There are few things better in life than some dope rhymes accompanied with a soulful vocal performance on a song. Whether it be an uptempo cut or a selection low on BPM's, sprinkling a little melody ...

Tank, a veteran singer with a decade and a half of R&B hits, remembers the moment when rappers took over the airwaves. “Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are the Jesuses of melody rap,” he says. “What they did was ...

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. Ari Lennox’s latest album is her first since she departed Dreamville Records last year. 4 ...

Welcome to The State of R&B, ESSENCE’s look at the past, present and future of rhythm and blues. In this piece, ESSENCE editor Rivéa Ruff reports on the blending of hip-hop and R&B. Since the ...

Host Erykah Badu attends the 2016 Soul Train Music Awards at the Orleans Arena on November 6, 2016 in Las Vegas. The combination of rhythm and blues spurred the development of the culture and genre ...

Every so often, music industry executives, artists and fans will say, "R&B is dead" and then questions start to emerge, comparing today's R&B to its counterpart in the past. Where are the love ballads ...

It is one of the greatest moments in modern soul history: The first few seconds when Aaliyah Haughton, then only a 15-year-old newcomer, opens her cover of the Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best (You Are ...