phunkdaddy said:

Good point, lol. Matter of fact, the 1990s R&B didn't get NO love, lol. Least the best half of it.
[Edited 1/7/09 19:42pm]

I liked rnb from the 90s all up to early 2000s, now its just boring. Even chris brown sounds like everyone els

Why 90% only. Can someone fill me in regarding the remaining 10% of good R'n'B we should be listening???

kanamit said:

Ummm, Raphael Saadiq, Mint Condition, Anthony Hamilton, Raheem DeVaughn (for the most part) and some other cats that I cant think of right now cuz my mind is black. Realistically tho, instead of 90%, R&B is 95% garbage IMO.

junebug18 said:

The percentage that is immediately visible, yes... but the blame shouldn't necessarily go to the artists. There were bullshit R&B artists in the 70's and 80's, but there was always room for the better acts as well. Now there's only the bullshit.

But I find great enjoyment listening to Me'shell Ndegeocello, D'Angelo, Maxwell, Dwele, Amp Fiddler, Adriana Evans, Jill Scott, Lizz Wright, Amel Larrieux, Rahsaan Patterson, Res, Van Hunt, Mint Condition, Erykah Badu, India.Arie and others... Problem is, those artists are playing the back to the Ne-Yo's, Usher's and Chris Brown's of the world.

Then we have to hear how shitty R&B is. I'm kinda loving some R&B right now, myself.

YET MORE PROOF :



http://www.sfweekly.com/2...-bullshit/


Rap and Bullshit
Today’s R&B is pure garbage.
By Ben Westhoff
Published on January 05, 2009 at 3:33pm

As one of contemporary R&B's brightest stars, John Legend possesses Grammys and hits galore. But could he be any blander? His twinkling tunes about love and relationships are at best serviceable, and lyrically he treads the same ground as a hundred other singers. His status as a genre top dog says plenty about the state of R&B itself, which has become crummy and pointless, derivative and boring.

In terms of social relevance, innovation, and pure originality, no one approaches the titans of earlier generations like Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding, or even Michael Jackson and Prince. R&B is missing a transformative star, but seems unlikely to find one right now because, as a genre, it barely exists.

Though always something of a hodgepodge, R&B was once a formidable format, a combination of soul, gospel, and funk whose best artists didn't hesitate to experiment with style. But in the '90s and '00s, R&B has become pigeonholed. Attempting to piggyback on hip-hop's popularity, its artists use rap beats and hire MCs for guest verses, resulting in a sound virtually indistinguishable from rap. (Try turning off the vocals on Legend's "Green Light," for example, and see if you can tell the difference.) One of R&B's biggest names, Akon, is so strongly associated with hip-hop that he's sometimes mistakenly referred to as a rapper.

Fusing genres was traditionally a big part of rhythm and blues hell, Ray Charles initially made a career out of it. But since New Jack Swing injected a street mentality and rowdy backbeats in the 1980s, R&B shows little desire to evolve or take creative risks. Its crooners have become largely separated onto urban radio stations, inspiring one mildly successful, format-following clone after another.

The watering down of the genre is one reason it's been disparaged as "Rap & Bullshit." Another is because it's artistically moribund. The vast majority of R&B lyrics are disingenuous and clichéd. Enough already with testaments to mothers, to promises of everlasting fidelity, and to female empowerment anthems written by women with multimillionaire husbands.

The most successful R&B artists aren't artistically compelling. Take Ne-Yo, a decorated singer-songwriter who had an even better 2008 than Legend. His recent album, Year of the Gentleman, is a commercial smash and has been well-reviewed by the likes of Rolling Stone. And yet ... were we not so starved for R&B possessing even a whisper of creativity, we might have more soberly assessed this banal work. Ne-Yo's monster hit "Miss Independent" is arguably the most derivative piece of pop in recent memory. Profoundly asserting that women who have their own thing going on are cool, the song rips off a concept espoused by Webbie and Lil Boosie last year, by Destiny's Child in 2000, and by Susan B. Anthony in 1852. The track's beat is stolen wholesale from Justin Timberlake's hit "My Love," while Ne-Yo's singing is filled with grating melisma. I'll give him credit for collaborating with New Kids on the Block it's hard to resist "Single" but let's be honest. If Ne-Yo were to stop making records today, would anyone remember him in 20 years?

In truth, Ne-Yo and R&B's other reigning king, Usher, are little more than bland, well-dressed Michael Jackson wannabes with good choreographers. Neither has done as much to push the genre forward as sexual nonoffender R. Kelly, who at least is willing to take musical chances. (Unfortunately, he doesn't qualify as a respected R&B icon because he hasn't made strong albums, and his legacy is tied up in his perversions.)

As for queens Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, and Keyshia Cole, they offer little more than overproduced girl-jams only discerning fans can tell apart. None seems to take any pleasure in craft. While all three women have fascinating life stories Cole's mother was a prostitute and drug addict you'd never know it from their bland discographies, full of boilerplate love-lost laments and CVS-friendly stay-strong anthems. The music from second-tier soulstresses like Ciara and Ashanti, meanwhile, doesn't hold up without the benefit of gruff male voices to contrast their meek vocals. (If you've heard Ashanti's latest album, The Declaration, you'll know this.)

Crooners like Anthony Hamilton, Robin Thicke, and Raheem DeVaughn have gotten critical kudos as well, but they all fall short. Take DeVaughn's latest album, Love Behind the Melody. Though almost universally praised, it contains the most basic, clichéd lyricism imaginable. His Grammy-nominated hit "Woman" is about get this how great the female gender is. The words aren't even original; lyrics like "You a lady in the streets and a freak when it's bedroom time" should be credited to Ludacris, and "I appreciate so much/Like the 'I love you' feeling girl when we touch" should perhaps be credited to a poor translation of an Italian Hallmark card. Meanwhile, DeVaughn's offer to "appetize ya or main course ya" on "Customer" is less poetry than soundtrack to a porno flick filmed at Carl's Jr.

I make no claims to have heard everything out there, of course, and I'm not contending that the entire genre is devoid of anything worth listening to. Erykah Badu remains an influential, endearing talent, although her recent New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) veers closer to neo-soul and psychedelic funk than to R&B. Inventive Detroit producer-singer Dwele and Philadelphian Jazmine Sullivan, meanwhile, have found success by taking risks, and Atlanta's Janelle Monae's brand of retrofuturism is refreshingly eccentric. She dresses like a robot and inhabits an alter ego named Cindy Mayweather, for starters.

None of these artists fit the bill, however, as an R&B icon for the new millennium. It may be a lot to ask for another Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke, both of whom pushed for social change and helped revolutionize the role of the black singer-songwriter in the music industry. It may be too much to ask for another purple one or gloved one, both of whom affected everything from rock and pop to popular culture and marketing. But is it too much to expect a single standout talent? I don't think so, and, as a result suggest we change the "Rap & Bullshit" moniker to simply "Bullshit."

* * * * *


I think John Legend can sing well enough, but he IS about as exciting as watching paint dry. about twice a year, I really make an effort to listen to what's out there in today's music.. but most of it just makes me go back & listen to all the BRILLIANT music from the 70s & early-to-mid 80s..

kanamit said:

Ummm, Raphael Saadiq, Mint Condition, Anthony Hamilton, Raheem DeVaughn (for the most part) and some other cats that I cant think of right now cuz my mind is black. Realistically tho, instead of 90%, R&B is 95% garbage IMO.

mltijchr said:

Proof? What proof? Ahahah this is a fucking joke. I cant believe idiots like this threadstarter are spreading this like wildfire. Obviously dude does not know who Raheem Devaughn is. LBM was one of the best consistent releases of the first quarter. And what about Thicke? Dude barely mentions anything.

this is the same rehash of an article i was reading 5 years ago. this guys has to be the biggest dickhead on the planet, much like most of the org who either think like this or are basing their lame arguments on so called populist catch phrases of the 21 st century coined by faggots in white dresses. he knows nothing about the genre nor where it is at in 2009. Rnb has always remained prevalent. its very offensive to discredit the role Anthony Hamilton, Mary J Blige and others have played within the genre. his analysis is rather adhoc, premature and unconvincing - rather than discussing the real merits behind rnb's decline and rebirth, he's more concerned with building a profile augmented on his vague, abrupt and alarmist writing style and series of name-dropping to appear intelligent.

its a damn shame these cunts are priviliged with the gift of "appreciating" and writing about music for newspapers, magazines and blogsites. and yeah for the record "green light" is fucking crazy.

There’s nothing with wrong with today’s music. go educate yourselves and stop reading propagandist bullshit. foreign exchange, kindred, musiq, rob murat, syleena Johnson, jill scott, hill st. Soul, jesse boykins, kloud 9, jennifer hudson, amos lee all came out this year or last. There can be no excuse for such brash rationalisations. Don’t believe the hype.

mltijchr said:

viciuzurban said:

Whatever point you were trying to make has been completely dismissed out of hand now that i have read this joke
[Edited 1/9/09 7:32am]