Put this on your horse and ride it: LIL NAS X's "OLD TOWN ROAD" is the #1 song in the U.S. From TIKTOK to the top of the pops. Exiled by country, embraced by *the* country. So many words have been ranted, spewed and tweeted in the past two weeks about the homemade cowboy ditty with the trap beat and Autotuned vocals—about what it is, what it isn't, where it belongs, where it doesn't belong, what country means, what hip-hop means, what the very idea of genre means—and all along pop fans have been answering all those questions in the only way that makes sense, which is to just keep playing it. They had another option, of course, which was to not play it. But for all its goofiness and off-the-cuffness, "Old Town Road" is a good pop song, both with and without its new new achy breaky guest verse. It has emotion, a point of view and it's incredibly sticky. And it seems to have drawn a mysterious energy from all the discussion and controversy, feeding off the very nerves it keeps hitting. It's arguably more of a country song now than it was two or three weeks ago, because how songs are received matters as much as how they are presented, and every time it hits a nerve it gains a little more twang. Which may be an argument both for and against how BILLBOARD and the country establishment initially treated it in those long ago days of March. But which is definitely an argument for reconsideration on everybody's part. If any of this matters anymore. "Lil Nas X has won this showdown," the RINGER's LINDSAY ZOLADZ writes. “'Old Town Road' has transcended the genre charts altogether and become a bona fide pop smash." MUSICSET: "Are You Sure Florida Georgia Line Done It This Way?"... The "Old Town Road" discussion has raised important questions about the historic framing of genres, particularly as it relates to African Americans and country. In this valuable TWITTER thread, NPR MUSIC's ANN POWERS unpacks and fact-checks of that discussion while explaining why it's important that we get this stuff right. Genres can be blurry sometimes. But they contain cultural history, and they matter... And here's one great, pithy tweet about genre from DAMON KRUKOWSKI, responding to FLEETWOOD MAC withdrawing from the same cursed headlining slot at the NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FEST that the ROLLING STONES had backed out of days earlier, both for health reasons. "Maybe try a jazz musician?," Krukowski asks. (Alas, the fest went with WIDESPREAD PANIC. Whose members hopefully are taking their vitamins)... Who was the first artist born this century to have a #1 album in the US? (Hint: It happened this week)... The NY TIMES' CARYN GANZ made me literally LOL, and cry a bit too, with this ROBYN ticketing tweet... Credit where credit is due: CARL CHERY, head of urban music at SPOTIFY, was behind hip-hop's week of silence for NIPSEY HUSSLE, which I had mentioned in Monday's newsletter. Curating with his heart. Tickets go on sale at 10 am PT today for the Thursday morning memorial service for Hussle at the STAPLES CENTER. California residents only.