Buckle your seat belts, BeyHive. Beyoncé is releasing a new album. Titled Cowboy Carter, the Country album embraces the Southern flair heard in the singer’s two most recent singles, “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages.” Regarding “Texas Hold ’Em,” Beyoncé said, “I feel honored to be the first Black woman with the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart.” Her new songs challenge the historical exclusion of Black singers from the supposed white legacy of Country music. “My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant,” she writes in her introduction to Cowboy Carter. The second part of a three-act project that began with Renaissance, it took five years to complete. “This ain’t a country album,” the singer says, “this is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.” Rumour has it that Dolly Parton will be featured. —Jeanne Malle