I've been sitting and vacantly staring at my laptop screen for the past five minutes trying to figure out what r&b stands for, if you do care (you probably don't) it stands for rhythm and blues, phew now I can get on with my day. Today I'm writing a blogpost about my ultimate favourite females in R&B, which is one of my favourite genres of music. I'd say I have a pretty eclectic music taste, I can go from listening to hip hop to indie rock to jungle. But today is all about celebrating the women who are currently killing the R&B game.
1. SZA, what a babe. After watching her interviews I found out her name is actually pronounced 'siz-a' kinda like scissor. I've been calling her 'S Z A' for far too long and now I feel like a fake fan. The singer-songwriter released her debut studio album on the 9th of June, the day of my Media Law exam that went mediocrely, so to put it simply this album made my day less shit and it still does just that. Before the album was released I had listened to 'Love Galore ft Travi$ Scott' a ridiculous amount of times but I had never listened to any of her other music but I really digged her neo-soul style. In an interview with Genius she describes 'Love Galore' as a "relaxed tropical bop" which perfectly describes the rest of her album. 'The Weekend' is a super chilled song, 'Go Gina' is the perfect song to travel to and lyrically I relate to 'Drew Barrymore.' Plus can we take a moment to appreciate the fact that the actual actor Drew Barrymore is in her music video, how effing cool is that.
2. Kehlani. I've written about her album 'SSS' on this blog before but I had to include her on this list. I first discovered her when I came across her song with Chance the Rapper called 'The Way.' Her album 'Sweet, Sexy, Savage' that was released last year continues to be one of my favourites, her songs range from bedroom jams such as 'Distraction' to more thought-provoking emotional songs like 'Advice.' My favourites are 'I Wanna Be,' 'Get Like' and 'Undercover.'
3. Jhene Aiko. Out of everyone on this list, Jhene is the first person I ever listened to, back in secondary school when I first started properly getting into this genre of music. Like many people I discovered her through the song 'The Worst' which to this day is still her most popular song. I love everything she releases, all her songs are so chilled.. almost psychedelic. Also another reason why I adore her is because back in 2016 her and Big Sean released a studio album as a duo under the name 'TWENTY88'. As a huge fan of their previous song collaborations such as 'I Know' and 'Beware,' I was so stoked when I found out about their new project. My favourites from TWENTY88 are 'Selfish' and 'Deja vu.'
4. Jorja Smith. I've mentioned Jorja on my blog before with no knowledge that she would later be featuring on Drake's album (More Life) so she's clearly killing the game. She has such a distinctive style and voice, that within hearing her sing for approximately 5 seconds I'd be like woo this is a Jorja Smith song. Many of her songs tackle social issues such as 'Blue Lights' and 'Beautiful Little Fools,' which can be rare in this genre as often it's saturated with brain-numbing bops. She recently featured on Kali Uchis new song 'Tyrant,' which I've had on repeat plus the music video makes me feel so happy and nostalgic.
So those are my four favourite females in R&B, they cover different areas of the genre whether it's neo-soul or contemporary I love them all! Go give them a listen and show them some love.
Claudia x