rolling r&b 2020

*Lauryn

This track is 3:38, but somehow feels longer / more epic:

Ella Mai - Not Another Love Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30WQefSF3Ks

You know what, this sounds really good. I thought at first it might be more the performance and atmosphere, but actually I also really like the beat / sample.

i've been enjoying this recent single from sevyn streeter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F7z7gkuRsg

Nice little jam, and I approve of the message:

Jhené Aiko - Vote (as featured on ABC’s black-ish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRrE1d7M3tI

this is very nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoM5hxFn5p4

Riley • BGE

I like this -- the sample is arresting (anyone know what it is?):

Raiche - Pick a Side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDQ0FfXmx2M

The production is really accomplished on this track; the fuzzy, repeating gtr line contrasted with the crisp percussion & vocal elements in the foreground:

Journee - Like That

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O3LyLxVhkc

Tayla Parx just released a new EP with three covers (Marvin Gaye, Lauren Hill, Kirk Franklin).

― I Hate the Aedes (morrisp), zaterdag 3 oktober 2020 1:16

loving this. the production is very light, giving these tracks an almost a capella feel, and she's got such a beautiful voice.

this is her doing Kirk Franklin's "I Smile": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEyyZL8y8WM

(also love that Tayla, who's from Texas, called this EP A Blue State)

Just learned that Victoria Monét co-wrote "Do It," the Chloe x Halle single (and standout track)... that's awesome.

the chloe x halle single seems like an instant classic, the sort of thing that might've led off a "summer jams" thread in precedented times gone by!

(a victoria monét co-write btw)

― monotony, maandag 18 mei 2020 2:46

whoops! -- apologies to monotony. guess I knew it and forgot! ;)

I dig this recent Mya single:

Mýa - I Deserve It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9A9XZGnv_A

Great new one from DaniLeigh:

DaniLeigh - Monique

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

So this is apparently a love song to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson... (arguable) cheesiness of its provenance aside, I think it's lovely:

Lauren Hashian - Step Into a Love Like This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkqSAzLgvs0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU7hz2j3Qs4

i've come back to teyana taylor's "concrete" several times now, but i still can't get fully into it. at times it sounds terrific ("i thought you grew up christian / let's talk about forgiveness") and at others the magic dissipates almost entirely :\

Dang, that YouTube thumbnail!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGfe2yhu0e0

i know k camp is technically a rapper but this is still the correct thread to post this in. i like the whole song but the extended talk box outro in particular is excellent!

cool vibe on this one by Van and Jess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC8w5TzC8LA

Has anyone listened to the new Omarion album? It's being overshadowed by Ariana, Busta, and Oneohtrix, but I think it's solid so far.

Ayanis also just released a long EP that I’m looking forward to checking out.

haven't heard the omarion album in full but enjoy "involved" and "do you well" from it. the latter will fit perfectly next to chloe x halle "do it" on my 2020 playlist but i think i like the former even more

I missed this slinky jam when it was released (a few months back):

Bellah - Something U Like

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

This Omarion IS very good.

Standout track:

Rose Gold - Soon as You Get Home

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

Cool song from an artist with an interesting background:

Aleesha - No Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGow393o1GU

DaniLeigh has now released an entire new album (Spotify; YT Music)... as far as I can tell over kids screaming in the background, it's good!

does anyone in here remember an R&B song called like ... 'padded room' or 'padded walls' or something along those lines, by an R&B singer from about 10 (give or take three) years ago?

Female R&B singer, very bold voice, never quite crossed over, maybe a songwriter for others but i can't recall

concept of the song was that she and her partner were so loud they needed padded walls etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD8w4TaQmII

thats it!!

more literal than i rememebred

two of my favorite men in r&b right now - they sound great together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i6A1IHAQsg
Masego ft. Don Toliver • Mystery Lady

Masego has a new EP, Studying Abroad, out as well - it’s good! (how) can it be that this guy has never even been mentioned on ILM?

his voice reminds me of Raphael Saadiq and he is a bit of a classicist too, but he’s also got plenty of fresh African and Caribbean touches in his sound palette.

I also liked “Veg Out (Wasting Thyme)” from earlier this year and last year’s “Queen Tings” (which has a good remix with Nigerian alté artist Cruel Santino, who was still called Santi then).

lol Nabozo just made the actual first Masego post an hour ago on the Rolling Dancehall thread, he also has a song with Shenseea on his EP.

damn that song is great

masego's "tadow" is a favorite of the youtube algorithm. it's up to 248 million views lol.

it has also been streamed 186 million times on Spotify alone, which suggests it was a massive hit, when in fact it never charted at all afaict.

i am glad to have heard of "mystery lady" and masego now, whatever thread they should be posted in. lots of interesting, sometimes disarmingly frank lyrical turns in there that reward repeated listening.

toliver does sound good on it too. i was definitely late to engage with his music, i guess b/c i initially judged him to be a bit too travis scott-adjacent for my tastes. (not that i dislike travis scott, but, idk, not my main thing.) having caught up a little, his album is definitely impressive and "after party" is easily among the most striking singles i heard on the radio this year. he sings the hook on a pretty big current radio hit too ("lemonade") that's less interesting than much of his own music but also far from the worst thing on the airwaves right now. hoping there will continue to be more, bigger/better things to come for him

don's project from ... 2? years ago is really great. we talked about it on the rolling rap thread that year

donny womack, still prob my favorite project of his, and i liked heaven or hell. it dropped the same week as astroworld, iirc

whatever thread they should be posted in

sorry not sorry for blurring the boundaries between rap and r&b**, again - Don Toliver came up in this thread earlier this year, some discussion ensued. as for Masego, he’s very much an allround music guy from what I’ve heard of him, much more at home on an r&b than a rap thread imo.

**obviously I didn’t start that particular fire, singers rap and sing rappily, rappers sing and rap sing-songily, it’s been going on for a while. what are the criteria? should Ne-Yo’s “Pinky Ring” (to name a song that was around during the previous Toliver tussle) go on the rap thread?

no objections on my end! sorry if i inadvertently implied otherwise. the boundaries are blurry, the categorizations imprecise to begin with, and i don't mind that

"mystery lady" is great, love the syncopation

i thought "mystery lady" was my intro to masego but apparently it was actually this, which has been sitting in one of my playlists for a little while

he’s also featured on Kehlani’s “Hate The Club” (which he co-wrote) off her current album - not as a vocalist tho, he does the saxophone in it.

This was my intro to masego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhufJDhL9xw

This sounds just like all the other sh!t in this thread that I love (lol)... nice slow jam

Teenear - Special Attention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ovM_5lLOI

Tayla Parx has a new full-length album out, btw... (I haven’t listened to it yet)

I’m pleased that Summer Walker’s Over It won Album of the Year at the Soul Train Awards.

released in October last year, no less.

...but speaking of Summer Walker, can't say I *loved* this year's Life On Earth EP, but I'm still totally smitten with "White Tee" with NO1-NOAH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgJhcGl_h7Y