Celebrated mainly for her longing love songs and hooks, but just as capable of using her silky, sweet, meringue-like voice to deliver agonized cinematic ballads, Ashanti became an almost omnipresent pop-R&B force in 2002. The week of March 30 that year, the singer and songwriter followed the Beatles as only the second artist to simultaneously …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAVxqNjjg9gAshanti became an almost unstoppable pop-R&B powerhouse in 2002. She was primarily known for her longing love songs and melodies, but she was also capable of delivering agonizing cinematic ballads with her silky, sweet, meringue-like voice. The singer-songwriter became just the second artist to have three consecutive charting singles concurrently land in the Top Ten …
Along with fellow founders D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, Maxwell was enormously important in defining and shaping the neo-soul movement that rose to prominence in the latter half of the 1990s. Drawing his greatest inspiration from the concept of the R&B auteur (looking to artists like Prince, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, etc.), Maxwell recorded some of …
Streetwise R&B balladeer Jaheim Hoagland hails from New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he grew up in the 176 Memorial Parkway Homes public housing project. Misfortune hit early: his father died in 1981, when he was only two years old. Coming from a musical family helped him overcome the tragedy and the many pitfalls of his …
Since he first became popular in the early 2000s, T-Pain has demonstrated his singing abilities, and his use of Auto-Tune had a worldwide ripple effect that defined particular genres of music for a whole generation. After releasing his eponymously named debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga (2005), the Floridian quickly raced to the top of the …
One of the most prominent artists in contemporary R&B, Chris Brown is a dynamic vocalist whose longevity is attributable in part to his natural incorporation of hip-hop and his embrace of club sounds spanning from EDM to Afrobeats. Greeted with comparisons to Michael Jackson and Usher, Brown debuted in 2005 as a teen pop-R&B vocalist …
Before she could utilize her talents for her own solo endeavors, R&B singer, vocal arranger, and songwriter Keri Hilson wrote a slew of songs, many of them chart-toppers, for several popular artists in the mid-2000s as part of the five-person production/songwriting team known as the Clutch. The dynamic songwriter was born in Decatur, GA, only …
Miguel has undergone an intriguing career trajectory as a progressive R&B artist who specializes in carnal, swaggering melodies. The Los Angeles native had been flirting with stardom for several years when he broke through as a songwriter with Jaheim’s “Finding My Way Back,” a Grammy-nominated R&B hit that paved the way for a string of …
Miguel is a modern R&B singer who specializes in sensual, swaggering ballads. His career has taken an interesting turn. The native of Los Angeles had been dabbling in the spotlight for a few years before making his breakthrough as a songwriter with Jaheim’s “Finding My Way Back,” an R&B hit that was nominated for a …
An anomaly in the R&B genre, Lyfe Jennings has distinguished himself as a self-produced singer and guitarist who mixes love songs with astute social insights, insight into everyday life and romance, and candid meditations on his own challenges. With albums like Lyfe 268-192 (2004), the gold-certified The Phoenix (2006), and Lyfe Change (2008), Jennings has …
