rolling r&b 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

'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)