Rolling R&B Thread 2012

yeah 'bang' is definitely one of my favorite tracks

when i interviewed him he was very mysterious about who exactly salo was

I really like Physical Therapy's remix of "Lay It Down" http://soundcloud.com/physical-therapy/lay-it-down-physical-therapy

pretty sure Salo was someone's brain-damaged grandmother who had spent a year with nothing but a Minaj mixtape from which to relearn the English language

So... Iggy Azalea?

ha

[...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ca6huu_aaA

interested in what some of y'all think of this

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/14386-house-of-spirits/

i really really really liked 'naked' from that lloyd album and i was surprised no one ever talked about it. v nice vintage polow

we talked a lot about it iirc, i think lloyd had his own thread

Naked is a total jam.

new ne-yo album has a tim mcgraw feature on it

also first track is indeed called "cracks in mr. perfect"

Is that Merrill Garbus on the Janet cover?

also first track is indeed called "cracks in mr. perfect"

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Friday, October 5, 2012 2:53 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha you know that this was the original announced album title, right? it's actually kind of reassuring that there's a song behind that title, just it by itself was so smh

um... some dude... wtf is going on with the R&B chart? why is Rihanna's "Diamonds" suddenly #1?

ha i was just about to come to this thread to gripe about that

basically the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart has tradtionally been mostly airplay + physical single sales, so if a nominal R&B song (by, say, Rihanna) did well on iTunes and pop radio but not actual R&B stations, it wouldn't make much of an impact on the R&B chart. but as of this week, iTunes is a factor on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop like it has been on the Hot 100 for years, so now suddenly "Diamonds" is #1, and there's now a R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart which is basically what the main chart used to be, and on that "Adorn" is #1 and "Diamonds is #61.

this is massively fuck up whatever confidence R&B stations and labels had left to not cater to pop crossover imo. horrible move by Billboard.

And now Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs is 50 deep instead of 100.

25-deep R&B Songs chart now, too.

R&B Songs and Rap Songs will serve as 25-position distillations of the overall Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, highlighting the differences between pure R&B and rap titles in the overall, wide-ranging R&B/hip-hop field.

Eleven of the 25 songs on R&B Songs feature rappers, so "pure R&B" must mean songs with an R&B artist as only or lead voice.

Make that 10, not 11.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

excuse me while I find a corner to curl up into the fetal position and cry in

rev's "Itunes destroyed Black American pop music" rant on twitter a few months ago was so righteous that i saved it in a doc, tempted to just post it right now

post it! i missed it!

i'd have to clean it up and re-order it for it to make sense, but here's the short version he put on tumblr: http://reverenddollars.tumblr.com/post/24446685357/positing-not-claiming

ha i saw that, think i favourited it somewhere

I've gone on at least a couple such extended twitter rants. Been meaning to start a thread on the subject here and I think I will now. Please post whatever you saved.

oh wow, part of my gripe about this was going to be that the Country charts didn't get the same treatment but they did -- Taylor Swift leaps from #21 to #1 on the revamped download-heavy Country chart. fucking Billboard, putting nails in the coffin of terrestrial radio formats' ability to make hits.

would quite like to hear about the role itunes is playing in this - that's not in the tumblr & i don't really know

Wonder if (the very good, all-R&B) Two Eleven has a shot at the Top Ten of the Billboard 200. "Put It Down": 70-76-72 last three weeks on Hot 100 and 16-5-3 last three weeks on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop. Doesn't really bode well.

2 columns that chris molanphy and i wrote about r&b's hot 100 decline that get into how itunes changed things:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2011/05/chris_brown_look_at_me_now_hot_100.php

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/07/sales_slump_usher_chris_brown.php

i read both of those at the time - they were great and i think i may have linked one in my independent r&b piece - but what is it about itunes that means it's an inefficient driver of r&b? it's so geared towards casual/spontaneous consumption that it inherently privileges pop?

whereas radio-driven r&b is dependent on gatekeepers to an extent?

those might be factors but the more simple truth is just that demographically speaking the songs and artists that get chart boosts from iTunes sales, particularly single sales, strongly skew pop and not urban

Itunes, Billboard, and the marginalization of black music and black audiences in America

what's the word on the new brandy album

I like it. It feels too long and a bit old fashioned but it's mostly good stuff. The Mike Will one is probably my favorite. I'll need to digest it some more though. Just listened to it today.

yeah i heard a few cuts on the radio last night and only the mike will one stood out

I'm halfway through it and it sounds really nice on first listen. "So Sick" sounded like vintage Terius/Tricky to me; I never would have thought that was a Bangladesh track

Washington Post freelancer says in part:

Although commercial R&B is deep in the throes of a love affair with dance-pop, Brandy returns to the sort of sweet, earnest R&B she put out when she was barely a teenager. There are a few tracks that work as up-tempo radio singles, including the fizzy, burbling Chris Brown collaboration “Put It Down,” and the Bangladesh-produced “Let Me Go,” which samples Swedish singer Lykke Li, but most of the album is a showcase for Brandy’s powerful, gusty voice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/brandy-two-eleven-album-review/2012/10/15/d2736414-159d-11e2-bf18-a8a596df4bee_story.html

"put it down" is pretty eh but i will always give brandy a shot

Brandy's voice is remarkable, but that Lykke Li song is aural vomit

i've liked "put it down" in the right context. kingdom's no breezy edit was nice and it sounded awesome when brenmar dropped it for a bit in a set i saw.

brenmar is probably the one usa dj of that ilk i'll give daps to

yeah i had an utter blast when i saw him last month

xp my eyes just rolled so hard i had to go across the street to collect them

brandy album was alright on one listen, but it didn't draw me in as much as human or afrodisiac

vocally she's sounding really fantastic these days though

it's also another weird one where your attention perks up when the bonus tracks arrive

xp my eyes just rolled so hard i had to go across the street to collect them

― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, October 16, 2012 5:38 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

which djs do u like?

i've never been able to get into brandy albums. her voice is def v goo/singular but idk it doesn't grab me.

http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/ell_wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Norwood_Junction_stn_signage_2010.jpg