Rolling R&B Thread 2017

Ack, so here's what's going on http://headlineplanet.com/home/2017/01/10/bibi-bourellys-ballin-confirmed-iheartradio-verge-program/

Inactive since early in the fall, iHeartRadio’s “On The Verge” program is back.

Monday, iHeart identified Bibi Bourelly’s “Ballin” as its new urban radio pick.

In addition to branding support across the iHeart digital networks, “On The Verge” provides selected artists/songs with guaranteed airplay on the iHeartMedia network of stations. While not enough to automatically take a song to #1, the guaranteed airplay gives selections a legitimate chance to connect with listeners.

“Ballin” was up to #39 on this past week’s Mediabase urban airplay chart.

This is nuts. I understand giving a platform to an undiscovered artist to mix things up, but for nearly two months they've been giving constant, national airplay to a song that, as best I can tell, nobody enjoys. It's like they reactivated the program and forgot about it.

she is very much an industry plant

Yeah, like, every part of that song is so extremely cynical, even with out the irony of all those lines about working-class woes coming from a wealthy songwriter to the stars. And her vocal affect is just agony.

Anyway, turns out she's being hyped through the same machine that made Iggy Azalea happen. https://t.co/yTDkDaFYZn

But her failure to gain any sort of traction, even with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free air time devoted to her, makes it all extra sad and obnoxious. Like, it's been eight weeks, maybe it's time to just move on to another artist or song or something

id like to observe that im actually not mad at the idea of this mechanism, i mean a kehlani record was semi-launched by it too, we all know it's a lot harder for radio to break records the way it once could & im not mad that they have some kind of panic button if it works on occasion

but of course its also just showing that they push some random ass shit

I mean, if they selected a new artist every week or even every other week, it'd be kinda great. A few dozen lesser known artists a year would have some fighting chance at making a name for themselves, and even in a worst case scenario there'd be some gems. Plus it's just always nice hearing new stuff on the radio.

Having the same shitty song force-fed to us for two-plus months though is dreadful, though. Somehow even with all the free airplay, Bourelly's song hasn't even cracked the charts, which tells the whole story. Like, it honestly feels like a clerical error at this point, like corporate decreed this song must be in hourly rotation but forgot to send out the memo saying it was time to move on

she also played on some awards show- i forget which- as an "emerging talent." (maybe it was the BET awards?)

yeah i heard a payola-spin of "ballin'" yesterday (my city's station had been playing it before it had been chosen for it) and ugh the chorus is really awful omg

it's currently at #26 on the r&b/hip-hop airplay chart, so technically it is charting. tho i find it super sad that radio playlists are now so tight that it is extremely hard for a new artist to break through w/o a mechanism like this (especially true at pop and country radio), i'm at least glad that at least some women are getting chosen for it at urban radio, since they've had it rougher than just about anyone.

She's a Marylander and her dad Jean-Paul Bourelly was a guitarist involved with Black Rock Coalition bands, plus she wrote some songs for others first...

After attending Blake High School in Silver Spring, Bourelly moved to Los Angeles to continue pursuing her music career, and the City of Angels delivered on its promise. She penned one of last year’s biggest songs, Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money,” in addition to several cuts on Rihanna’s latest release, “Anti.”

From a freelancer's Washington Post review https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/maryland-native-bibi-bourelly-enchants-at-u-street/2016/09/04/99e8610c-72d3-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html?utm_term=.36f6241a5aad

Just more background, not defending song or the mechanism that is getting it airplay

iheartradio has been doing this for a while...

also that song is good

lol yeah it's really nbd

new chloexhalle mixtape is really nice

https://youtu.be/O8_PGsVfw8E

quite surprised by how good this single from terribly-named new british r&b boy band mic lowry is

https://soundcloud.com/miclowry/whiskey-kisses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72-Un9QXgrA

i've heard this song on the radio late at night a couple times now and it kinda caught me off guard both times. (yes, it interpolates the soul ii soul classic, but that's probably the least interesting thing about it.) embarrassingly i had forgotten who letoya luckett is but in my defense it's been quite a while since she last made any waves.

(there's a music video too but i didn't embed that b/c there's so much dialog in it)

R.L.UM.R. "Frustrated" is excellent…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEAVmj_84K0

whoa, has that guy done anything else? That's really great... savvy mix of modernist stuff and Showtime at the Apollo-wave

there's very little info on him… but I hear that song all the time on the radio…

Great recommendations all around itt. That Letoya Luckett track is lovely and one of the rare times an interpolation like that doesn't pull me out of the song

And man that Chloe x Halle tape is a stunner, maybe the best R&B project I've heart this year, up there with Kelhani. They're Beyonce proteges? Love how fast the whole thing moves; such great movement and concision. Weird comparison, but since most of these songs are under two minutes it kinda plays like the alt-R&B answer to that Mannequin Pussy album from last year, just a splatter of brilliant ideas that never pauses. "Poppy Flower" and "Wonder"... man.

Lex, wasn't able to stream that song b/c SoundCloud wants me to have some sort of premium account (gross) to hear the whole thing. Preview sounded cool tho

that RLUMR single and the Chloe x Halle mixtape are really great! Went back to CxH's EP from last year too and that's terrific too - you can definitely hear a lot of the precision and detail of Bey's s/t in both.

i think i LOVE the khalid album

No word on the new Trey Songz?

http://www.missinfo.tv/index.php/mary-j-blige-love-yourself-feat-kanye-west/

ILM's 2017 Rolling R&B Thread Spotify Playlist

lol i came back to ilm after a week away and saw how many rolling threads were on new answers and actually thought there might be an interesting reason for that! never mind

http://www.billboard.com/charts/r-and-b-albums

Hmmmm, Bruno Mars...

i mean, it is an r&b album

the adult r&b station here has been playing his pop hit "that's what i like" a lot lately and it sounds perfectly appropriate right next to mary j. blige's "thick of it" et al so \_(ツ)_/¯

He is successful across many of the charts, true.

Thanks to Lex for the tip-off on the Jacquees & Dej Loaf mixtape – it's very nice.

i'm really into this JHud song featuring Babyface and Ma$e from an adam sandler movie

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

Fun song!

sounds like sukiyaki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUA-DcW1lFc

mixed with mariah carey's 'honey' lol

ironically 'sukiyaki' was covered by ... a taste of honey

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

This is great. Usually singles that double up R&B singers for added star power don't work at all, but here Jeremih and Chr*s Br*wn get a chance to actually harmonize a bit and they really nail it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=94&v=v4R7Q9SAcvM

embedded a screwy link up there, sorry about that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4R7Q9SAcvM

How did I not know that Jose James released a full-on pop/modern r&b record?

i tried to listen to it but wasnt in the mood atm, any good?

New Lady Donli song is dope imo

https://soundcloud.com/ladydonli/ice-cream-feat-tomi-thomas

Cali Roots Festival livestream---so far so good: https://www.livelist.com/caliroots/

Love this

https://soundcloud.com/oneinthe4rest/jiu-jitsu-feat-chris-brown-1

Pretty close to gorgeous:

https://youtu.be/2jpFSvJ9UEI

Frank Gamble ft. Abra Cadabra, "J'adore"

UM how hasn't anyone mentioned "love galore" by SZA?? it's pure heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHXfCOjb3fk

oh that's really nice

SZA album is up: http://www.factmag.com/2017/06/09/sza-debut-album-ctrl-stream/

i really like this record

I loved "Drew Barrymore" so I'm looking forward to this

"Doves in the Wind" is pretty near a DAMN. outtake if anyone needs suckering in

i love "prom" so much

whole album is solid as hell imo

the solo debut by stokley of mint condition is out today, and this might be my song of the summer

https://open.spotify.com/track/5FqG3x1prGXhGdNL7OQN6D

side effects & lil favorite are my uh favorites

The Pharrell track sounds as if he's trying to do an Andy Partridge (XTC) impression.

i agree that it's a weird fit in the context of the project, but divorced from that context it's cool, if a little long.

side effects & lil favorite are my uh favorites

― J0rdan S., Thursday, November 2, 2017 7:51 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

side effects is so good

love ty but why oh why oh why does he still hang out with wiz khalifa so much

well, Wiz signed him to his label

still though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTTfquV0iE

a bit of a step back for them but it's a charity single (released for world children's day) so i'll let it slide. that mixtape from earlier this year is still very good

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

haven't listened to the full-length but among the small # of youtubes i perused from the lyrica anderson album this is the one i'll prob come back to most. (i also like the instrumental break section in the music video to "don't take it personal" [not a monica or jermaine jackson cover] but it's not present on the album version!)

Enjoying the Neisha EP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PQENPNd7d0

For those compiling your year-end lists, this playlist includes all the available tracks on this thread, organized roughly chronologically in order of mention:

ILM's 2017 Rolling R&B Thread Spotify Playlist

Only just realized that H.E.R. spawned an answer record:

https://soundcloud.com/officialmusichim

Pronoun tour with THEY and Us3 in the offing

quick check suggested charles x has not been mentioned on ILX before and a quick scan of his last album suggests he's pretty great
the video for "Can You Do It" is from last year but is showing as part of an animation festival this month; give it a spin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuRcLv2EzwA

I wish I'd heard "At the Club" last month

so good

I really like the Lyrica Anderson album! It's nice to hear this ~smoky ambience~ Tinashe-style of production with someone with a full and rich voice instead of varying degrees of Aaliyah softness it usually comes with. I didn't realise she had a hand in Elijah Blake's "I Just Wanna..." which is one of my favourite r&b singles this decade.

just came across this album, which is really nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj2mAGm7rz0

^^^ this is so good

nice, like the weird bass synth on that.

Rolling R&B Thread 2018