I want to point out that the indie rock leaning press (which is most of the music press that isn’t specifically hip hop/R&B media) as well as their (theoretical) readership, including often people on this board (not this thread), only seem to celebrate or even notice R&B artists when they make their music “more pop department friendly”. The more it sounds like generic pop music produced by some Swedish guy, the better. It’s not just the record labels that are to blame. In the 00s, R&B artists had huge albums and hist without having to do that, whereas now the idea of albums like Confessions or The Emancipation of Mini becoming huge mainstream successes that outsell most other albums across all genres feels almost impossible.
That would be cool, honestly. Lately, I've been finding it hard to stay engaged in this place outside of the big releases and the genre threads, so that would be a refreshing feature. edit: Okay I should have caught up before writing this. Checking out those new threads in a bit
I'd have to go over my list again to be sure but After Hours is still probably my favorite album of the year so far period Really liked the Jessie Reyez album but thought the dvsn album was pretty disappointing compared to their first two. Still need to get around to Kehlani and maybe Teyana Taylor
I've been bad at keeping up with new R&B as I keep going back to my faves but I loved that KeiyaA album. Alina Baraz would be up there too. Going to check out Luke James as I loved his stuff yeeeeeears ago but forgot about the album announcement.
listening to Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun on blast this morning. might be my all time favorite r&b album.
Outside of Baduizm, Erykah Badu is a massive blind spot for me. I’m not sure why I haven’t listened to Mama’s Gun considering Dilla and the Soulquarians in generals influence on it.
She's the best- ya gotta check out her whole discography. The two New Amerykah albums are also brilliant. Mama's Gun just hits a personal sweet spot for me.
The latter to me is more rap than R&B. I probably won’t be doing an Aaliyah album because the ones that would make sense aren’t on Spotify etc. Also if you like Aaliyah you should like Full Moon. Janet’s Velvet Rope is on the list. I might do an 80s album at some point but I’m more focused on 90s and 00s R&B.