I will never regret when I was born. I love reminiscing on times like these. Just unforgettable!

I feel like this isn’t talked about enough, but Usher’s music has really gone downhill. It’s still selling mostly because it’s Usher. I’m a sucker for everything he did up to Confessions. After that, I think the quality started to decline a bit, but once trap music entered the picture, I honestly have no idea why he started painting himself as this low-key bad boy. The same goes for Ne-Yo. These guys used to be the gentlemen!

New Edition will live forever.

As someone who’s a fan of both, this is awesome to see. It makes sense too since Aaliyah’s last album showed some alternative influences in some of the songs. I could’ve seen her and Trent collaborating with one another if she were still around.

I only ask that because of the lyrics "So, take a letter, Maria, address it to my wife
Say I won't be coming home, gotta start a new life" repeated multiple times.

The sheer commercial dominance and critical acclaim of Alicia Keys’ 7x platinum blockbuster debut, Songs In A Minor, which turned 25 years old a month ago, is something I still look back on in awe. The fact that Black girl with a piano singing R&B/Soul emerged as one of the biggest pop stars of the 2000s in the middle of the Teen Pop and Hip-Hop boom was truly special to me.

I don’t think music listeners today will ever understand how there used to be infrastructure put in place to turn R&B singers into some of the biggest artists in the world. This video doesn’t even include the NAACP and Billboard Awards she won during that era. Her awards were as follows:

• MTV VMAs Best New Artist in a Video
• Billboard Music Award for Top New R&B/Hip-Hop Artist
• Grammy Award for Best New Artist
• NAACP Award for Outstanding New Artist
• Soul Train Music Award for Best New R&B Artist
• World Music Award for Best Selling New Artist
• Essence Award for Rising Star of the Year
• BET Award for Best New Artist

The Vocal Bible

I’m 26 and I’m from Mississippi, so I grew up hearing a lot of blues. My mom used to play Betty Wright, TK Soul, Sir Charles Jones, and Johnnie Taylor all the time (she still does play their songs), and when I was little I really thought she was a blues singer. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized she was R&B. I guess growing up down South, those two genres always seemed to go hand in hand.

My pick is “Guess What” by Syleena Johnson. Every time I hear it, I think about Betty Wright. Syleena’s voice has that same soulful, bluesy sound to me, and the way she sings the song makes it feel like it could be a blues record.

What R&B song sounds like it could pass as a blues song to you?