rolling r&b 2019

i still remember hearing "you know i'm no good" for the first time on the radio in 2007, then "need u bad" in 2008, and in both cases momentarily thinking 'lauryn?' before feeling slightly peeved that some label a&r's were probably hoping for precisely that reaction from me. went on to love both songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gbOocVqeXk

dutch singer nicole bus seems to be getting a strong early push at radio with this single despite having zero profile in this country. she was a contestant on the voice holland? the strain/'rasp' is a bit heavy for me and it all just feels very inevitable/history-repeating. if it takes off i'm sure we'll start seeing the mags write about how it actually all started with one lone club dj playing it at random and seeing a fat person cartwheel to it, then passing the intel to their radio friend.

loving the new dawn's single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4AO4oqDol4

Listening to ILX Listen: 2019

Asiahn, "Like You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAcQc8Njvvo

(Interview: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8493594/asiahn-talks-colorism-body-positivity-premieres-like-you-video)

The whole Asiahn album is good. Her lyrics are very direct, she's not messing around...

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nGK57rj0PD7YuJLSQaP5000Jme0Iv6e_Y

"despite having zero profile in this country."

Which country?

sorry. i meant to say 'stateside' somewhere in there

ppl seem to like this ann marie song i have mixed feelings abt it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYY2-hisuXQ

she has other joints though

feels a little like an RnBass throwaway that would have gotten attention mainly on ILX via Lex & tumblr in 2011

lol

pretty solid i think, some lyrics aside

cassie fanclub also may like her voice

before i clicked on that like i was worried it was gonna be like "2002" or something lol

link**

This EP came out in November, but don't think any tracks made it onto the 2018 thread... this one's great!

Ayanis - Awh Yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJUiq8GKyc8

Shay Lia - "Feels"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b93VFUsu4PA

Monica - "Commitment"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB3Z0AjhaJ0

Kehlani (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) - "Nights Like This"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_1swz0QXd8

many months old now, but just starting to get radio spins via iheartradio's payola emerging artist program

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE9qY8VBKJc

i like the laid-back arrangement and idk i guess anything that pushes back on society's imperative for two people in a relationship to go right back to being strangers once that ends will inevitably perk my ears up a little

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLWt-VVH3N8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I99qCuWx1mI

The reason I posted the Kehlani audio rather than the video is b/c it’s one of those videos with a long intro before it gets to the music.

ahhhh sh-... sorry I didn't see you'd already posted, my bad

no worries!

I must have listened to that “Awh Yeh” track like 25 times after discovering it last week... so good

i should probably listen to that dreezy album

it's pretty good

New EP from Summer Walker (Clear, recorded live): https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mTe5_2E-5nzcUqADftVOX7XhWewaKjn5s

Her album was one of my favorites last year!

Bonus -- cool performance on Kimmel last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFjGHlc3ZoQ

Searching the Web for info on Walker — there’s really not a lot out there — I found this from a transcript of a recent Beats 1 interview (apparently her first ever):

I literally just want to make soap, that’s my goal. From herbs and roots. That’s what I always wanted to do but I feel like it takes time because I want to grow the stuff in the garden and that would require me to have a home so I need the finances to get a home to make my garden to make my soap. That’s all I want to do. I gotta get a new car. I want a Mazda because see, the goal here is the garden and the home and going to get a Benz right now would not be very intelligent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEyiJM7FOc

Normani & 6LACK - Waves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-x-eyZf8Ko

Ciara - Greatest Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BjpWJyd_hk

UMI - High School

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJ2szBl7ws

This UMI track from last fall ("Remember Me") is excellent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLcEe3uYlmI

Mahalia - Do Not Disturb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svTIrOcfYEs

this new Kehlani song is lovely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAfxP6BfvNo

I'm well aware this doesn't need the promotion, but it's my favorite song in the world right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_aGvdfLTKY

2018 but w/e

maiday - mandala
https://open.spotify.com/track/5EIB96qoNXb64QKMwARpAc?si=qWtpBBtLRhWQ4ExFon5qKw

another 2018 but w/e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzwKqxGQCuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4976Fgvf5Ps

👌🏽

i'm starting to hear summer walker's "girls need love" (from the kimmel clip upthread) on the radio and it sounds very great there

lol apparently there's a remix with drake now so i'm sure that will continue

i like the grittier timbre yk osiris accesses in his latest single. plus: guitar solo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPiFfJ0UTqE

xp Yeah, the Drake remix just dropped (I’m... not a fan, but really cool for her obv.)

Looks like she also cleaned up her Instagram, deleted a bunch of stuff — making it more “professional”(?)

yeah i'm not feeling drake's contribution to the remix either. the only good thing about it is that it extends the overall runtime compared to the original, which always seems surprisingly short

The disarming brevity of most tracks on Last Day of Summer is a great feature, but it’s true that 2:20 is really brief for a single (it’s actually cool to know that the album version has been getting airplay).

Hot beat on this track.

Lauriana Mae - Something Real

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6z0K5w9mrk

This is jam u may dig if u also "just don't give a f***":

Shamba - IDGAF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4llHGZs1DUE

Hot stuff:

Quin & 6lack - Mushroom Chocolate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimNtiduRqE

Tayla Parx - I Want You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lZ1EVyVLLo

saw her last week opening for anderson .paak! she was really good

Awesome!

this is a jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqRNV21MV14

i'm really excited about tayla

i think she will get her own thread before long

A girl can dream... 😝

(Srsly tho — I’m sure one of us will start a thread when her album drops)

Interesting piece on LVRN (with a particularly interesting bit on Summer Walker):

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8501674/lvrn-atlanta-record-label-look-story

They discovered her by chance, when LVRN’s studio manager, also named Summer Walker, decided to Google herself one day. “She saw there was a girl also named Summer Walker who sings and puts videos on YouTube and Vine and built a relationship with her because they shared the same name,” recalls Baiden. Soon after, they all got a text in their group chat that there was an artist they had to meet.

“(Walker) is one of those people that pisses you off just by how talented they are -- but she’s not a try-hard,” Baiden says. “She might be the first punk-R&B chick. She doesn’t like doing press. When you speak to her, her responses are literally one-word answers. She did her first TV performance in a hoodie. As an R&B chick, you’re supposed to get dolled up, stand there, look pretty and sing. But she gives no fucks.”

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-new-r-and-b-is-here-reflecting-confused-modern-love

Summer Walker is also in this Briana Younger r’n’b overview piece along with Elhae, VanJess, Pink Sweat$, Marco McKinnis, Eric Bellinger and more

ella mai was good tonight

Nice. Missed her DC appearance but wanted to see her

this is dope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdegiQel3yc

i like the beat but not a fan of the song

her uh questionable stagename is unfortunately impossible to ignore in her followup single called (not kidding) "hey lightskin"

Ciara - Thinkin Bout You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVczk4uIPPg

pretty good one

has an effortlessly joyful sound to it

a perusal of the youtube comments suggests this was algorithmically served to a large portion of its viewership

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bs1c-L-CUk

the video actually contains portions of three songs from the artist's album satin psicodelic. i think my favorite is the one that plays in the middle, the v lush-sounding "baby i don't mind"

Ariana Grande and Victoria Monét - Monopoly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0pryRrJvfI

https://devinmorrison.bandcamp.com/album/bussin

Tayla's album is out (paging dyl!): https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mjnyW2rKiZuHiHG1Jbwtss0WBJEnIuImM

the final track, "easy", is great even if it ends too early. still need to spend more time w/ the rest

new elle varner

http://smarturl.it/KindaLoveElleVarner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3aHdZfJckg

v much enjoying the new tink so far

Jessie Reyez & 6LACK - Imported

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOYj7WfJQD8

Ceraadi - Loyal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79t9AQYOE7A

So much great stuff already this year, IMO

"loyal" is so nice -- such a smooth, bright springtime vibe to it

some of jessie reyez's vocal quirks are a little hard for me to stomach but she's pretty all right. she wrote "promises" with calvin harris and sam smith!

Yeah — I agree about the vocal quirks, but that song works well for me... I like its woozy, (purposefully) amateurish/“naive” vibe, if you know what I mean (that sounds like a knock, but it’s not meant to be!)

(“that song” being “Imported”)

almost every fifth harmony solo single is miles better than the band's stuff, and this in particular is very early-200s Mya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmBcEZ-ruAc

Kiana Ledé (whose single "EX" was linked by Dyl upthread) has a good new EP out.

pretty solid collection. i was almost mad at "shawty" finishing so soon!

ever since jeremih's "planes" i'm always nervous when i see j. cole guesting on an r&b singer's track but i'm feeling this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFuZ2avoYmw

never heard of ari lennox before

her album is nice! "whipped cream" has been a favourite of mine since late last year.

Ari Lennox lived in the DC / Maryland area for awhile so she has a big following here. She had a bouncebeat go-go band back her for a song recently

I did listen to a lot of Erykah Badu, don't get me wrong. But I'm also inspired by Missy Elliott, Tweet, SWV, 702, En Vogue, Anita Baker, Oleta Adams, Billy Ocean, D'Angelo, Bilal, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Omarion, Ciara, Ashanti, Petey Pablo, Kanye West, Common, Jazmine Sullivan, Chrisette Michele, and Floetry. I listened to all of them, studied all of them.

Ari Lennox in GQ making sure you know she’s listened to more than Badu

https://www.gq.com/story/ari-lennox-interview

Wow, I like this:

Chloe x Halle - thinkin bout me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgXndUfQ4_E

The new Daniel Caesar album is good.

dang, that dropped quietly!

oh shit this brandy track

the new gallant video is wonderful, song too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OprPmcx0QXQ

oh dang how had i not known about that already

he is pretty frequently great

song is beautifully produced

new janet jackson-saluting cassie single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1OKG_ZJ6P4

also elle varner’s album is finally out!

feel like there's also a subtle nod to "doin it" in the production, or maybe the grace jones song "doin it" was built around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6J4v2XCXU

this song is gross but i like the (initially) spare beat even if it is a bit behind the times

was wondering what polow was up to; dumb song, interesting musical choices

i had basically given up on elle varner ever releasing anything again, so for her new album to not only be out but also...really fantastic is such a pleasant surprise

oh i'm glad to hear it's good! i wasn't too excited about it based on some of the singles she had put out in advance. will check it out.

Ari Lennox in GQ making sure you know she’s listened to more than Badu

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, June 19, 2019 11:45 AM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

i do hear a mixture of influences here, but i checked out the album today and it's still very distracting just how much she sounds like badu. it's funny that she's on dreamville, cause i feel a similar way about jid and kendrick--they have stylistic differences but the vocal similarity exists in a type of uncanny valley for me, where i can hardly notice anything else. my fav track is 'i been,' which uncoincidentally is a track where she switches up her vocal style.

man that polow song sucks. the back half is a complete mess what is he doing.

i dunno; i think you give that to jacquees or lloyd and rewrite the lyrics and you've got something enjoyable. wouldn't argue it's listenable as is.

jacquees doesn't need to do another song like that after already having done "you"

(tbh neither does bando jonez -- his closest thing to a hit so far "sex you" does some of the same things but stays on the right side of the appealingly-sleazy/gross line)

beyond all the mustardwave things the track reminded me of, the song the more chaotic (or messy) back half had me wanting to revisit was zendaya's "replay"

which admittedly is much better executed, altho honestly i'm also pretty ambivalent about "replay" as a song

it sounds like a "cool" jason derulo song

Good call on “Replay”, which I love to bits, without any reservations whatsoever. I also like this!

xp

the best zendaya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ULO5j7MdSU

cute song but her voice is so nondescript

that's my hangup with her too

This is good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYcw4CnvmVA

Catching up on these... OMG, that "Wet" song, no thanxx

This track does something cool toward the end:

Willow Smith - PrettyGirlz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYl4McIVvug

anyone check out the new BJ?

liked the first couple of tracks i heard

the whole Erika de Casier album is really lovely, my favourite is "Space"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVucSOLUIE

'What U Wanna Do?' -> 'Rainy' -> 'Space' is a great run.

Anyway, this album is ideal ILM fodder (and I mean that in a good way).

maybe make a thread for it? i really love it. it's drawing so heavily on 90s r&b but the production feels much more modern with how much space there is and every individual sound is so good

I considered making a thread for it too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1jOvBabKMA

also, zo! put out a new album last week and it's lovely. (it's called fourfront, which is easier to search than his name.) i want to try and catch him at city winery on monday - he's doing a "piano & a microphone" tour with carmen rodgers, whose vocal makes this track extra bubbly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa7iS0261yU

phonte (naturally), stokley, and madison mcferrin are among the other guests

Is this the thread where I can gush about the new Normani single with the rest of the Internet or should I take it to the pop thread

Do it here! I haven't listened to it yet.....

I feel like normani almost deserves a thread of her own at this point

anyway it’s delightful. I’ve sort of thought she would be a star ever since her ad libs of “that’s my girl”, and it’s been pleasing to see her build this oeuvre of confident collaborations over the past year or so before now having this break out moment

i came around on "dancing with a stranger" but honestly didn't really feel any other songs normani was involved in. this song is pretty good and i'll be glad if it finally enables her to properly step out as an artist -- the fact that she had to maneuver her way in thru very strategically selected collaborations honestly struck me as highly unfortunate. as 'confident' as was on those hits they were also ample evidence that her label was, like, the opposite of confident in her potential as a pop solo personality. major props to her if she really gets to go the distance and thank fuck she's proving herself now.

i have to say the excellent video kinda makes the song. i don't think i would find the track nearly as striking without it.

in theory I'm skeptical of the massive pr push behind normani but "waves" is one of my favorite R&B songs of the year and this is also pretty good

I like how unselfconsciously oldschool this is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u8HFDULaq0

my fav track from elle varner's new album, which is indeed good tho not as great as the debut (but tbh what is?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCLsxNiNfZ4

it took a while for me to give the album a shot b/c one of the pre-release singles w/ wale was so dull but fortunately that ended up being among the worst couple of tracks

gave lucky daye's album a spin... strikingly arranged but much of it just drifted from my memory as unassumingly as it came. (perhaps one should 'roll some mo' to appreciate the full impact?)

aside from the radio hit, this track stood out to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCVeK3DyNYM

I really like this (caveat: cover art is Not-quite-SFW):

Justine Skye - Bare With Me (EP)

It remands me of those Amerie EPs that I loved last year.

new Summer Walker jam (video/song NSFW) - album coming in October:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w98GE4kHJzM

Her vocals aren't really my style, but there is good stuff on this album:

Melii - Phases

https://is2-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music113/v4/0b/e3/53/0be3537d-b30f-de3d-41ae-8bbb9a5e5235/00602577602252.rgb.jpg/1200x630bb.jpg

Summer Walker's new album, Over It, dropped today: https://www.okayplayer.com/music/summer-walker-over-it-album.html

(Last Day of Summer has apparently been retconned into a "mixtape" or "project"... Summer is referring to Over It as her "debut album.")

Album is good but on first listen I miss the unique sound of Last Day of Summer

i am waiting for the day Brandy finally drops an album and demolishes the world, till then I've got this one that came out today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qwARoDzAI8
and this one from 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rAdz4m4rsA

only one listen in so far, but i like summer walker's album. tho the sound of her previous album project was striking and beguiling at its best, i think this release's songs are more consistently strong and i don't bemoan her aesthetic progression either. unsurprisingly given her inroads at radio w/ "girls need love" much of it sounds like it *could* work well in that medium but also cut through the noise and stand out with no trouble -- a good sweet spot to occupy.

here's a standout among those tracks that i don't expect to make it to radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebckRRogyx0

tho his contribution on the track doesn't necessarily *detract* exactly, it is a little disappointing to see bryson tiller tacked onto a new version of "playing games", a single that had come out in advance of the album. the song had already been doing just fine breaking on its own -- with radio exposure still very minimal, it's already spent several weeks on the hot 100, so the numbers it was pulling were no slouch. i guess to slightly mask the commercial imperatives tiller's inclusion is answering to, his version has been labeled "extended version" rather than "remix", as the updated "girls need love" was -- but it's an amusing misnomer, as it has the exact same runtime as the original.

re the convo on the Pitchfork thread about Afropop in the US, here are some recent examples of the impact “Fall”s relative chart success is having on US R&B (and on Davido and producer Kiddominant’s US careers):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb05OXz7-Ko
Chris Brown ft. Davido (and produced by Kiddominant) • Lower Body
(significantly, the opening track of his new, long-ass album)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGSd8T9YdHc
Fabolous ft. Jeremih & Davido • Choosy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrL2McJ_bA
Bas ft. Ari Lennox & Kiddominant • Amnesia

and Afro B, who’s currently enjoying a “Fall”-size US R&B hit with “Drogba (Joanna)” has a new single out with Slim Jxmmi, “Fine Wine & Hennesy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anaOjLzmhPA

This track by London resident Arlo Parks is definitely a finalist for my song of the year. I love the minimalist instrumentation, the Chris Squire-meets-Bernie Edwards bassline, the gorgeous harmonies in the pre-chorus, and lyrics that reference Gerard Way (!) and a "Party/Bacardi" rhyme (for which I'll always have time). If you like this, check out her tracks "George" and "Super Sad Generation", which are also freakin' rad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYRGfdq0so4

i like to imagine rtc somewhere in the uk throwing up every time this comes on the radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_DDqg1A8lw

Victoria Monét - Ass Like That

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMGkrWD5fNg

Mahalia - What You Did (feat. Ella Mai)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azA0RJMUK0E

i was very ready to like that but something about so prominently sampling an already heavily sample-based production can strike me as odd enough to derail my enjoyment of the whole track. idk, i guess i liked "fergalicious" but it may have helped that at the time i was too young/ignorant to know of its precursors

Are you saying it samples an intermediary track that sampled “I’m Going Down” (and not just the original song)?

that's what i thought, but apparently not. i'm looking at its credits via tidal now, and norman whitfield (composer of "i'm going down") is naturally listed as a composer. not listed however are the writers of the track i assumed it was actually sampling, "oh boy" by cam'ron (those writers are cam'ron, juelz santana, and the producer just blaze).

i would maintain, tho, that the way certain vocals are sampled/looped and beats are constructed is so similar in parts to "oh boy" that i'm almost certain that evoking an association to the latter track was intended

I agree that Cam’ron’s deployment of the sample is pretty iconic

I was gonna go to this show; “life got in the way,” and now I regret that: https://variety.com/2019/music/news/summer-walker-jhene-aiko-usher-los-angeles-novo-1203399722/

this is cool

https://shafiqhusayn.bandcamp.com/album/the-loop

'The Loop' is the new LP by Los Angeles based polymath Shafiq Husayn, an epic project which saw its inception in 2012 through a series of studio sessions at Shafiq’s home, including collaborations with the likes of Thundercat, Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Bilal and Anderson Paak. Amongst a close knit circle of friends and family the golden tones of The Loop were created, deeply rooted in ideas of song, story, history, guidance and spirituality. The album bumps, jumps and jangles through progressions in jazz, hip hop, soul and funk, following on from his debut album ‘Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka’ and adding further to his rich history of timeless, unique music. On The Loop past, present and future are brought together through a psychedelic concoction of time traveling drum machines, celestial string sections and trails of synthesizer vapour. Inflections of Sly Stone, Pharaoh Sanders and Earth Wind And Fire traverse with Marley Marl and Dilla-esqe drums making for an organic yet LA-trifying experience.

Shafiq has brought together an impressive array of LA's musical royalty, enlisting the likes of Thundercat, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Kamasi Washington, Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave, Eric Rico, Coultrain, Computer Jay, Jimetta Rose, Om'Mas Keith, Kelsey Gonzalez, I-Ced and more to provide the backbone to his recording sessions. Drawing in features from an international cast of performers and artists like Erykah Badu, Robert Glasper, Hiatus Kaiyote, Fatima and Karen Be amongst others.

I knew I shouldn't have clicked on "Lizzo" trending on Twitter only to read about the Ari Lennox thing.

Just got into “Ass Like That”, the Victoria Monét song posted upthread, thanks to SaidTheGramophone’s Songs of 2019 list. The beat and the horns in particular are wonderful.

Any final additions, to close out 2019? I feel like it was a good year for R&B.

how is sir's album (from top dawg entertainment)? i've been hearing his single w/ kendrick "hair down" on the radio and it's a welcome addition for me

a few others to have crossed my radar recently that i think are p solid:

teyana taylor & kehlani "morning"
h.e.r. feat. yg "slide"
r.lum.r "how this feels"

new-ish brian mcknight song is nice

teyana taylor & kehlani "morning"

This song is good but... those lyrics!

a couple eyebrow-raising lines for sure lol

h.e.r. feat. yg "slide"

Wow, this is some track (and video)... thanx for sharing. (I don’t like the rap too much, but the song’s strong enough to survive it.)

not a problem, glad you appreciate it. not my fav verse, guest or otherwise, from yg, but i'm glad it's there if only for the "i ain't gotta know astrology..." line lol

h.e.r.'s been hard to get a strong sense of. some of her music is remarkably good, pushes just enough against current fashion to thrill, and then some of it sounds so flat, as if calculated to go down easy with the grammy voters that seem to love her so much

Yeah, this is the first song of hers that I’ve really gone in for... She’s obviously v talented, but usually not quite my style?

Just got into “Ass Like That”, the Victoria Monét song posted upthread, thanks to SaidTheGramophone’s Songs of 2019🕸 list. The beat and the horns in particular are wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNGpTJGmuvs

this may be the best of the admittedly few ro james songs i've heard (no slouch tho considering the company)