Billy Ray Cyrus lends voice after Lil Nas X song pulled from country charts

After rapper Lil Nas X's track Old Town Road was pulled from Billboard's country chart last month, Billy Ray Cyrus has stepped in to lend his voice to the chorus of fans literally.

Not only has the veteran country singer joined the growingnumber of people decrying Billboard's decision, but Cyrus,made famous by the 1992 country-pop hit Achy Breaky Heart and line dance it sparked, has also joined Lil Nas X for a remix version.

"It was so obvious to me after hearing the song justone time.I was thinking, what's not country about it?" Cyrus said in a tweet about the original song posted Friday. "It's honest, humble, and has an infectious hookand a banjo.What the hell more do ya need?"

The audioof the new remix track featuring Cyrus was posted Thursdayand has becomea top trending video on YouTube, garnering over 5.5 million views in a matter of days.

Listen to the remix version of Lil Nas X's Old Town Road featuring Billy Ray Cyrus:

Song doesn't 'merit inclusion' on country chart

Old Town Road (I Got The Horses In The Back)debutedon Billboard's Hot 100 chart, the Hot Country Songs chart and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at the same time.

It was at number 19 on the country chart when it was yanked.

In a statement provided to Rolling Stone, which first reported the change,Billboard said "upon further review" the song "doesnot currently merit inclusion on Billboard's country charts."

"When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition," the statement said. "While Old Town Roadincorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today's country music to chart in its current version."

What do you think?Here's the original version ofOld Town Road (I Got The Horses In The Back):

Fusing genres, pushing boundaries

Part of LilNasX's appealand one of the possible reasons for the decision is his genre-bending, hybridsound. The fusion of hip hop and country, referred to as country rap and more recently, as "country trap," isn't new. But it's still not common and the artist is pushing musical boundaries.

In an interview withTimeafter the song's removal, Lil Nas X, 19, said he believes "whenever you're trying something new, it's always going to get some kind of bad reception."

"The song is country trap," he told the magazine."It's not one, it's not the other. It's both. It should be on both [charts]."

Many are pointingto other singers such as Taylor Swift and Bebe Rexha who have had few problems crossing over between pop and country.

Billboard is just reflecting something that we've seen over decades, which is thatgenre lines are inherently based off of race."-Britney Spanos, Rolling Stone music writer

At the same time, Beyonc'scountry-driven track Daddy Lessons from her highly acclaimed 2016album Lemonade couldn't make any headway in that genre at the Grammys, despite being nominated multiple times that year across rock, rap, pop and urban categories.

"Country, in a lot of ways, whether people have noticed or not, it's become a signifier for whiteness to a lot of countries, to a lot of people,"said BritneySpanos, a music and pop culture staff writer at Rolling Stone.

"Billboard is just reflecting something that we've seen over decades, which is thatgenre lines are inherently based off of race."

Rappers such asSki Mask The Slump God andJoe Buddenare backing that up, calling Billboard's move againstLil Nas X "discrimination."

Returning to country music'sroots

Despite ongoing criticism over the lack of diversity onthe country music scene, American country music singerJimmie Allentold CBCNewslast summer he doesn't fault the industry or the audience.

"They've always been ready and willing to especially the listeners willing to embrace people of different ethnicities," the African-Americanmusician told CBC's Deana Sumanac-Johnson. "It just takes a few artists first who aren't afraid to stand out and be different.

"Ifyou listen to the lyrics and the storytelling in country music, it comes from blues. Over time, it went a little western. For me,country music is just getting back to where it first came from. For everyone."

Whether or not the new version of Old Town Road satisfiesBillboard's often arbitraryguidelines forgenre chart inclusion, its widespread popularityhas another major star willing to join the collaboration.

"Y'allcall me when you're ready to shoot the video," WilldWild West musician-actor Will Smith posted on InstagramFriday.