The past few years have seen an uptick in Black country music acts putting their spin on the classic American genre. The genre is more open than ever; from the R&B-influenced sounds of The Boykinz to Willie Jones’ more earnest approach, the genre is more open than ever. This includes the genre’s first mother-daughter duo, appropriately named O.N.E. The Duo.

Made up of Tekitha and Prana Supreme (also the daughter of Wu-Tang de facto leader RZA), the two have been releasing music for quite some time. However, O.N.E. The Duo caught their breakout moment earlier this year through the release of “Feels Good.” Co-written alongside country hitmakers Shane Stevens (Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum) and Nash Overstreet (Britney Spears and Taylor Swift), the track has already earned a whopping 2.5 million views on YouTube alone.

The past few years have seen an uptick in Black country music acts putting their spin on the classic American genre. From the R&B-influenced sounds of e momentum in their hands, they’re set to release their years-in-the-making debut Blood Harmony. Set for release on August 11, the album is definitely set to introduce a new dynamic to country music thanks to its lead single alongside banging deep cuts like “River of Sins” and “Don’t Come For Me.”

Speaking with BET.com, O.N.E. The Duo talks about the journey of creating their debut, their mother-daughter dynamic as a duo and camaraderie amongst other Black women in country music.

BET.com: You have your debut album “Blood Harmony” dropping Aug 11, you’ve been a duo for the past handful of years. Why drop an album now and what’s been the process of putting the project together?

Tekitha: I think we’ve been a duo for 23 years. We include when Prana was in the womb and all that stuff. I feel like this has actually been a long time coming and although we’ve only been working on the project and been here in Nashville for seven years, the last two years of us kind of connecting with our partners, the distribution we wanted and needed for the project and finding our sound and honing that in made this timing perfect for us to release now. We took our time creating the album and once the body of work was tightened up and ready to go, we were like let’s give it to the world. It was just a matter of time and it had to be done.

BET.com: Last March, you premiered “Feels Good” through CMT, which was co-written by Shane Stevens and Nash Overstreet, who are hit-making country songwriters in their own right. Can you recall the creative journey as country artists in getting to this point?

Prana Supreme: I feel like the journey has been a very natural one. I think every time we come into a co-write, our goal is just to expand or bend what country music can sound like. For us, it’s really important to stay authentic to the influences that we’ve had growing up and bringing that into country. We never wanted to come into the country space and just put on a mask and pretend. It feels inauthentic and people can tell that.

So, the journey for us has really just been expanding what exactly country sounds like for us and what pop sounds like for us. Some of our songs on the album are a little bit more Americana and a little bit more rootsy than some of our other tracks but that all exists to us within our definition of what O.N.E. The Duo is a country artist.

BET.com: As the only Black mother and daughter duo in country music, what’s the balance between being mother and daughter and being creative partners?

Prana Supreme: I think communication is the main thing because it's hard to really separate what is work life and what is personal life. And I think between mother and daughter and even just parent and child, it can be hard to be criticized by your parents…

Tekitha: Or your child.

[Laughter]

Prana Supreme: And I think that for us, being really strong communicators is what makes it work so that we know that the criticism is not personal. The criticism is not even really criticism, it’s just advice of how we can make something better, how I can improve or how she can improve. It only makes our project better. It’s definitely a balance that we’ve always had even before working together. I feel like we just always had a great parent-child relationship but then adding business into it was really not that hard from my experience. We had already had the foundation of communicating our feelings and taking accountability.

Tekitha: Taking accountability is another thing that I even started to look at relationships in my own life where I ask why Prana and I are doing so well at that portion of it. A lot of people may think it’s because Prana is my daughter and she’s doing whatever I say. That’s not the relationship that she and I have. Prana is 22-years-old and she’s my partner. Therefore, I have to consult with her and consider her. I have to consider what she wants. When we’re not meeting the standard that she and I both know is needed to advance to the next thing or goal, each of us have to take accountability. Prana is not a mini-me and I’m not a driver of some ship. The duo partnership is communication, accountability and really the respect for each other.

BET.com: The past few years have seen Black women’s involvement in country grow stronger than ever between yourselves, Mickey Guyton, Boykinz, Chapel Hart, Yola and others. Do you remember the moment you decided to become a duo in the first place and how supportive black women are with each other in the genre?

Prana Supreme: It’s fantastic. I get so excited whenever we see Chapel Hart or whenever we run into Mickey Guyton around town or industry events. The first time we met either of them, it was like we had already met them before. Knowing someone is out there going through the same experiences as you and to be amongst the first to do something is so comforting. It doesn’t make the frontline feel so daunting because at the end of the day, even if country has changed and is changing, we’re still the first Black mother-daughter duo.

It’s nice to stand there and look beside you and see other people there. As we know, Black women stick up for each other and for others and they’re the biggest champions for other people. That makes us the biggest champions for ourselves.

Tekitha: When we were named CMT’s Next Women of Country earlier this year, they were at the event. It was our first time meeting them in person and all that. When I tell you the love they show Prana and I just made our night. It was like seeing your cousins or people that you already knew. I know that it was 10 times harder for Mickey and Chapel Hart. They were the ones that put us in a position to be able to get the reception that we’re getting now. For all the love we’re getting, there are still a percentage of people who are aggravated by the fact that we’re here doing “their '' music. So as Prana said, to look across the room to get that hug and love and vote of confidence from other Black women in the genre does change the game.

BET.com: Jason Alden's "Try That in A Small Town" is probably the most controversial in country at the moment. Where do you stand as two Black women in the genre when you hear conversations around it?

Prana Supreme: I haven’t listened to it yet, so I can’t comment.

Tekitha: I did and it’s dog whistling. I even saw the statement he put out after saying it “it’s not about this.” However, the imagery that was chosen for the video and the dog whistling about what would happen and won’t happen in the small town because “this is what we do for each other.” To me, there are all kinds of ways that could have been displayed, especially in a music video. Once you put a video to it, that changes the game. A lot of the video was around Black Lives Matter related stuff and it’s like what are you trying to say? Then as Black people, we do get a little bit hazed that we take everything personal but in regards to this, come on now.

Prana Supreme: That’s a very pervasive thing about dog whistling as I haven’t heard the song and haven’t seen the video. It’s the ability to send one group into a rile while the other group can deny there’s a reason to be riled up. It’s the same thing when someone says “America First.” What do you mean by “America First?”

Tekitha: It’s throwing a rock and hiding your hand. I take issue with the fact that as a community of people, creatives and artists who have this type of platform where hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are listening to you and following you is that you don’t have a sense of responsibility. Whatever happened to uniting groups of people? That’s my only problem. As far as freedom of speech, absolutely. Say whatever you have to say but, there has to be some consciousness to this.