Male R&B is an endangered species on the brink of extinction. In the mainstream

[CrimsonTider]

Are we basing off what people we know are listening to or audiences in general?

And in any event I’m not arguing that those male artists are mainstream (though Paak may be now with the Bruno stimulus), I’m saying that some of those women aren’t either.

I love Ari’s music but her shyt doesn’t sell like that. Her album’s been out for over 2.5 years and still hasn’t gone gold, she’s never even had a song crack the Hot 100, never got a Grammy nom, never headlined one of those huge festivals. Unless the standard for mainstream is being posted on The Shade Room and performing at the BET Awards, I don’t see how she gets that label.

Jasmine Sullivan has basically been the face of the “Supremely talented but overlooked Black female singer” category her whole career. Snoh Aalegra & Kiana Lede’s music isn’t moving the needle like that either.

I would say that SZA, Summer, HER & Jhene are mainstream. Jury is still out on Ella Mai, I think she might be a one album wonder like Tiller.

This doesn’t disprove my point. You wanna argue with the women I listed, fine

this thread is about male R&B being absent from the culture

 

[CrimsonTider]

True but you know what else happened?

Any and everybody who wanted to sing, was given the opportunity to sing without even having much or any talent at all.

See, in the 90's and even early 2000's, you had brothers who could sing and write too, they still might not even be popular or be a star because there was a lot more competition and the bar was set high.

What's deemed great songwriting and producing today, is not what was deemed great songwriting and producing in the 90's and even some of the early 2000's.

This shyt today is so lackluster simple, it comes off like a damn comedy sketch. The shyt just seems like a parody of R&B now.

this thread isn’t about what you consider good R&B

this thread is how rap fans and music killed male R&B

 

[Striving For Greatness]

 

[beejus]

Mainstream male R&B might be dead, but I feel like there is a bunch of really good male artist who are not well known making great music.

Gallant
Sir
Leon Bridges
Xavier Omar
Lucky Daye
Berhana
Ro James
DVSN
Majid Jordan
Odie

 

[SchoolboyC]

This doesn’t disprove my point. You wanna argue with the women I listed, fine

this thread is about male R&B being absent from the culture

I just don’t get how you can say some of those women are mainstream but not the men, it doesn’t add up. That’s all. We don’t have to go back and forth over it.

IMO, mainstream male R&B was killed by hip-hop. As years went on the line became more and more blurred to the point where now a lot of the guys that are presented as R&B acts are pseudo-rappers. That and also people don’t want to hear the subject matter that made R&B a staple in the first place.

 

[CrimsonTider]

I just don’t get how you can say some of those women are mainstream but not the men, it doesn’t add up. That’s all. We don’t have to go back and forth over it.

IMO, mainstream male R&B was killed by hip-hop. As years went on the line became more and more blurred to the point where now a lot of the guys that are presented as R&B acts are pseudo-rappers. That and also people don’t want to hear the subject matter that made R&B a staple in the first place.

That’s why I said its more on the fans if anything. We prefer rap

but female R&B is still able to find a place, male R&B can’t

 

[CrushedGroove]

Masego
Paak
SiR
Giveon
Daniel Caesar

The only cats I would consider mainstream right now. I hate the rap type singers. Really killed real R&B but I'm hoping it can find its way out the ashes.

There are more white traditional R&B acts out now than black ones and that's a damn shame. Turning into Rock, Jazz, and Blues. Once they get ahold of it, the soul is gone.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Masego
Paak
SiR
Giveon
Daniel Caesar

The only cats I would consider mainstream right now. I hate the rap type singers. Really killed real R&B but I'm hoping it can find its way out the ashes.

There are more white traditional R&B acts out now than black ones and that's a damn shame. Turning into Rock, Jazz, and Blues. Once they get ahold of it, the soul is gone.

Only Giveon is mainstream

 

[banner34]

Chris brown still runs the genre.

 

[SchoolboyC]

That’s why I said its more on the fans if anything. We prefer rap

but female R&B is still able to find a place, male R&B can’t

My opinion, and I don’t have any statistics or anything to back it up, is that women and to a lesser extent gay men are the biggest consumers of R&B in this day and age and they resonate more with the women.

A lot of nikkas don’t want to hear anything other than rap

 

[tremonthustler1]

True but you know what else happened?

Any and everybody who wanted to sing, was given the opportunity to sing without even having much or any talent at all.

See, in the 90's and even early 2000's, you had brothers who could sing and write too, they still might not even be popular or be a star because there was a lot more competition and the bar was set high.

What's deemed great songwriting and producing today, is not what was deemed great songwriting and producing in the 90's and even some of the early 2000's.

This shyt today is so lackluster simple, it comes off like a damn comedy sketch. The shyt just seems like a parody of R&B now.

It's the Max B effect. He can't sing but that was the appeal of his hooks. He sounded like any dude on the block tryna harmonize. That led to dudes like Future who made a living off doing this and so on





Hip-Hop/R&B fans decided we'd rather hear Future TRY to sing this than a real singer actually sing it. In turn, dudes like Trey Songz started putting out rap mixtapes (and in his case, they were GOOD)

 

[CrimsonTider]

My opinion, and I don’t have any statistics or anything to back it up, is that women and to a lesser extent gay men are the biggest consumers of R&B in this day and age and they resonate more with the women.

A lot of nikkas don’t want to hear anything other than rap

it’s a generational thing too. Artist like SIR and Paak have a lot fans from the older millennial/ early gen x black folk like the majority of this site

but they’re aren’t at the age when there fandom can turn someone into a star

younger millennial ands gen z never ever listen to male R&B

 

[Yehuda]

I stopped fukking with it when they adopted a rapper aesthetic and starting having rap verses on every damn song.

 

[tremonthustler1]

Male R&B standards are also way higher. musiq soulchild can't sing passionately about fukking a girl on her period with his thumb in her ass. Lil Durk on the other hand... The closest thing we had to that was The-Dream. Also, male R&B singers have a negative stigma of being simps, something rappers can get away with by rapping about other hardcore shyt. Brian McKnight can't talk about heartbreak and then also talk about being on the block with the homies shooting at the opps. Rappers can.

 

[SchoolboyC]

Male R&B standards are also way higher. musiq soulchild can't sing passionately about fukking a girl on her period with his thumb in her ass. Lil Durk on the other hand... The closest thing we had to that was The-Dream. Also, male R&B singers have a negative stigma of being simps, something rappers can get away with by rapping about other hardcore shyt. Brian McKnight can't talk about heartbreak and then also talk about being on the block with the homies shooting at the opps. Rappers can.

That’s why I think if he got the push, Brent Faiyaz would be the one to blow cause his lyrical content leans most to the “toxic” shyt people eat up.