Is Real R&B Still Around?

[LyRiCaL_G]

homie its like this, if usher was white, he'd be king of pop........but since his black, u know these clowns aint gonna say that, instead justin is king of pop now......

anyways.....on the topic, which is kinda dope imo, even tho alot of shit has been spoken to imo.......

anyway, r kelly is dope, anyone who says r kelly aint rnb is stupid.......and he writes n produces alot of his own shit, i cant hate.....

usher, thats dope rnb......he brings that mj influnced style but he def adds sumthang onto it rather than justin who jus copies it with the best hitmakin producers around......

marques houston......his killin it write now, i dono much about his new album but his joints hittin hard everywhere in the clubs n he aint to bad i guess.......r kelly produced his joint by the way

micheal jackson.........well, c'mon man, aint no nigga fukin with him, bille jean alone shits on everyone else career alone.....in many genres

who else did ya list.........ummmmmm

alicia keys, man shes the most gifted chick out right now, she aint rnb though, shes a real soul sister

jodeci, back in the day......... they wer killin it,lol

lauren hill is sick, its jus y'all can relate to her, damn even niggaz findin it harder these days, but everyone knows her potential.....

truth is theres alot od DECENT shit being made, but like u said, only a few are keepin it to its roots n continuing, its jus took a wrong turn which can easily be taken like in hip hop, which most jus talk about the ice they be flexin

but only a few cats can say they doin sumthang for rnb which is good right now.......usher leadin the way........r kelly gotta stay away fromt he kids though

peace

[Don Breezio]

its not a racial factor dude...if it were then everyone would consider B2K & Destiny's child R&B and not pop. thats my point...theres like a rule saying that if it gets a ton of radio play it cant be R&B anymore which is sad. but then again you made a lot of sense w/ the usher-mj comparison.

[Suga Foot]

Hate all you want, but Beyonce has fuckin talent.  "Me Myself & I" is a dope fuckin song.  

I popped in Raphael Saadiq's "Instant Vintage" today, I seriously listened to it 3 times without skipping a track.  

Good shit is still out there, you just gotta look for it.  

I got my eye on this girl Kia Kadiri, she sings a couple hooks on Abstract Rude's new album, she has an amazing voice.

[Don Breezio]

I popped in Raphael Saadiq's "Instant Vintage" today, I seriously listened to it 3 times without skipping a track.  

and thats the way most of it is...people just want to jump to calling shit pop because it gets radio play...you can bet if raphael saadiq was played on mtv 42 times a day people would hate on him too.

theres so many albums out there that are damn near perfect albums (one reason why i love R&B)....like as i type this im listening to jaheim's "Still Ghetto"...i love this album...have since it came out. songs like "Fabulous", "Me & My Bitch", "Lets Talk About It", "Put That Woman First", "Beauty & A Thug"...all dope shit.

then you could go to say...Marques Houston...another artist that gets hated on because he is played on the radio alot and is the man behind B2K. i can pop in his cd "MH" and listen to it all the way through. even "Clubbin" (feat. Joe Budden) doesnt ever get old for me...i think thats one of the most relaxing songs i've heard in a long time.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Yeah but Luke, Raphael Saadiq has soulfulness, so no matter how much he would be played on the radio he'd still be amazing, but he is soul, not rnb.

To me it has nothing to do with radio play. People consider Jaheim rnb just cause "Fabulous" got a lot of radio play, but I would still classify him as soul on his newest album. On previous albums he wasn't really letting the soulfulness shine through, but on "Still Ghetto" its a straight soul album for me.

[Don Breezio]

lmao your first comment only works towards some people. some people dont like the soulful sound. like a dude i was talkin to last night...he likes what you would call R&B and hates what you would call Soul. saying no matter how much he's played on the radio he'd still be amazing is straight up dumb and you know that. lucy pearl got annoying as fuck after awhile, so did toni tony tone back in the day. if raphael saadiq put out a really hot single people would say the same shit about him.

[CRAFTY]

Well I would split most of the artists you mentioned into soul and rnb.

I would consider R Kelly, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Jaheim, The Isley Brothers as soul artists. This is sort of stuff I like to listen to.

I personally think that the rest of them that you mentioned don't have enough soulfulness to be considered soul artists, and they are what I consider to be RnB. They will have the odd dope track, but I wouldn't ever buy one of their albums (ok, so I got TQ and Montell's first albums, but thats the g funk influence).

So to answer your question RnB is still around in large quantities, but Soul isn't as much as I think it should be.

My thoughts exactly

[On The Edge of Insanity]

lmao your first comment only works towards some people. some people dont like the soulful sound. like a dude i was talkin to last night...he likes what you would call R&B and hates what you would call Soul. saying no matter how much he's played on the radio he'd still be amazing is straight up dumb and you know that. lucy pearl got annoying as fuck after awhile, so did toni tony tone back in the day. if raphael saadiq put out a really hot single people would say the same shit about him.

No, saying he'd be amazing no matter how much radio play he got isn't dumb, because its true, if the single was soulful then I'd be pleased no matter how much love it got.

Lucy Pearl didn't get annoying either because they had soul, stuff which is rnb to me has no replay value at all, good for clubs maybe, but not for constant listening. Soulful artists have something special in their voices which sets them apart from rnb artists and gives them much more replay value.

[Nima - Dubcnn.com]

Artists like Floetry, Alicia Keys, Goapele, Anthony Hamilton, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Musiq, etc. They bring back the essence of Soul music. When I hear people like Ray J, Jagged Edge, B2K, Marques Houston, R.Kelly(now at least) etc. they don't really keep that "Soul essence." It's more Hip Hop influenced, which to me, is rather lame. Catchy, but lame.

As fro B2K being similar to White Pop acts. Lyric wise, of course. They sing about love etc. But, it's their style(harmonies etc.) and beats. I mean, you can tell the difference between a B2K beat and say N*Sync.

An artist like Frankie J. He was Justin Timberlake before Justin Timberlake. He used to make Latin Pop, but now is considered R & B.

^^^word

[Don Breezio]

lmao..,.you know damn well if they played raphael saadiq 1000 times a day and he had 4 million 12 year old girls screaming for him all over the place people woudl say "damn man saadiq is wack...remember back when he was a soul singer"....people put a double standard on artists and its sad.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

lmao..,.you know damn well if they played raphael saadiq 1000 times a day and he had 4 million 12 year old girls screaming for him all over the place people woudl say "damn man saadiq is wack...remember back when he was a soul singer"....people put a double standard on artists and its sad.

If he made a wack track to cater for that audience then yes I wouldn't be feeling that track, but if he continues making quality music that just happens to get a lot of radio play then he would still be just as dope. I can't really ever imagine 12 year old girls screaming over Raphael Saadiq.

[Don Breezio]

lmao..,.you know damn well if they played raphael saadiq 1000 times a day and he had 4 million 12 year old girls screaming for him all over the place people woudl say "damn man saadiq is wack...remember back when he was a soul singer"....people put a double standard on artists and its sad.

If he made a wack track to cater for that audience then yes I wouldn't be feeling that track, but if he continues making quality music that just happens to get a lot of radio play then he would still be just as dope. I can't really ever imagine 12 year old girls screaming over Raphael Saadiq.

the point is you may still love it but there are hundereds of thousands of people out there who would totally flip if it got popular. take an artist like linkin park for example. back when hybrid theory dropped they were unknown for months but the people that knew about them loved them. but then as soon as the album started getting tons of radio & video play everyone started to hate on them.

another example:

Blink 182...i know probably 50 people who own their first few albums and loved em...then as soon as blink released "All The Small Things" to the radio and it started getting played 1000 times a day they hated blink. even though their albums sounded exactly the same as far as style goes.

my point is some of us (as in me and you) are more conscious towards shit and really dont care if it gets play or not...but there are thousands of people who would drop their favorite artist in a minute if they heard them more than twice a day on the radio.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Yeah I totally get what you're saying, and its pretty sad that is how a lot of people are. On the Blink thing though, there first two albums did have more of a cali-punk feel to them, there was definitely a switch up in style for the album with "All The Small Things" on it, but I feel that album was probably the highlight of their career.

[Don Breezio]

Yeah I totally get what you're saying, and its pretty sad that is how a lot of people are. On the Blink thing though, there first two albums did have more of a cali-punk feel to them, there was definitely a switch up in style for the album with "All The Small Things" on it, but I feel that album was probably the highlight of their career.

yeah actually i've really felt all of their albums but especially their last 3 (minus the concert album even though it was easily the funniest one i've ever heard)

[Sikotic™]

I don't think R&B ever really did exsist. You got your pop and your soul. I guess some artists you can consider a mix of both and that can be R&B.