The music industry today is interesting to say the least. One one hand, artists have never been more diverse with the genre-bending hits we’ve heard over the last decade — emcees sing just as frequently as they spit bars, vocalists often choose trap beats over melodic instrumentation, and some of today’s hottest musicians like Post Malone, Trippie Redd and Rico Nasty for example exhibit a style somewhere between rock, rap and heavy metal. With all that said, the love seems to have been lost on popular radio when it comes to good ol’ R&B. Or has it?
Rapper Young M.A brought up a good point recently Twitter that sparked an interesting debate. Check out her tweet below to see what started it all:
“Music don’t feel the same because we barely have R&B,” the Herstory lyricist wrote to her over 300,000 followers, continuing by adding, “R&B brung that balance to music.. now everything is leanin one way smh so it gets played out quick! We need R&B for the balance no kap! [sic].” Many were quick to agree that a sound that was so prominent in the ’90s and early 2000s is deeply missing at the moment, meanwhile others felt the need to call out some of the artists keeping R&B music alive, with names like Jhené Aiko, Summer Walker, Ari Lennox, Brent Faiyaz and newcomer Arin Ray being thrown out as just a few examples. It’s worth noting that a lot of those aforementioned names do their own style of soul music, which at times can sample rap, rock and the occasional EDM vibes as well.
Read some of the most interesting responses to Young M.A’s tweet below, and let us know your thoughts on the state of music today and if R&B is in fact a missing factor:
