Live Music Archive

Hip-hop has had a serious influence on several genres of music. R&B, in particular, was the most influenced as to necessitate a sub genre. The key difference was that the sub genre was coarse and contained less of an R&B influence.
Pop and R&B singers, including Mariah Carey and Destiny’s Child, appropriated hip-hop in order to relate to younger, urban fans s, thus creating a sub genre coined “”hip-hop Soul”". This genre features hip-hop backbeats, superimposed with vocals that were sung in the style of soul music; the lyrics, however, integrated street lingo and adult themes.
Impudence characterizes the styling of hip-hop soul. These hitherto conventional singers sported tattoos, wore leather, and wore a defiant look in the vein of hip-hop musician s. Pop singers, who were reluctant to vary their images, began collaborating with a rapper to remix one of their tracks, and in company d the remix in their albums. These remixes were pegged as singles, and allowed the singers to retain their signature styles.
These remixed tracks soon became all the rage, and hip-hop soul crossed racial divides, earning its musicians mainstream recognition. Veteran R&B musicians furthermore generated interest among young, contemporary fanss through their association with hip-hop. Patti LaBelle has performed with Outkast; Chaka Khan granted permission to Kanye West to re-mix her tracks. By joining forces with hip-hop musician s, R&B singers thus reached out to a new age group.
Hip-hop soul is considered more mature than contemporary R&B, and targets an adult fans. This is primarily due to the genre ’s focus on the seamier aspects of life; hip-hop soul singers furthermore use adult language and themes, which has drawn censure from people who feel the genre of music, similar to hip-hop, glorifies negative stereotypes.
Although hip-hop soul witnessed a dull period with the emergence of Neo Soul, another R&B sub genre in the late 90s, it’s now experiencing a surge in popularity due to singers like Jaheim, Amerie, Keyshia Cole, and Anthony Hamilton.