Essence

How Did Hip-Hop And R&B Become One Genre?

Welcome to The State of R&B, ESSENCE’s look at the past, present and future of rhythm and blues. In this piece, ESSENCE editor Rivéa Ruff reports on the blending of hip-hop and R&B. Since the ...
Los Angeles Times

‘Real R&B’ seemed like a lost art. Fresh voices have changed that — but is it enough?

At this year’s Grammy Awards in February, the narrative was tightly focused on rap’s prominence among nominees in the major categories after historically being overlooked. So when Bruno Mars, one of ...
Billboard

GloRilla Becomes Third Female Rapper to Top Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Chart Six Times

The Memphis maven joins Cardi B and Nicki Minaj as the only female rappers with a half-dozen No. 1s on the radio ranking with her latest, "Typa" By Trevor Anderson For a second consecutive year, ...
Billboard

The Top Producers of the 21st Century on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart

Here's who produced the most No. 1s on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in the first quarter of the century, as part of Billboard's yearlong retrospective. After wrapping the last century on a high note that ...
Rolling Stone

R&B’s Changing Voice: How Hip-Hop Edged Grittier Singers Out of the Mainstream

Tank, a veteran singer with a decade and a half of R&B hits, remembers the moment when rappers took over the airwaves. “Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are the Jesuses of melody rap,” he says. “What they did was ...
techtimes

SoundCloud Rap Producers Guide: Type Beats, Auto-Tune & Viral Track Culture

SoundCloud rap producers play a major role in shaping the modern underground rap scene, creating beats that help unknown artists gain massive attention online. With tools like FL Studio and auto-tune ...