NPR said there hasn’t been a male R&B superstar since Usher. Is this true?

[DapMeUp!]

Chris hasn't been an actual Rnb act since his first album.
Sure he makes RnB songs still but his bread and butter has been Pop/Rap shyt for well over a decade now.

Weeknd is a pop act.
Trilogy was alternative RnB.

Ne-Yo is the acceptable answer but I can accept Chris I guess as he did actually make his name doing RnB at the start.

 

[maxamusa]

Breezy for sure
Weeknd for sure
Neyo had for a few years
Miguel for a couple years
T-Pain?

I was listening to Kalidoscope dreams this morning.......one of my favorite albums of all time.....but he's no superstar. He has a lot of success tho

Weekend's Super Bowl performance was far from impressive. the response was not great in general.

 

[maxamusa]

I'm not understanding all these double stands for breezy.....even though he was on some Mickey Mouse shyt when dropped those early albums were R&B and the singles were R&B.......and they were really good and had commercial success.

I still bang this shyt all the time......memories man

 

[Kliq_Souf]

I was listening to Kalidoscope dreams this morning.......one of my favorite albums of all time.....but he's no superstar. He has a lot of success tho

Weekend's Super Bowl performance was far from impressive. the response was not great in general.

He was superstar status for a year or 2.
Adorn was huge, Sure Thing was huge.
He was probably the hottest RnB dude at that time

 

[Eternally Jaded]

Its mid r&b compared to the r&b from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He doesnt have the singing voice to be a true r&b superstar. All the dancing and other stuff could have made him a pop superstar.

This is where his fans lose me.

Breh hasn't been able to hit those No Air notes in YEARS.

How is he gonna try to claim the MJ/ R&B throne without any kinda pipes?

Yeah he can dance but tbh, so could Britney Spears at one point.

He's not Him. And that's ok.

 

[JealousOnesEn_V]

This is completely unrelated to the thread but Cardi B has 3 Diamond albums

She only has one album, how does she have 3 diamond albums

 

[maxamusa]

He was superstar status for a year or 2.
Adorn was huge, Sure Thing was huge.
He was probably the hottest RnB dude at that time

I think there's levels 2 it.....if you showed your mom a picture of Miguel would she know who he is? No disrespect.

Has Miguel done a Super Bowl?

And like I said he has one of my all time favorite albums.....just being real.

 

[maxamusa]

This is where his fans lose me.

Breh hasn't been able to hit those No Air notes in YEARS.

How is he gonna try to claim the MJ/ R&B throne without any kinda pipes?

Yeah he can dance but tbh, so could Britney Spears at one point.

He's not Him. And that's ok.

you have to give Credit where its do. Otherwise it take away the authenticity of the thread.

Chris Brown can sing. Yea man there is levels 2 it and preferences but he can sing IDC what you say.

Thats why most of the conversations about hip-hop are trash.

Everyone just wants to campaign their personal favorite artist as the GOAT and shyt on everyone else. The convos go nowhere lol

theres a thread in the booth right now of people seriously comparing ice spice to notorious BIG. some people are trolling but others are being for real

 

[maxamusa]

The hate for bruno mars is a double standard 2. Silk sonic and his last albums have been as R&B as you can get.


Bruno has the opposite career as usher.

Usher was R&B forever and then tried to ride waves the last couple years and abandoned traditional R&B. so the rules only apply for when you changed up in your career; how is that fair

 

[maxamusa]

She only has one album, how does she have 3 diamond albums

Her team needs to write a book.....that should we be like Coach K's book for industry people

 

[maxamusa]

I feel like mainstream R&B died in the mid 00s. In a very short period of time we were drowned in quality R&B that also sold

Jaheim Still Ghetto 2002
Raphael sadiiq solo debut 2002
Anthony Hamilton debut (mainstream) 2003
John legend debut album 2004
Trey Songz debut album 2005
Neyo debut album 2006

That’s the last time you had consistent artists, and quality matched popularity. For the most part now you likely will only have 1 of the 2.

Neyo went pop. John legend went lounge act. Anthony Hamilton and Jaheim fell victim to gentrification they didn’t look the part. It’s a shame bc while I love Confessions, a few of those albums are better

Jaheim a legend.....man I really thought Lyfe was gonna do things and fill his shoes.....his debut album is a personal classic.....WTF happened to LYFE he just disappeared

 

[F*ckthemkids]

For the 2nd time...

He got married in 07/08

There was no “blacklash”for him marrying Tameka.

 

[kwazzy100]

Usher is predominately r&b with a few pop hits. Weeknd wasn't strictly r&b. His music was alternative like Frank Ocean. He went pop after his mixtapes and don't even like his old music labeled as r&b anymore.

Not a few. He had tons of pop hits, especially after Confessions dropped.
But yeah, Weeknd is R&B regardless.

 

[King Poetic]

I have to agree

People keep blaming Chris Brown and the rihanna shyt

But dude music hasn’t evolved outside the hood.. it’s the same old shyt the last 8 years with no growth to reach a larger audience

Now granted Usher music for awhile been stale, but he still has that skill to reach larger white audiences

 

[Cakebatter]

Let me fix the #s real quick

Edit:
Usher has sold over 150 million total records sold worldwide.

Brown has sold over 217 million records worldwide

I see where you got those numbers and they aren't easily verifiable. They don't match straight album sales so they must represent album and single sales. So taking those numbers at face value, it just represents the fact that Chris Brown pumps out more music than Usher. Breezy has 11 albums and 9 mixtapes. Usher has 10 albums and no mixtapes. Samuel L Jackson has sold more movie tickets than Tom Cruise, because Sam simply starred in more movies. Yet, Tom Cruise is still the bigger movie star.