With Texas Hold'em. This ain't Texas.

Ain't no Hold'em. They are cars down, down, down, down. Only God knows, only God knows, only God knows.

And 16 carriages. 16 carriages. Beyoncé, to your right. Beyoncé. Beyoncé's renaissance into a country music star is only just beginning. But like anything she does, people can't stop talking about it. Beyoncé's Conquering Country. The Houston native's upcoming country album, Renaissance Act 2. The Queen B is embracing her Texas roots. Here in the heart of Houston is the rodeo. Beyoncé has performed here multiple times. So we wanted to ask Houstonians how they feel about their hometown queen, Beyoncé.

My family loves Beyoncé. She's from Houston, so we love that.

What is it about Beyoncé's new music that makes it country? I think the topic of her lyrics, it's very country-centered. Country music is for everybody. It's for Beyoncé. But is country music ready for Beyoncé?

It's got too much of a pop twang to it.

Just because you sing hip hop music with a country accent does not make it country music.

Michael Jordan, is he known as a basketball player or a baseball player?

Not said. On social media, an uproar ensued when a fan posted that an Oklahoma Oklahoma country radio station initially refused to play Beyoncé's new music. In a statement, the minority-owned station, KYKC, said that at the time, they, quote, had zero knowledge that Beyoncé was going to release a country song and added, We highly respect Beyoncé and her talent. On cable news, former Dukes of Hazzard star, John Schneider, saying this, They've got to make their mark just like a dog in a dog walk park. In a statement, Steven, a representative for Schneider said, John was clearly talking about artists attempting to cross over into country music, and not specifically about Beyoncé. I look at the reaction to Beyoncé.

I hope I can speak frank here, but it's a musical equivalent of Shut Up and Dribble.

All of this forcing a reflection on the sometimes fraught history of race and country music. People like to ask the question, why is country music so white? And I point to the larger issue that America is segregated and country music has graded its identity into American identity. I've been knocking, banging, kicking on this door, and Beyoncé really opened it.

The problem is the way that the industry is reacting to her is not the way that they have reacted to any black woman in the past, and I don't think it'll be the way that they react to other black women in the future.

Before the album, Cowboy Carter dropped, Beyoncé made history, becoming the first black woman with the number one song on the country charts with Texas Hold'em. That's incredible because this is a place where Lil Nas X's Old Town Road wasn't allowed to be considered on the country charts.

This is a place where Morgan Wallen was caught on tape saying racial slurs, and the response to that was to give him one of the biggest albums in country music of all time.

So there's a lot of work that needs to be done. In a post on Instagram, Beyoncé writing, 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 added that the album was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed. I think Texas Hold'em and 16 Carriages exist as a pinnacle moment for country music because they point back to an extraordinary Black country past. So it is pointing back to an entire history of Black musicality and Black presence. This ain't Texas. Videos going viral of people dancing to Queen B. Beyoncé! Beyoncé! Beyoncé even shouting out the real-life boogie on her TikTok. From older couples like this one to younger ones, all garnering millions of views each.

It takes somebody who is at superstar status to do something that shakes it all up.

That shake-up, thanks in part to country and folk artist, Rhiannon Guinnins. Her Banjo is the first thing you hear on Texas them. I know for a long time you said, once Beyoncé puts a Banjo on a track, my job is done. Obviously, you don't feel like your job is done. Yes, never done. Do you I feel like this isn't about Beyoncé going country. It's Beyoncé getting back to her roots.

I'm like, people can do what they want to do. They will make a country record. Make a country record. Nobody's asking Lana Del Rey what right do you have to make a country record? You know what I'm saying? Everybody has the opportunity to explore their roots, to go back and go like, This is my life, too. I want to do this. The stay in your lane, the... Well, that's not real country. That's just racism. People don't want to say it's because she's black, but they use these coded terms, and that's problematic. So this is from Jamaica in the late 1600s. One of the earliest notated pieces of music known to be collected by Africans in the Caribbean.

To hear Rhiannon Gueddon's play is a spiritual experience. She's got a Pulitzer Prize, a couple Grammys, but the instrument she made famous, the Banjo, wasn't always something she felt comfortable around growing up in North Carolina.

I got exposed to the Banjo as a child, as everyone. I would have seen the Beverly Hills Billy's. I still felt like as a person of color, that I had to ask for permission to go into this. What I had been told was this unassailable white Appalachian mountain tradition. That was a monolithic tradition.

But that tradition changed once she learned the roots of those strings.

Finding out that the Banjo was an African-derived instrument, invented by people in the Caribbean, African diaspora, enslaved people, blew my mind. I was like, it lit this fire me. And I was like, Can I come into this music? I really like it. And then I learned the history, and I was like, Give it to me. I was like, This is mine, too. This is everybody.

We caught up with Giddens before her sold-out show at the Beacon Theater in New York City. The Renaissance woman following her North Star. To now be a part of this moment on Beyoncé's country hit, what is that like for you?

To be honest, it's the best thing ever. I think about the legacy of the black string band player, the black banjoist, the black fiddler that helped create the pathways and the byways of American culture. To be represented in that way is just amazing.

Strumming strings full of history to help a new generation discover their roots. That responsibility, precious and poignant for Rhiannon.

Like when they're dancing to the Banjo, it's just like, I'm sorry. I've just like... I'm sorry. I'm just working so hard. This is our music. You know what I mean? And I just had to have patience. This music is a part of us, and it's been missing from our understanding of who we are. I think it leaves a huge hole. You know what I mean? To see black people doing line dances to my Banjo, there's an opportunity for people who don't know who I am to have a piece of that. Then if they want more, there's a bunch of people doing this work. Cork. Our thanks to Jané. For more on Beyoncé's return to her roots, stream Impact by Nightlines, it's Beyoncé Country, now on Hulu.

Hi, everyone. George Stefanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights, and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel. Don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.