I couldn’t agree more with your main point that music transcends race and genre. But Billboard is in the business of genre, and I agree with their original categorization. “Old Town Road” is a very good rap (some say “trap” — I’m no expert) song that uses country elements to expand (t)rap, not the other way around.

A wonderful African-American singer / writer who expands country way past brilliance (she won a MacArthur genius award) is Rihanna Givens. In her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, she bridges the gap between old Black string bands and White bluegrass musicians (it’s not such a wide gap). But her last two solo albums are masterpieces of originality, respectful of but not chained to tradition. The fact that she sells so few albums compared to Lil Nas or Kane Brown or every contemporary White country musician named Luke) shows how much our embedded notions of genre stifle true creativity.