| Hip-hop soul | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early 1990s, U.S. |
| Derivative forms | Neo soul |
Hip-hop soul is asubgenre ofcontemporary R&B music, most popular during the early and mid 1990s,[1] which fuses R&B orsoul singing withhip-hop musical production.[1] The subgenre had evolved from a previous R&B subgenre,new jack swing,[2] which had incorporated hip-hop influences into R&B music.[2] By contrast, hip-hop soul is, as described inThe Encyclopedia of African American Music, "quite literally soul singing over hip-hop grooves".[1]
The genre was most popular during the mid and late 1990s[1] with artists such asMary J. Blige (known as the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul"),Jodeci,Faith Evans,TLC, andR. Kelly.[2] By the late 1990s, hip-hop soul would lead to the creation ofneo soul,[1][2] which retained the hip-hop and R&B influences while also adding elements of classic 1970ssoul music.[1]
Hip-hop soul evolved directly fromnew jack swing, a form of contemporary R&B popularized by artists and producers such asTeddy Riley and his groupGuy,Keith Sweat, andBobby Brown.[1][3] New jack swing had incorporated elements ofhip-hop music—primarily hip-hop-inspired drum tracks andrapped verses[1]—into contemporary R&B music also heavily inspired by the work ofPrince.[3] Hip-hop soul shifted from new jack swing's reliance on synth-heavy production and took the hip-hop/R&B synthesis further by having R&B singers sing directly over the types of sample-heavybacking tracks typically found in contemporary hip-hop recordings likeboom bap.[1][3]
The creation and evolution of hip-hop soul led to an increasingly symbiotic relationship between its parent genres.[4][5] Hip-hop soul acts presented themselves in styles and personas comparable to those of rappers[3][6]—dressing inhip-hop fashions and adopting a tougher image than the traditional pop-friendly personas of R&B artists[3][6] (the existence and popularity of hip-hop soul also had the opposite effect on mainstream rappers, who took on some of the elements of the R&B artists' personas to become more palatable to mainstream audiences).[5] The subgenre increased the popularity of R&B music among the younger hip-hop audience, leading to better sales and airplay success for hip-hop soul recordings versus previous forms of post-disco R&B, on theBillboard pop music sales charts.[7] It also increased the popularity of hip-hop music and culture with older audiences and corporations looking to marketurban music.[8] However, the creation of hip-hop soul has been argued by music journalists and fans of R&B music to have "killed off" traditional styles of R&B.[5]
The term "hip-hop soul" is attributed to record producer and later rapperSean "Puffy" Combs,[8] who came up with the term during the promotion ofWhat's the 411?, the 1992 debut album ofUptown Records artistMary J. Blige.[8] Blige was promoted by the company as the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul", and her debut album, primarily produced by Combs, was filled with mid-tempo R&B ballads sung over hip-hop beats andsamples.[8] Similarly,Diary of a Mad Band (1993), the second album from another Uptown act,Jodeci, featured the four-man male vocal group moving away from its new jack swing origins into hip-hop soul recordings driven more by hip-hop rhythms than melodies.[3] A large number of male acts, both solo performers and groups, followed or competed with Jodeci, among themR. Kelly,112,Tony! Toni! Toné![7] andBlackstreet, a second group formed by Teddy Riley.[3]
Hip-hop soul artistMontell Jordan was the first R&B singer signed to hip-hop record labelDef Jam Recordings;[6] his 1995 single "This Is How We Do It", built around a sample ofSlick Rick's 1989 hip-hop song "Children's Story",[4] typified the sound of the subgenre. Another key recording is "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By", a 1995 duet betweenWu-Tang rapperMethod Man and Mary J. Blige which interpolated Method Man's rapped verses with Blige singing a cover ofMarvin Gaye andTammi Terrell's "You're All I Need to Get By".[11] "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need to Get By" won the 1996Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.[3]
The female vocal groupTLC, consisting of two singers and a rapper, had their start in new jack swing (dubbed "new jill swing" in their case)[3] with their debut album,Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip (1992). Their second album,CrazySexyCool, to which Puffy Combs was a significant contributor, moved the group into the aesthetic of hip-hop soul.[3][6] Similar female acts of the time includedSWV,Adina Howard,[6]Faith Evans, andTotal, the latter two acts signed to Puffy Combs' own label,Bad Boy Entertainment.[3]
Hip-hop soul as a distinct subgenre experienced a lull in popularity with the spread of hip-hop influences into more standard R&B music by the end of the 1990s[12] and the emergence ofneo soul, an R&B subgenre which blended hip-hop and contemporary R&B with heavier influences from thesoul music of the 1960s and 1970s.[1] In the early 2000s,R. Kelly andJay-Z further popularized the hip-hop soul sound with their chart-topping collaborative albumThe Best of Both Worlds (2002).[13] Examples of neo soul artists includeTony! Toni! Toné!,D'Angelo,Erykah Badu, andLauryn Hill.[3] Several newer artists continued to perform in the hip-hop soul subgenre in its original form from the 2000s forward, among themJohn Legend,Anthony Hamilton, andKeyshia Cole.[1]
Universally known as the 'Queen of Hip Hop Soul' because of her frequent collaborations with rap artists and Hip Hop producers...
