Is the balance of R&B Missing, or Simply Replaced?

2.24.20

Image from @YoungMAMusic

Young MA posts a tweet that she is missing the good old R&B hits. I saw this tweet get some interesting pick up, and I think that it does deserve a discussion. When you think about it, where did R&B go? The closest thing that we have to Usher today, is Trey Songz, and he went from the “Say Aah” lady killer, to putting out the most trash choruses on anybody’s track just to stay relevant today. We have Chris Brown, but I don’t know. Those 45 album didn’t exactly hit - yes I said those, there are multiple, did you know that? Point made.

Obviously Young MA isn’t an old head R&B singer asking for this. She is a young, female rapper, asking for the music that brings “balance” into her world. Yeah we can Knuck If You Buck all day, but eventually we’re going to be So Sick, because You’ve Got it Bad, and just want to be with My Boo. [Too much?] My thing is, I do agree with Young MA. I do think that R&B brought a balance to rap music and hip-hop. Not everyone is always partying or getting into trouble. We can chill, relax, love, have feelings (eh, maybe). But, where my opinion comes into play is, I wouldn’t say that R&B and the balance is missing. I think that as hip-hop has been changing so much in recent times, I think that the balance has rather, been replaced.

By zero means has it been replaced in my heart (aka my Apple Music Library) but I’m talking about emo rap music. We have the new era of rap: Lil Baby, Moneybagg Yo, DaBaby, Blac Youngsta, Young Thug etc. And then there are the Emo Rap kids; Lil Uzi Vert, Juice WRLD, XXX Tentacion, Trippie Red, Lil Peep, etc. While the first group of rappers talk about money, sex, drugs, and guns in their music, the second group talks about love, and their feelings. It is more sung vocals than quick bars, and if it is bars, it’s more screaming of emotions. So I would say if you’re listening to DaBaby rapping about putting his fans in comas, then you go ahead and hear Juice WRLD confess his never dying love for a female, this may count as “balance” in the new kids era of hip-hop.

Not my kind of balance, but that is my point of view on where R&B has gone. But while we’re searching to bring back the good times, let’s bring back Hyphy music, too.