In the last two weeks, “Old Town Road,” the viral hit by the rapper Lil Nas X, has become a flash point for conversations about what is, isn’t, or might be country music. The track briefly appeared on the Billboard Top Country Songs chart before being removed after it was deemed insufficiently country. (On Friday, Billy Ray Cyrus joined the track on a remix.)

The lines are blurry, but this is far from the first time country music and hip-hop have been in dialogue. They’ve been dancing around each other, and sometimes with each other, for more than two decades, whether in the form of deeply Southern rap music, bluegrass-inflected hip-hop, country singers collaborating with rappers or, in some cases, those singers rapping themselves.

This week’s guest: