In this episode I celebrate my birthday with a first trip to New Orleans—day drinking, a ghost & vampire tour, a swamp tour, and diving into voodoo and the roots of jazz. I then explore genre-bending in country and hip‑hop with examples like Beyoncé, Shaboozy, and Big X the Plug, and call out “culture vultures” who use hip‑hop for crossover clout (Post Malone, Machine Gun Kelly, Jelly Roll, Miley Cyrus). I discuss whether songwriting in hip‑hop is dead or a lost art, and close with an artist spotlight on up‑and‑coming rapper Makk.