m. at a Broadway bar, she's putting her number in my phone, Broadway girls alone. Two budlights deep, and she's saying things she don't mean, and you know. You cut off at the next line. I met her down at Aldeens talking about Jason Aldean's Nashville bar, which I believe is on lower Broadway. Oh, okay. In Nashville.

There's a whole lot more going on here. Who knew? Some would say, and I think an argument can be made that Broadway girls has a similar. formula to all the way. We have a twangy chorus on a trap-inspired beat. That being said, Broadway Girls feels a little contrived. It feels a little bit cobbled together by A&R. Like, let's get a big trap rapper and I don't know, the biggest country artists on a track together, not really thinking through whether or not it works. You know, I will say it does feature the lyric, my horse is Porsches, turning me on. Hello. Yeah, but they're just cribbing that from Old Town

road. How about this? Little Dirk compares himself to the great folk pop singer. He says, they treat me like Ed in London. Ed Sheeran. Wow, he's getting shouts from Little Dirk. Fascinating. This song is Chaos Brain.

Yeah, there's a lot of crazy lines in this. My personal favorite is the line that precedes. My horse is Porsches turning me on. The Little Dirk goes, they see me with Morgan and know that I rap. I mean, I'd take all the way over Broadway Girls any day, but regardless of my personal preference, I think what's really enlightening about putting these songs next to each other, whether it's Ernest and Snoop Dog, Morgan Wall and Little Dirk, Big X the Plug, and Bailey Zimmerman is like maybe 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, whenever with Nellie, Florida, Georgia Line, like, it was more

of an outlier. Now it feels like these kind of crossover collaborations are becoming. the norm. Yeah. Well, exactly. I mean, Broadway girls in all of its glory topped Billboard's hot R&B hip-hop songs chart. Didn't really. And during the Grammys, Lil Durk actually said that he and Morgan Wallen have a joint album on the way. So clearly, they like collaborating with one another. Big X the Plug says he has a country rap EP on the way. These are things percolating. You know, Charlie, you mentioned the film Sinners when we were listening to, I think it was Big X the plug song, Texas.

which had that slide guitar sample in there. And I'm thinking of that film in our discussion too because in a way we could say, well, this is such a new thing, right? These rappers and country artists working together. But also, maybe it's hearkening back to the earliest days of these genres in the 1920s and 30s in the American South

when these styles really coexisted. And it was only later that they were forcefully separated by the music industry. So there's another way to hear this as something more cyclical rather than something brand new. Back in that era, there were all these talking blues songs where they were talking about and talking about and talking about it had a sort of maybe you could say proto rap like cadence. I hear you. And taking it back to today on the core theme of this series, right? Genres collapsing.

The lines are more blurred than they were in the past 20, 30 years. And that's paving the way for more unlikely collaborations. There seems to be a renewed interest in the intersection of hip-hop and country, and the larger question of who fits and doesn't fit in the tapestry of country music, genre-wise, I think the door is much more open than you'd think. And I expect to see in the future more Mad Libyan collaborations on both the hip-hop and the country charts. Switched on Pop is produced by Rihanna Cruz, edited by Art Chung, engineered by Brandon McFarlane,

illustrations by Ars Gottlieb, theme music by Jossi Adams and Zachonario of ArchIrus, a member of the Vox Media Podcast Network of Production of Vulture, which is part of New York magazine. You can subscribe at nymag.com slash pod. Find more episodes of Switchdown Pop anywhere you get podcasts. Head over to our website, switchonpop.com. Plug in your email address for a weekly newsletter blast. And hit us up on social media at Switchdown Pop. Tell us what your favorite country rap co-labs through history are.

I'm just going to throw my hat in the ring here with accidental racist by Brad Paisley and L.L. Cool J. One of the most regrettable songs in the canon of popular music. Yeah, I actually left that one out on purpose, Nate. So thank you for invoking it in these credits. We'll be back again tomorrow with more in Switched On Country Week. Yaha. Until then. Thanks for listening.