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<title>Top Contemporary R&amp;B Artists on Rhapsody Online</title>
<dateCreated>Mon Dec 21 01:40:41 PST 2009</dateCreated>
<dateModified>Mon Dec 21 01:40:41 PST 2009</dateModified>
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<outline type="include" text="Michael Jackson" description="It doesn't really matter if Michael Jackson bullied the world's media into calling him the King of Pop in the early 1990s or if they just started using that sobriquet on their own. Either way, he earned it. Whether singing &quot;I Want You Back&quot; as the 11-year-old frontman of the Jackson 5, breaking the MTV color line with the explosive &quot;Billie Jean&quot; or defending the world's downtrodden and misunderstood (himself, that is), Jackson set the standard for pop singing, songwriting, dancing and, let's face it, weirdness for the better part of a quarter century. He came of age in the Jackson 5, then moonwalked out of the family's clutches and into his own universe with three groundbreaking albums made with producer Quincy Jones. &lt;i&gt;Off the Wall&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Thriller&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Bad&lt;/i&gt; blended soul, funk and rock influences into a taut dance-pop that transformed the sound of radio for the rest of the century. Singers and producers from Madonna to Timbaland are still trying to catch up. Prosecutors and paparazzi have been playing catch-up, too, with some of Jackson's questionable life choices, and since the late 1990s, he has seemingly spent more time in the tabloids than on the pop charts. On June 25th, 2009, Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50.
- Matty Karas" category="Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/michael-jackson/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Beyonce" description="Beyonce Knowles, the leader of Destiny's Child, always knew she wanted to be a star. She formed the first incarnation of Destiny's Child in 1990 -- when she was 9 years old. By 2001, the group began to dissolve. Knowles nabbed a lead role in Mike Myers' &lt;I&gt;Austin Powers: Goldmember&lt;/I&gt;; an appearance in MTV's &lt;I&gt;Carmen: A Hip Hopera&lt;/I&gt; cemented her reputation as a formidable entertainer. Her solo debut, &lt;I&gt;Dangerously in Love&lt;/I&gt;, came out in 2003. The first single, &quot;Crazy in Love,&quot; was a duet with beau Jay-Z that zoomed to the top of the charts. &lt;I&gt;B'Day&lt;/I&gt;, her stunning 2006 sophomore turn, featured hits like &quot;Deja Vu&quot; and &quot;Ring the Alarm.&quot; Later that year, Beyonce starred as Deena Jones in the Oscar-winning movie musical &lt;I&gt;Dreamgirls&lt;/I&gt;. In 2007, Beyonce made a Latin-crossover attempt, dueting with Shakira on &quot;Beautiful Liar&quot; and releasing a deluxe edition of &lt;I&gt;B'Day&lt;/I&gt;, featuring &quot;Amor Gitano&quot; with Mexican crooner Alejandro Fernandez and a Spanish version of the anthem &quot;Irreplaceable.&quot; For her third studio album, &lt;I&gt;I Am ... Sasha Fierce&lt;/I&gt;, Beyonce split herself into two personae -- the tender, traditional Beyonce and the club diva Sasha Fierce.
- Linda Ryan" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/beyonce/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Pink" description="If cultivating an iconoclast status is a career, then Pink is one serious go-getter. Since her 2000 debut, the husky-voiced singer has overhauled her sound several times, changed her hair color even more, married motocross star Carey Hart and taken George Bush to task. Then there's &quot;Stupid Girls,&quot; the 2006 single in which Pink skewered tabloid perennials like Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton. Born Alecia Moore, she started dancing and singing backup at club nights in Philadelphia at age 13 and eventually went solo with &lt;I&gt;Can't Take Me Home&lt;/I&gt;. Pink recruited Linda Perry to co-write her second album, 2001's &lt;I&gt;M!ssundaztood&lt;/I&gt;, a collection of soulful pop-rock that spawned the hit &quot;Get the Party Started.&quot; She then collaborated with Rancid's Tim Armstrong on 2003's &lt;I&gt;Try This&lt;/I&gt;. The album didn't do well, and Pink took some time off to regroup and get married, getting back to the business of spitfire sass with 2006's &lt;I&gt;I'm Not Dead&lt;/I&gt;. She has produced many of her own albums, built side careers in both songwriting and horror-film acting, and won a pair of Grammy Awards -- experiences that all informed the outspoken &lt;I&gt;Funhouse&lt;/I&gt; in 2008.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/pink/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Mariah Carey" description="Say what you may about her fashion sense or &quot;diva-tude,&quot; but there is no doubt that Mariah Carey defined 1990s urban pop music. Carey ruled the charts during the Clinton decade -- her 1990 self-titled debut album alone spawned four No. 1 hit singles, and she would have 11 more before the new millennium. Over the years, artists from Christina Aguilera to Ciara would name her as an influence. Her albums are always expertly crafted and performed, making her &lt;I&gt;MTV Unplugged&lt;/I&gt; EP a surprisingly warm change of pace. Her dominance of the charts in the 1990s earned her the title of Billboard's Artist of the Decade. Despite heavily publicized personal trials in the early part of the new century, Carey returned to the forefront of modern music with &lt;I&gt;The Emancipation of Mimi&lt;/I&gt;, which spawned her 16th and 17th No. 1 hits. In 2008, Mariah returned with the hit single &quot;Touch My Body&quot; and the subsequent album, &lt;I&gt;E=MC2&lt;/I&gt;. The single pushed her past Elvis into second place (behind the Beatles) for the most No. 1 singles for an artist in the modern era.
- Rachel Landy" category="Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/mariah-carey/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Maxwell" description="A solo vocalist from Brooklyn, N.Y., Maxwell found massive critical and commercial success with his 1996 debut album &lt;i&gt;Urban Hang Suite&lt;/i&gt;. Preferring to focus on romance and true love rather than conquests and player bravado, his blend of heartfelt lyricism and hip-hop-infused production proved a surefire hit. The record went Platinum, and Maxwell received a Grammy nomination as well as awards from Soul Train and Rolling Stone. He returned with &lt;i&gt;Embrya&lt;/i&gt; in '98, and is slated to release his third LP in early 2001.
- Brolin Winning" category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/maxwell/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jordin Sparks" description="You might call Jordin Sparks an amateur talent contest professional, although prodigy is perhaps more accurate. In 2007, the 17-year-old Sparks won &lt;I&gt;American Idol&lt;/I&gt;. But before that, she appeared twice on &lt;I&gt;America's Most Talented Kids&lt;/I&gt;, received two awards from the Gospel Music Association Academy and finished second at Music in the Rockies, a competition for aspiring contemporary Christian artists. The year before she won &lt;I&gt;Idol&lt;/I&gt;, the multitalented Sparks also won Torrid's search for the &quot;Next Plus Size Model&quot; and appeared in a &lt;I&gt;Seventeen&lt;/I&gt; magazine ad for the clothing line. So winning &lt;I&gt;Idol&lt;/I&gt; was just the big, fat cherry on top of a talent show sundae -- and the culmination of a life spent working towards performance career.&lt;p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
The child of NFL player Phillippi Sparks (formerly of the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys), the baby-faced belter grew up singing and doing children's theater. She got a string of gigs singing the national anthem at professional sporting events in her home state of Arizona, toured with CCM star Michael W. Smith and recorded an EP (2003's &lt;I&gt;For Now&lt;/I&gt;) at age 13. Despite all her experience, Sparks did not initially make the cut when she auditioned for &lt;I&gt;Idol&lt;/I&gt; in Los Angeles. She did, however, win the local Arizona Idol contest, which earned her the right to audition again in Seattle and, eventually, to become the youngest ever &lt;I&gt;American Idol&lt;/I&gt;. Following her win, she toured with the other &lt;I&gt;Idols&lt;/I&gt; and began work on her debut album.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jordin-sparks/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Rihanna" description="Talent and a dose of good luck got Barbados-born Rihanna signed to Def Jam when she was 16 years old. She was discovered by producer Evan Rogers during his island visit in 2003, and went on to impress Def Jam CEO Jay-Z so much that he grabbed her for a multi-album contract. The singer's first single, &quot;Pon de Replay,&quot; was released in June 2005, with the full album &lt;I&gt;Music of the Sun&lt;/I&gt; dropping a month later. But her big break came in 2006 with the release of the single &quot;S.O.S.&quot; and the subsequent album &lt;I&gt;A Girl Like Me&lt;/I&gt;. The single, which sampled Soft Cell's &quot;Tainted Love,&quot; was one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially popular songs of that year. Though Rihanna had basically moved away from dancehall, she was moving toward a new aesthetic that married R&amp;amp;B, synth-pop and hip-hop. She continued in this direction with 2007's &lt;I&gt;Good Girl Gone Bad&lt;/I&gt;, which featured the infectious singles &quot;Umbrella&quot; and &quot;Shut Up and Drive.&quot; In early 2009, she was assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown en route to a pre-Grammys party; that November, she released &lt;I&gt;Rated R&lt;/I&gt;, a highly personal album with an unmistakable darkness.
- Sam Chennault" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/rihanna/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="R. Kelly" description="Let's just put it this way: R. Kelly's voice is smooth. His songs are so sensual that he's turned into a virtual relationship soundtrack, from your first meeting to your first night together, to a broken heart and through a tearful breakup. He's got a song for each stage, touching the depths of your soul with his acrobatic voice that glides from a sultry whisper to a high falsetto wail. Hints of Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson peak through his soul-tinged voice, but his production and style are all his own, from bass-heavy hip-hop to crisp romantic ballads. Kelly is a talented multi-instrumentalist and arranger, not to mention a certified hit maker; see the chart-topping &quot;Ignition (Remix)&quot; and &quot;I Believe I Can Fly&quot; as well as his writing and production credits for other singers. Not many R&amp;B singers could get away with &quot;Trapped in the Closet,&quot; his 35-minute pop opera that defies dramatic structure, radio formatting and just plain good sense. Kels not only pulled it off, but he made it one of the biggest singles of that 2005 summer. After 15 years and 10 albums, including the 2007 offering &lt;i&gt;Double Up&lt;/i&gt; and another thrilling (and equally bewildering) 10 chapters of &quot;Trapped in the Closet,&quot; there is little doubt that R. Kelly is one of the most accomplished R&amp;B singers of his generation.
- Jessy Terry" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/r-kelly/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Prince" description="In this age of musical genre ghetto-ization, Prince stands alone. The Artist can get funky, he can rock up a storm, he can croon a soulful ballad, he can spin out webs of jazz piano, he can hip and he can hop. He can do it all, often brilliantly. Prince takes chances and often fails -- especially on the (hopefully abandoned) film front -- but every one of his albums is chock full of gems. Prince hasn't sustained the massive popularity he earned in the &lt;I&gt;Purple Rain&lt;/I&gt;-crazed '80s, but that seems due more to bad publicity surrounding his tabloid lifestyle than his musical output. He can't hide the fact that he is an odd, fuzzy little man, but genius doesn't come in perfect packages. While legions of Prince's contemporaries crash and burn, he sits in his Minneapolis tower and continues to expand the boundaries of popular music.
- Nick Dedina" category="Funk" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/prince/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ne-Yo" description="Considering his gorgeous voice and boyish good looks, it's surprising that Ne-Yo started his career as a songwriter for some of the biggest names in R&amp;B. But after years of paying his dues under Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans and B2K, the Las Vegas singer finally branched out on his own in late 2005 with the single &quot;Stay,&quot; featuring Peedi Peedi. In early 2006 he dropped his subsequent Def Jam debut, &lt;I&gt;In My Own Words&lt;/I&gt;, yielding three Top 40 singles, the most popular of which was &quot;So Sick.&quot; In 2006 Ne-Yo was R&amp;B's King Midas, writing songs for Beyonce (the smash hit &quot;Irreplaceable&quot;) as well as working on new projects by Usher, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Chris Brown and Whitney Houston. It's amazing that he found time to work on his sophomore solo album, but 2007's &lt;I&gt;Because of You&lt;/I&gt; was every bit as irresistible as his freshman effort. His success granted him license to get melancholy on 2008's &lt;I&gt;Year of the Gentleman&lt;/I&gt; -- it was his party, after all, and he could cry if he wanted to.
- Sam Chennault" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ne-yo/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Akon" description="When R&amp;B crooner Akon shot to fame in 2004 with his hit &quot;Locked Up&quot; (Number Eight), he became the go-to star for pop and hip-hop artists wanting a silky voice to sing their hooks. So prolific in his output, Akon twice in a five month period between December 2006 and April 2007 simultaneously owned the Number One and Number Two spots on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The son of Senegalese jazz percussionist Mor Thiam, Akon was born Aliaune Thiam in St. Louis, MO, but lived in Senegal until he was seven. His family moved back to the United States and lived in both Jersey City, NJ, and Atlanta, GA. He began making music at 15, becoming part of the Fugees' extended group of musicians, but he reportedly ran into trouble with the law and was incarcerated for stealing a car. Upon his release in 2002 he began making home recordings, which in 2003 led to him signing with SRC/Universal.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The following year he released his debut album, &lt;I&gt;Trouble&lt;/I&gt; (Number 11 R&amp;B/Hop-hop, Number 18 Pop, 2004), a set of autobiographical songs featuring his mix of African-style R&amp;B vocals with hip-hop beats. After his 2004 success with &quot;Locked Up,&quot; he released the eerily melodic ballad &quot;Lonely&quot; (Number 4, 2005), which features a sped-up, Chipmunks-like sample of the hook from Bobby Vinton's 1964 hit &quot;Mr. Lonely,&quot; and the bouncy &quot;Belly Dancer (Bananza)&quot; (Number 30, 2005). A remixed version of his single &quot;Ghetto&quot; by Green Lantern included the voices of slain rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. That year Akon also sang on Young Jeezy's Top Five single &quot;Soul Survivor,&quot; a collaboration that has since led to many subsequent guest spots including appearances with Eminem, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, R. Kelly and even Gwen Stefani and Elton John.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Akon's sophomore release, &lt;I&gt;Konvicted&lt;/I&gt; (Number Two Pop, Number Two R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, 2006), spawned a string of Top Five hits: &quot;Smack That&quot; (Number Two pop, Number 34 R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, 2006), with Eminem; &quot;I Wanna Love You&quot; (Number One pop, Number Three R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, 2006), with Snoop Dogg and &quot;Don't Matter&quot; (Number One pop, Number Five R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, 2007). &lt;I&gt;Konvicted&lt;/I&gt; remained in the Top Twenty for 28 consecutive weeks and within a year was certified triple platinum in the U.S. and sold four million copies worldwide. His collaboration with Gwen Stefani on her ubiquitous summer hit &quot;The Sweet Escape&quot; (Number Two pop) helped Akon have the nation's top two pop hits twice in five months.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Akon's career has not, however, been without its share of controversies: In 2006 he purchased a South African diamond mine; in 2007 he was widely denounced for simulating sex on stage with the underage daughter of a pastor in Trinidad and Tobago; and in the same year misdemeanor harassment charges were filed against him for throwing a concert goer off a Fishkill, New York stage and injuring a bystander.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
In November 2007, the singer appeared on a remix of Michael Jackson's &quot;Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'&quot; for the 25th anniversary reissue of &lt;I&gt;Thriller&lt;/I&gt;. His third album, originally due out in the spring of 2008, is reportedly titled &lt;I&gt;Acquitted&lt;/I&gt; and said to feature a collaboration with Michael Jackson.
" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/akon/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Usher" description="By the time he entered puberty, Usher had a record deal and a gold album. By the time he graduated high school, he was one of the most visible artists in R&amp;B. Armed with a smooth voice, Usher specializes in saccharine-sweet profusions of love and desire; pop melodramatic ballads; and floor-rattling club jams. Between 1994 and 2004, he released six albums, appeared in several films, earned multiple platinum records and collaborated with a wide variety of top-shelf artists. However, 2004 was the year he reached the upper echelons of superstardom, thanks to the infectious, chart-topping single &quot;Yeah&quot; produced by Lil' Jon. His subsequent album, &lt;i&gt;Confessions&lt;/i&gt;, netted him three Grammys and sold 11 million copies worldwide. In the four years that followed &lt;i&gt;Confessions&lt;/i&gt;' release, Usher found himself embroiled in a series of minor though widely publicized controversies surrounding his mother, who was also his manager until Usher &quot;resigned her.&quot; This effectively kept the singer in the spotlight, and his 2008 single &quot;Love in the Club,&quot; which promoted public sex, was a ubiquitous summer jam. The following album, &lt;i&gt;Hear I Stand&lt;/i&gt;, didn't reflect much artistic growth, banking instead on the themes and sounds that have made Usher one of the world's biggest pop stars.
- Kali Holloway" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/usher/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Mary J. Blige" description="Mary J. Blige has rightfully earned her royal appellation &quot;The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul.&quot; With a powerful croon and smooth flow, the Queen has sold over 40 million albums since her debut in the early-1990s, won eight Grammys, and collaborated with legends like U2, Aretha Franklin, and Elton John.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Blige was born in the Bronx but spent her early years in Savannah, Georgia, where she sang in a Pentecostal church. Her family moved to suburban Yonkers, New York, where Blige continued to sing. Her first demo (recorded at a karaoke studio in a shopping mall) was a version of Anita Baker's &quot;Caught Up in the Rapture,&quot; which eventually got her signed by Andre Harrell to Uptown Records.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Blige's debut, &lt;I&gt;What's the 411?&lt;/I&gt; (Number Six Pop, Number One R&amp;B, 1992), mixed her affinity for classic soul (she covered Chaka Khan's &quot;Sweet Thing&quot;) with a contemporary urban edge. The album includes cameos by rappers Grand Puba, Heavy D., C.L. Smooth, De La Soul's Mase, and EPMD's Erick Sermon. Blige first charted with &quot;You Remind Me&quot; (Number 29 Pop, Number One R&amp;B, 1992), from the film &lt;I&gt;Strictly Business&lt;/I&gt;, but it was her debut album's single &quot;Real Love&quot; (Number Seven Pop, Number 1 R&amp;B, 1992) made Blige one of the biggest crossover artists of the year. In 1993 a remix album of &lt;I&gt;411&lt;/I&gt; was released and the &quot;Sweet Thing&quot; single peaked at Number 28 on the Pop charts.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Blige's 1994 album, &lt;I&gt;My Life&lt;/I&gt;, reached Number Seven on the Top 200 (Number One R&amp;B) and yielded a Number Six single, &quot;Be Happy.&quot;
In 1995 Blige and the Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man [see Wu-Tang Clan entry] had a Grammy-winning smash hit with a medley of Ashford and Simpson songs, &quot;I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By&quot; (Number Three Pop, Number One R&amp;B). The track was mixed by frequent Blige collaborator and budding hip-hop kingpin Sean Combs [see entry]. In 1996 Blige's &quot;Not Gon' Cry&quot; (Number Two Pop, Number One R&amp;B) was featured in the film adaptation of the Terry McMillan novel &lt;I&gt;Waiting to Exhale&lt;/I&gt;. The single also appeared on &lt;I&gt;Share My World&lt;/I&gt; (Number One Pop and R&amp;B, 1997). The album yielded seven R&amp;B hits, including &quot;It's On&quot; (Number Eight), featuring R. Kelly, and found Blige's music stressing the soul side of her hip-hop/soul hybrid
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
In 1999 Blige sang on the R&amp;B hits of Kirk Franklin and George Michael and released Mary (Number One R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number Two Pop, 1999), her fourth and most pop-leaning album. Focusing less on hard times and heartache than its predecessors, the record features uplifting music and explores themes of spirituality and self-worth. It also sports a sweeping supporting cast, including Aretha Franklin, Babyface, Eric Clapton and Elton John. &quot;All That I Can Say&quot; (Number Six R&amp;B) was written and produced by hip-hop diva Lauryn Hill.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;I&gt;No More Drama&lt;/I&gt; (Number One R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number Two Pop, 2001) was another chapter in her hybrid soul approach and yielded the Dr. Dre-produced dance hit &quot;Family Affair&quot; (Number One Pop and R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, 2001) and the title song (Number 16 R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number 15 pop, 2001). After a 2002 album of remixes, &lt;I&gt;Dance for Me&lt;/I&gt;, Blige returned in collaboration with P. Diddy on &lt;I&gt;Love &amp; Life&lt;/I&gt; (Number One Pop and R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, 2004). Despite high expectations, the album received tepid reviews.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Her 2005 album &lt;I&gt;The Breakthrough&lt;/I&gt; (Number One R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, 2005; Number One Pop, 2006) lived up to its title, giving Blige a string of hits including &quot;Be Without You&quot; (Number One R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number Three Pop, 2005), &quot;Enough Cryin'&quot; (Number Two R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number 32 pop, 2006) and a lower charting duet with U2 on the band's song &quot;One.&quot; The Breakthrough won Blige three Grammys in 2007: Best Female R&amp;B Vocal Performance, Best R&amp;B Song (&quot;Be Without You&quot;) and Best R&amp;B Album.
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As of 2008, Blige's late-2007 album &lt;I&gt;Growing Pains&lt;/I&gt; (Number One, R&amp;B/Hip-Hop and Pop, 2008) yielded the hit &quot;Just Fine&quot; (Number Three R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number 22 Pop, 2008).
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Blige began an acting career in the late Nineties and has since made numerous appearances on TV (&lt;I&gt;The Jamie Foxx Show&lt;/I&gt;, &lt;I&gt;Strong Medicine&lt;/I&gt;, &lt;I&gt;Ghost Whisperer&lt;/I&gt;, &lt;I&gt;Entourage&lt;/I&gt;), as wall as roles in the independent film &lt;I&gt;Prison Song&lt;/I&gt; and off-Broadway play &lt;I&gt;The Exonerated&lt;/I&gt;. She is slated to portray the late jazz/blues/soul singer Nina Simone in a 2009 MTV-produced biopic.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
In 2003, after spending much of the Nineties in a turbulent, high-profile relationship with Cedric &quot;K-Ci&quot; Hailey of Jodeci, Blige married her manager Martin Kendu Isaacs, whom she has said helped her overcome drugs and alcohol. In 2006, the singer, whose songs often are of a confessional nature, appeared on &lt;I&gt;The Oprah Winfrey Show&lt;/I&gt; in an interview in which she talked frankly about her traumatic childhood and battles with substance abuse. That year, Blige released the anthology &lt;I&gt;Reflections (A Retrospective)&lt;/I&gt; (Number Two R&amp;B/Hip-Hop).
" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/mary-j-blige/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Lily Allen" description="Lily Allen is the precocious daughter of actor/comedian Keith Allen and film producer mom, Alison Owen. Despite a privileged background, Allen was somewhat of a handful growing up, often running away and getting expelled from various schools. By 15, Allen knew school wasn't for her, so she dropped out and eventually started working on music. Lily's sound draws on her parent's music collection, which included such groundbreaking, female-fronted acts as Rip, Rig and Panic, the Slits and Blondie. But her fondness for hip-hop and urban storytellers also shines through both in her style of delivery and in her rock steady beats. Allen's reputation as a formidable voice from the street grew via her myspace page, and that led to her deal with Parlaphone. In late 2006, Allen's single &quot;Smile&quot; hit No. 1 on the UK charts. In 2007, Allen's debut album, &lt;I&gt;Alright, Still&lt;/I&gt;, was released in the U.S., followed by &lt;i&gt;It's Not Me, It's You&lt;/i&gt; in February 2009.
- Linda Ryan" category="Indie Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/lily-allen/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Pussycat Dolls" description="Pussycat Dolls began as the stars of a burlesque show in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, swelling their ranks and polishing their rep with guest appearances from the likes of Christina Aguilera, Carmen Electra and Gwen Stefani. They burst onto the national scene in 2005, after recruiting ex-Eden's Crush member Nicole Scherzinger and unleashing the instantly ubiquitous single &quot;Don't Cha&quot; (previously recorded by Cee-Lo and Tori Alamaze), featuring a verse from Busta Rhymes. They kept up the sassy, saucy act with their full-length debut, &lt;I&gt;PCD&lt;/I&gt;, produced by industry heavyweights Timbaland and will.i.am. After Scherzinger flirted with a solo career that never quite took off, the Dolls regrouped for 2008's &lt;I&gt;Doll Domination&lt;/I&gt;.
- Philip Sherburne" category="Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/pussycat-dolls/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Keri Hilson" description="Keri Hilson may be a new name to most of us, but this Atlanta native has been working her way up to being a key player behind the scenes in R&amp;B, pop and hip-hop for years. A member of the Clutch collective of writers and producers, Hilson has been racking up songwriting credits for other artists since 2001, including Ciara (&quot;Ooh Baby&quot;), Usher (&quot;Love in this Club, Part II&quot;) and Mary J. Blige (&quot;Take Me as I Am&quot;). Along the way, she also got quite a reputation as a backup singer, finally breaking out from the background in 2004 with a featured guest spot on Xzibit's &quot;Hey Now (Mean Muggin).&quot; Hilson had a banner year in 2006-2007: She appeared in the video for Nelly Furtado's &quot;Promiscuous,&quot; co-wrote and sang backup on most of Britney Spears's &lt;I&gt;Blackout&lt;/I&gt;, appeared on and helped write Timbaland's &lt;I&gt;Shock Value&lt;/I&gt; and signed with Timbaland's Mosley Music Group. Hilson released her debut album on Interscope in December 2008.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/keri-hilson/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Sean Kingston" description="One of the newest generation of celebrities to generate buzz before their first single is even released, Sean Kingston (born Kisean Anderson) got his first break on MySpace. The 17-year-old was visiting Dr. Dre's page one day and saw that American producer J.R. Rotem had started a new label and was looking to sign artists. Several instances of online harassment later, Kinsgston had secured an audition with Rotem, who found himself impressed by Kingston's croon and his heartfelt, G-rated lyrics. He signed him on the spot. Kingston's bicultural upbringing informs his sound: born in Miami and raised both there and in Jamaica, the singer is equally versed in mainstream rap and dancehall, though his first hit owes a debt, amazingly, to doo-wop. But Kingston, for all his fresh-faced appearance, isn't without connections: his grandfather was Jamaican producer Jack Ruby. Despite his pedigree, Kingston has seen his share of difficulties as well: his mother and sister were thrown in jail for tax evasion when he was just 14-years-old, leaving the boy temporarily homeless.
- Sarah Bardeen" category="Dancehall" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/sean-kingston/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Justin Timberlake" description="From his adolescence on Disney's &lt;I&gt;The Mickey Mouse Club&lt;/I&gt; through
his coming of age in the hugely popular boy band *NSYNC, Justin
Timberlake became one of the 1990s' biggest heartthrobs, and everything
from his romance with Britney Spears to his love of fast cars turned
into headline fodder. Unlike so many ex-boy band boys before (and after)
him, *NSYNC's most popular member managed to parlay his teen-idol status
into credible adult stardom. And how: Two phenomenally successful albums
and four Grammys into his solo career, Justin Timberlake is arguably the
world's most celebrated pop star; his frequent collaborations with
super-producers like the Neptunes and Timbaland and his undeniable knack
for white-hot blue-eyed soul-pop have earned the respect of the hip-hop
community, while his dreamy looks and wounded-puppy falsetto still make
the little girls ... and their sisters ... and their mothers swoon.
Wardrobe malfunctions? Messy breakups? JT skates past them all, a
designer fedora cocked to one side. Not too shabby for a former child
star from Millington, Tennessee, who got his start singing country
(and losing) on &lt;I&gt;Star Search&lt;/I&gt;.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/justin-timberlake/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="John Legend" description="An accomplished singer, musician, songwriter and producer, John Legend (ne Stephens) has been making music since his early childhood. Influenced by a musical family, the young Legend embraced gospel, classic soul and hip-hop, and the fusion of all three epitomizes his unique sound. His first major break came from erstwhile Fugee Lauryn Hill, when he played piano on her mega-hit single &quot;Everything Is Everything.&quot; But it was Kanye West who really put him on the map, recruiting him to play and sing on the multiplatinum album &lt;I&gt;The College Dropout&lt;/I&gt;. After releasing several self-made CDs, Legend dropped his highly anticipated major label debut &lt;I&gt;Get Lifted&lt;/I&gt; in early 2005. The single &quot;Ordinary People&quot; is the sort of sweet lovers' lullaby that will haunt Valentine's Day for years to come, and it solidified Legend's status as one of R&amp;B's most promising young talents. For his next project, 2006's &lt;I&gt;Once Again&lt;/I&gt;, Legend refined his brand of martini soul, plucking elements of classic pop and '70s soul for an album that was every bit as popular and as satisfying as its predecessor. The 2008 release &lt;I&gt;Evolver&lt;/I&gt; found the singer employing a more modern sound.
- Sam Chennault" category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/john-legend/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Alicia Keys" description="Alicia Keys seemingly came out of nowhere in the summer of 2001, storming up the charts with her braids and heaping servings of soul. But Keys is no pre-fab diva; she's been studying music since age five and began writing songs at age 14. She wrote (or co-wrote) and produced most of the songs on her debut, &lt;i&gt;Songs in a Minor&lt;/i&gt;, and subsequent singles have proven she's no one-hit wonder. She took home five Grammy Awards in 2002 (including Best New Artist and Song of the Year), and returned triumphantly with &lt;i&gt;The Diary of Alicia Keys&lt;/i&gt; the following year, racking up more hit singles (&quot;You Don't Know My Name,&quot; &quot;If I Ain't Got You&quot;), and winning four more Grammys. 2007's &lt;i&gt;As I Am&lt;/i&gt; spawned the unstoppable &quot;No One&quot; and the Prince-infused &quot;Like You'll Never See Me Again.&quot; One of the most talented and likeable R&amp;B superstars in the game today, Keys shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon." category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/alicia-keys/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Whitney Houston" description="As the daughter of renowned gospel and soul singer Cissy Houston, and the cousin of Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston was better connected than most young vocalists when she embarked on a recording career in the mid-1980s. But neither genes nor industry contacts can account for the level of superstardom to which Houston quickly ascended. Blessed with a sublimely creamy, agile voice and picture-perfect looks, she delivered the sort of buoyant dance tunes and smooth, hummable ballads that are equally at home on the pop, R&amp;B, and Adult Contemporary charts. For years critics carped that her supple singing would be better served by more soulful, less commercially ingratiating material; when she finally did emerge with a more urban sound, the media homed in on her increasingly irresponsible personal behavior. But where America's record-buying public was concerned, Houston became a star of the highest order, one whose appeal crossed races, cultures, and generations.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
As a child, Houston sang in her family's church choir. At 15 she began performing in her mother's nightclub act. While attending a Catholic high school, the lithe beauty signed with a modeling agency and posed for magazines including &lt;I&gt;Glamour&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Vogue&lt;/I&gt;. After graduating, she continued to model and sing, backing up Lou Rawls and Chaka Khan, then at 19 was spotted by Arista president Clive Davis &amp;Number 8212; who had previously steered the careers of Warwick and Houston family friend Aretha Franklin &amp;Number 8212; while giving a showcase in Manhattan. Davis signed Houston, and started choosing songs for her debut album, which featured duets with established stars Teddy Pendergrass (her first hit, &quot;Hold Me&quot;) and Jermaine Jackson, and cost Arista an extraordinarily hefty sum of $250,000.
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Released in 1985, Whitney Houston proved a worthwhile investment, shooting to Number One and generating the smash singles &quot;You Give Good Love&quot; (Number Three pop, Number One R&amp;B, 1985), &quot;Saving All My Love for You&quot; (Number One pop, Number One R&amp;B, 1985), &quot;How Will I Know&quot; (Number One pop, Number One R&amp;B, 1985), and &quot;Greatest Love of All&quot; (Number One pop, Number Three R&amp;B, 1986). Whitney solidified Houston's success, reaching Number One and spawning &quot;I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)&quot; (Number One pop, Number Two R&amp;B, 1987), &quot;Didn't We Almost Have It All&quot; (Number One pop, Number Two R&amp;B, 1987), &quot;So Emotional&quot; (Number One pop, Number Five R&amp;B, 1987), &quot;Where Do Broken Hearts Go&quot; (Number One pop, Number Two R&amp;B, 1988), and &quot;Love Will Save the Day&quot; (Number Nine pop, Number Five R&amp;B, 1988). Also in 1988, Houston recorded &quot;One Moment in Time,&quot; NBC-TV's theme song for the Summer Olympics (Number Five pop). In 1989 she teamed up with Aretha Franklin on the Number Five R&amp;B hit &quot;It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be.&quot;
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In 1990 &lt;I&gt;I'm Your Baby Tonight&lt;/I&gt;'s title track topped the pop and R&amp;B charts, as did &quot;All the Man That I Need.&quot; There were more hits in 1991 &amp;#8212; &quot;Miracle&quot; (Number Nine pop, Number Two R&amp;B), &quot;My Name Is Not Susan&quot; (Number 20 pop, Number Eight R&amp;B), and &quot;I Belong to You&quot; (Number 10 R&amp;B) &amp;#8212; but, peaking at Number Three, &lt;I&gt;Baby&lt;/I&gt; proved disappointing after its predecessors. Houston bounced back in a big way, though, with the 1992 film &lt;I&gt;The Bodyguard&lt;/I&gt;, in which she made her acting debut (as a singing star, opposite Kevin Costner), to mixed reviews and huge box office success. The movie's soundtrack &amp;#8212; with six tracks sung by Houston &amp;#8212; proved even more successful, hitting Number One and producing a monster single, Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's &quot;I Will Always Love You&quot; (1992), which remained at the top of the chart for an unprecedented 14 weeks, as well as a cover of Chaka Khan's 1978 hit &quot;I'm Every Woman&quot; (Number Four pop, Number Five R&amp;B, 1993) and &quot;I Have Nothing&quot; (Number Four pop, Number Four R&amp;B, 1993). In 1992 Houston married singer Bobby Brown; their first child, Bobbi Kristina, was born the next year.
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Houston's next career move was to attempt to duplicate the success of the movie/soundtrack combination of &lt;I&gt;The Bodyguard&lt;/I&gt; with 1995's black-female friendship film &lt;I&gt;Waiting to Exhale&lt;/I&gt;, in which the singer costarred alongside Angela Bassett. The movie was popular with audiences, and resulted in a few more hit singles for Houston, most notably &quot;Exhale (Shoop Shoop)&quot; (Number One pop and R&amp;B) and a duet with CeCe Winans, &quot;Count on Me&quot; (Number Eight pop, Number Seven R&amp;B, 1996). In 1996 Houston starred with Denzel Washington and Courtney B. Vance in &lt;I&gt;The Preacher's Wife&lt;/I&gt;, a box-office disappointment whose soundtrack nevertheless gave her another charting ballad, &quot;I Believe in You and Me&quot; (Number Four pop, Number Four R&amp;B).
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She tried the small screen in 1997, producing and playing the Fairy Godmother to Brandy's Cinderella in a &lt;I&gt;Wonderful World of Disney&lt;/I&gt; remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein's &lt;I&gt;Cinderella&lt;/I&gt;. In 1998 Houston released her first studio album since 1990, the uncharacteristic &lt;I&gt;My Love Is Your Love&lt;/I&gt; (Number 13 pop, Number Seven R&amp;B). Aside from a handful of ballads, including her Oscar-winning duet with fellow diva Mariah Carey, &quot;When You Believe&quot; (Number 15 pop, Number 33 R&amp;B, 1998–99), from &lt;I&gt;The Prince of Egypt&lt;/I&gt;, and the Diane Warren–penned torch song &quot;I Learned From the Best&quot; (Number 13 R&amp;B, 1999), the album showcased a new, savvy street credibility that had previously come through only in Houston's later interviews and her private life with Brown. Hip-hop personalities and producers such as Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, Rodney Jerkins, Missy Elliott, and Faith Evans collaborated with the vocalist on various tracks. The public still loved the new Whitney, giving her hits with the sultry &quot;Heartbreak Hotel&quot; (Number Two pop, Number One R&amp;B), the kick-him-out anthem &quot;It's Not Right But It's Okay&quot; (Number Four pop, Number Seven R&amp;B, 1999), and the reggae-inflected title track (Number Four pop, Number Two R&amp;B, 1999).
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While Houston was back in the spotlight, reports of her already notorious prima donna behavior became more prevalent in 1999 and 2000: She was often hours late for interviews, photo shoots, and rehearsals; canceled concerts and talk-show appearances; and in what would be the start of a string of tabloid stories questioning her state of mind, dodged arrest for marijuana possession at a Hawaii airport in January 2000 (charges were later dismissed). In the months that followed that incident, Houston was a surprising no-show at her mentor Clive Davis' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was allegedly booted out of Academy Awards rehearsals for an all-star tribute to Burt Bacharach. Rumors about her tumultuous marriage to Brown resurfaced, particularly when he was briefly imprisoned in mid-2000 for a parole violation. Yet Houston attempted to have the last laugh with a powerful performance at an Arista Records anniversary party that also served as a tribute to Davis, plus the release of a two-disc greatest-hits collection that equally highlighted her ballads and dance-club remixes and featured four new songs, three of which were duets with Deborah Cox, Enrique Iglesias, and George Michael
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It turned out Houston had been struggling with a drug problem. After renewing her Arista contract with the biggest record deal in history ($100 million for a promise of six new albums), she performed on Michael Jackson's Thirtieth Anniversary television special looking thin and frail. The following year, Houston spoke frankly about her drug problems in a special edition of ABC's Primetime with Diane Sawyer that coincided with the release of her comeback album, &lt;i&gt;Just Whitney&lt;/i&gt; (Number Three R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number Nine pop, 2002). The album &amp;#8212; which included production work by her husband, Missy Elliott and Babyface &amp;#8212; was Houston's first work without the involvement of Davis. &lt;i&gt;Just Whitney&lt;/i&gt; was not well received: critics bashed it, the singles failed to reach the Top Forty and sales of the album were lower than any of her previous works. She followed up with a holiday disc, &lt;i&gt;One Wish: The Holiday Album&lt;/i&gt; (Number 14 R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number 49 pop, 2002), which sold even fewer copies. In spring of 2004 Houston entered rehab for the first time; later that year, she toured as part of the Soul Divas along with her cousin Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole. That September, Houston received a standing ovation when she sang a tribute to Davis at the World Music Awards. She and Davis subsequently announced they would be working together on a new album, although as of 2008 their plans had not yet materialized. Houston returned to rehab in 2005 and the following year filed for divorce from Brown (after some of the couple's trails and travails were aired on the MTV reality show &quot;Being Bobby Brown&quot; in 2005). In 2007 Davis reiterated that the two were working on a new album and had lined up a string of hip producers including John Legend and will.i.am. That April Houston's divorce from Brown was finalized with her winning sole custody of the couple's daughter. In December 2007 an apparently sober Houston performed an entire show before a crowd of 10,000 at the Live and Loud Festival in Malaysia.
" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/whitney-houston/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Janet Jackson" description="As the baby of pop music's best-known family, Janet Jackson (b. Janet Damita Jo Jackson, May 16, 1966, Gary, Indiana) could have spent her career in the shadow of her eight siblings, particularly brother Michael. Instead, with the help of some savvy creative and professional advisers outside the family, Janet established herself as the preeminent pop-funk diva of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her wispy voice was a pale echo of Michael's, but on Janet's albums &amp;#8212; and in her videos and live performances, which revealed a crisp, athletic dance technique not unlike her brother's &amp;#8212; singing wasn't the point. Her slamming beats, infectious hooks, and impeccable production values were perfectly suited to the breezy zeal with which she declared her social and sexual independence.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
As a young child, Jackson was a tomboy who aspired to be a jockey. When she was seven, though, her father, Joseph, encouraged her to join her brothers &amp;#8212; by then famous as the Jackson 5 &amp;#8212; in their music and variety act. (Sister La Toya joined them for several shows in 1974; the following year, La Toya, eldest sister Rebbie, and brother Randy were all in on the act, while brother Jermaine bowed out.) Shows in Las Vegas resulted in a summer-replacement TV show in 1976 (on CBS), which led Janet to roles on the popular sitcoms &lt;I&gt;Good Times&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Diff'rent Strokes&lt;/I&gt;.
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Next, Jackson secured a contract with A&amp;M Records, and in 1982, while still managed and creatively guided by her father, she released a forgettable debut album, &lt;I&gt;Janet Jackson&lt;/I&gt;. The album did yield a Number Six R&amp;B single, &quot;Young Love.&quot; Another TV role, on the series &lt;I&gt;Fame&lt;/I&gt;, followed, as did another unremarkable album, 1984's &lt;I&gt;Dream Street&lt;/I&gt;, and another R&amp;B hit, &quot;Don't Stand Another Chance&quot; (Number Nine). Also in 1984, at the age of 18, Jackson defied her family by marrying singer James DeBarge, whose fledgling R&amp;B sibling act DeBarge was being hyped as a successor to the Jacksons. The marriage was annulled after less than a year; but the seeds of Jackson's independence from the family dynasty, and her father in particular, were firmly planted.
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Then John McClain, an A&amp;M executive and family friend, suggested that Jackson work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis of the Time. Collaborating with these musician/writer/producers, Jackson recorded her breakthrough album, 1986's &lt;I&gt;Control&lt;/I&gt;, which topped the pop and R&amp;B album charts and spawned numerous hits: &quot;What Have You Done for Me Lately&quot; (Number Four pop, Number One R&amp;B), &quot;Nasty&quot; (Number Three pop, Number One R&amp;B), &quot;When I Think of You&quot; (Number One pop, Number three R&amp;B), and, in 1987, &quot;Control&quot; (Number Five pop, Number one R&amp;B), &quot;Let's Wait Awhile&quot; (Number Two pop, Number 1 R&amp;B), and &quot;The Pleasure Principle&quot; (Number 14 pop, Number One R&amp;B). Helping fuel these singles were Jackson's highly energized, elaborately staged videos, most of which featured movie-musical-inspired choreography by Paula Abdul, who was discovered by Jackie Jackson, Abdul's boyfriend during her L.A. Lakers cheerleading days.
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Having asserted her adulthood and self-reliance with &lt;I&gt;Control&lt;/I&gt;, by 1987 Jackson had dismissed her father as manager (as other siblings had done before her) before recording &lt;I&gt;Rhythm Nation 1814&lt;/I&gt;. &lt;I&gt;Control&lt;/I&gt;'s successor dealt with larger social issues, like the need for tolerance, and found Jam and Lewis assuming more of the songwriting duties. (Years later, Jackson would also credit her boyfriend, Rene Elizondo Jr., for contributing ideas to many of her songs beginning with this album; it was known that he helped choreograph, and eventually directed, some of her videos.) &lt;I&gt;Rhythm Nation&lt;/I&gt; hit Number One in the pop and R&amp;B categories in 1989, and generated the smash singles &quot;Miss You Much&quot; (Number One pop and R&amp;B) and, in 1990, &quot;Rhythm Nation&quot; (Number Two pop, Number One R&amp;B), &quot;Escapade&quot; (Number One pop, Number One R&amp;B), &quot;Alright&quot; (Number Four pop, Number Two R&amp;B), &quot;Come Back to Me&quot; (Number Two pop, Number Two R&amp;B), &quot;Black Cat&quot; (Number One pop, Number Ten R&amp;B), and &quot;Love Will Never Do (Without You)&quot; (Number One pop, Number Three R&amp;B). To promote the album, Jackson embarked on her first major tour, which matched the energy and spectacle of her videos.
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In 1991 Virgin Records owner Richard Branson lured Jackson away from A&amp;M with a contract worth more than $30 million. Her last original hit with A&amp;M was a 1992 duet with Luther Vandross, &quot;The Best Things in Life Are Free&quot; (Number Ten pop, Number One R&amp;B), recorded for the soundtrack to the film &lt;I&gt;Mo' Money&lt;/I&gt;. In 1993 Jackson made her own movie debut as the heroine (opposite rapper Tupac Shakur) of director/screenwriter John Singleton's &lt;I&gt;Poetic Justice&lt;/I&gt;, for which she received lukewarm reviews but an Oscar nomination for the song &quot;Again.&quot;
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That same year, Jackson's Virgin album &lt;I&gt;janet.&lt;/I&gt; shot to the top of the pop and R&amp;B charts, as did the single &quot;That's the Way Love Goes.&quot; More Top 10 singles followed, including &quot;If&quot; (Number Four pop, Number Three R&amp;B, 1993) and &quot;Again&quot; (Number one pop, Number Seven R&amp;B, 1994). Her new material was just as confrontational, and more aggressively sexual, than her previous work had been; ditto for the accompanying tour, which featured Jackson in midriff-baring costumes, interacting suggestively with male dancers &amp;#8212; indeed, more reminiscent of Madonna than Michael. While Janet's once squeaky-clean image wasn't shattered by scandal as her brother's was, it was clear by the early 1990s that the littlest Jackson was nobody's baby, and very much her own woman.
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Jackson's status as a hitmaker led her to help her brother Michael regain some credibility by collaborating with him on the duet and elaborate video for &quot;Scream&quot; (Number Five pop, Number Two R&amp;B) in 1995. The same year, she also had a solo hit with &quot;Runaway&quot; (Number Three pop, Number six R&amp;B). She'd continue to please her fans with her next album, &lt;I&gt;The Velvet Rope&lt;/I&gt; (Number One pop, Number Two R&amp;B), in 1997. At times still sensual in nature &amp;#8212; including a cover of Rod Stewart's seduction song &quot;Tonight's the Night,&quot; without a change in the gender of the woman being sung to &amp;#8212; much of the album had a melancholy feel and self-doubting lyrics. While doing interviews to promote the album and its tour, Jackson admitted to dealing with depression and long-standing self-esteem issues while working on the album. It did produce its share of hits, including &quot;Got 'Til It's Gone&quot; (Number Three R&amp;B, 1997), based around a sample of Joni Mitchell's &quot;Big Yellow Taxi&quot; and featuring the rapper Q-Tip, &quot;Together Again&quot; (Number One pop, Number Eight R&amp;B, 1997), and &quot;I Get Lonely&quot; (Number Three pop, Number 1 R&amp;B, 1998), featuring the group BLACKstreet. In 1999 she enjoyed a hit with Busta Rhymes, &quot;What's It Gonna Be?!,&quot; which hit the top of the R&amp;B singles chart.
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But Jackson's life wasn't everything it appeared to be. Fans were surprised when, in 2000, Jackson's longtime creative and romantic partner, Elizondo, filed for divorce from the singer after nine years of marriage. Although Elizondo was seen as a loving, stable presence in Jackson's life, it had not been public knowledge that the couple had ever married. Jackson explained that she'd wanted to protect the union from media scrutiny. Also in 2000 Jackson returned to acting, costarring with Eddie Murphy in &lt;I&gt;Nutty Professor II: The Klumps&lt;/I&gt;, which featured Jackson's &quot;Doesn't Really Matter&quot; (Number One, 2000). The following year she released the double-platinum &lt;I&gt;All for You&lt;/I&gt; (Number 1, 2001), featuring the Grammy-winning Number One title track, as well as &quot;Someone to Call My Lover&quot; (Number Three, 2001), which included a loop of America's &quot;Ventura Highway,&quot; and &quot;Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You),&quot; a Missy Elliott remix featuring the vocals of Carly Simon from her Seventies hit &quot;You're So Vain.&quot;
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On February 1, 2004, Jackson returned to the public eye with a halftime performance with Justin Timberlake at Super Bowl XXXVIII. The duet on his song &quot;Rock Your Body&quot; created huge controversy when the bustier Jackson was wearing tore open and exposed her right breast just as Timberlake sang the lyrics, &quot;gonna have you naked by the end of this song.&quot; Jackson apologized for the incident, claiming it was a &quot;wardrobe malfunction,&quot; and the three producers of the show &amp;#8212; CBS, sister network MTV and the National Football League &amp;#8212; all denied previous knowledge of the incident and abdicated responsibility for it. The display became the most-searched event in the history of the Internet, according to the Guinness World Records. And its ramifications were far-reaching. When Jackson declined to apologize to the network without claiming the incident was a wardrobe malfunction, she was denied a performance at the 2004 Grammy Awards. Record producer Jermaine Dupri, with whom Jackson had begun a relationship, resigned his position on the Grammy Awards committee. ABC stopped plans for Jackson to star in a made-for-television biopic on the life of Lena Horne when Horne expressed displeasure with the Super Bowl incident.
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When Jackson's new album, &lt;I&gt;Damita Jo&lt;/I&gt; (Number Two, 2004), arrived three months later, its highly sexual theme revealed what some interpreted to have been an elaborate marketing plan that began with the Super Bowl incident. In a soft-spoken remark at the end of the song &quot;Sexhibition,&quot; Jackson says, &quot;Relax, it's just sex.&quot; If it was a marketing ploy, though, it was a failure. &lt;I&gt;Damita Jo&lt;/I&gt; produced no Top Forty pop singles &amp;#8212; although &quot;I Want You&quot; reached Number 18 on the R&amp;B/Hip-Hop chart &amp;#8212; and MTV aired none of its video. The album also met with vicious reviews, one critic calling it &quot;the aural equivalent of hardcore pornography.&quot;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Two years later, Jackson rebounded slightly with one of the least sexual albums of her career, &lt;I&gt;20 Y.O.&lt;/I&gt; (Number One R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, Number Two pop, 2006). One of its singles, &quot;Call on Me,&quot; a duet with rapper Nelly, sold moderately, charting respectably at Number 25 pop and Number One R&amp;B/Hip-Hop, but other singles were less successful. However, when she appeared on the cover of &lt;I&gt;US Weekly&lt;/I&gt; that June, the issue was the magazine's biggest seller ever. In late 2007 Jackson appeared alongside Tyler Perry in the film &lt;I&gt;Why Did I Get Married?&lt;/I&gt;, which opened at Number One at the box office, grossing $55 million. With her Virgin Records contract fulfilled, Jackson moved to Island Records for 2008's &lt;I&gt;Discipline&lt;/I&gt;, which topped both the pop and R&amp;B/Hip-Hop album charts and produced a hit in its first single, &quot;Feedback&quot; (Number 19 R&amp;B/Hip-Hop)." category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/janet-jackson/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Chris Brown" description="In 2005, a 16-year-old Chris Brown stormed the pop and R&amp;B charts with his self-titled debut album (Number One R&amp;B, Number Two Pop) and smash hit &quot;Run It!&quot; (Number One R&amp;B, Number 1 Pop). The album presented trendy electronic production techniques and updated homages to Brown's heroes Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Usher.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Born Christopher Maurice Brown on May 5th, 1989, in the small town of Tappahannock, in Virginia's Northern Neck, he began dancing at age 2 and singing at 11, but initially aspired to be a rapper. Around that time, his father met a record producer while working his gas station job. Brown eventually signed with Jive Records, which teamed him with a string of name songwriters and producers including Jermaine Dupri and Scott Storch. In addition to the jaunty &quot;Run It!&quot; (featuring rapper Juelz Santana and a video that showed off Brown's plentiful dancing skills), &lt;I&gt;Chris Brown&lt;/I&gt; yielded hits with the smooth bubblegum R&amp;B of &quot;Yo (Excuse Me Miss)&quot; (Number Two R&amp;B; Number Seven Pop, 2005) and the R&amp;B/hip-hop tracks &quot;Gimme That&quot; (Number Five R&amp;B; Number 15 Pop, 2006) with Lil Wayne, and &quot;Poppin'&quot; (Number Five R&amp;B; Number 42 Pop, 2006). The album won the young singer with the boyish face a string of awards in 2006 including Soul Train's Best R&amp;B Soul New Artist, BET's Best New Artist, Teen Choice's Male Breakout Artist and Billboard's Male Artist of the Year, New Artist of the Year and overall Artist of the Year.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Before releasing his second album, Brown headlined the Up Close and Personal Tour (which also included Bow Wow, Ne-Yo and Lil Wayne) and stole the show at 2007's MTV Video Music Awards, performing a tightly choreographed medley that included Michael Jackson's &quot;Billie Jean.&quot; &lt;I&gt;Exclusive&lt;/I&gt; (Number Two R&amp;B; Number Four Pop, 2007) arrived in November 2007 and broadened his musical palette with help from collaborators Will.i.am, Big Boi and Kanye West. The album yielded a blockbuster hit with rapper T-Pain, &quot;Kiss Kiss&quot; (Number One Pop; Number Two R&amp;B, 2007), as well as the acoustic-based R&amp;B/pop ballad &quot;With You&quot; (Number Two Pop; Number Five R&amp;B, 2007). Shortly after the album came out, Brown made his second big-screen appearance in the holiday film &lt;I&gt;This Christmas&lt;/I&gt; (he previously starred in the college dance film &lt;I&gt;Stomp the Yard&lt;/I&gt; and made several television appearances). &quot;Kiss Kiss&quot; was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 50th Grammy Awards.
" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/chris-brown/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Adele" description="British soul-pop chanteuse Adele (nee Adele Laurie Blue Adkins) is a stunning young talent with a huge voice. After she recorded a few songs, a friend set up a MySpace page for her in early 2005; record execs discovered her there in their hunt for the &quot;next Lily Allen.&quot; After signing to XL, she suffered from a terribly ill-timed case of writer's block -- that is until she fell in and out of love. A breakup opened the floodgates of emotion and creativity, resulting in her debut album &lt;i&gt;19&lt;/i&gt;. Inspired by great soul dames like Etta James and Billie Holiday and other singers such as Bjork, Jeff Buckley, Dusty Springfield and Jill Scott, Adele's sense of staggering, heartbreaking honesty and artistry are evidence of her superwoman resilience and everywoman experiences.
- Angela Bruno" category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/adele/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ray LaMontagne" description="Musical epiphanies often happen to people at the most random moments. Dave Matthews once confessed that his came when he was eating a hot dog at the legendary Pink's in Hollywood when a Paul Williams song came on the radio and from then on he knew what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds admits that after watching George Harrison play an electric 12-string guitar in &lt;I&gt;A Hard Day's Night&lt;/I&gt;, that he suddenly knew that the magic sounding, jangly chime was gong to be his trademark sound. For Ray LaMontagne, the calling came over the speakers of a shoe factory he was working in. More specifically, it was &quot;Tree Top Flyer&quot; by Stephen Stills that stopped him dead in his tracks when he knew that he had to leave his job and pursue a singing/songwriting career. Having grown up in a nomadic family, it wasn't too unfamiliar for LaMontagne to suddenly pick up and start over, which is exactly what he did. Ten recorded demo songs later, he was inking a deal with Chrysalis Music Publishing before teaming up with Hollywood producer Ethan Johns to cut his debut album &lt;I&gt;Trouble&lt;/I&gt; which was almost instantly nabbed by RCA Records in 2004. Although LaMontagne is often compared to Tim Buckley, his voice sounds not unlike a young Van Morrison or even Ryan Adams.
- Eric Shea" category="Adult Alternative" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ray-lamontagne/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Christina Aguilera" description="A former star of &lt;I&gt;The New Mickey Mouse Club&lt;/I&gt; who hit it big with an innuendo-laden single, then traded in her implicitly not-so-good-girl image for an explicitly not-so-good-girl image. Where have we heard this one before? The child of an Ecuadorian-American father and a Caucasian mother, Christina Aguilera started her career as a professional performer at age ten with a 1990 appearance on &lt;I&gt;Star Search&lt;/I&gt;. Her subsequent &lt;I&gt;Mickey Mouse Club&lt;/I&gt; stint led to Disney using her &quot;Reflection&quot; on the 1998 &lt;I&gt;Mulan&lt;/I&gt; soundtrack, and RCA released her self-titled debut in 1999. Dance-pop smashes like &quot;Genie in a Bottle&quot; and &quot;What a Girl Wants&quot; showcased her big voice, which, along with her Spanish-language version of the album (&lt;I&gt;Mi Reflejo&lt;/I&gt;), set her apart from the late-'90s crowd of pop-star ingenues.&lt;p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Yet Aguilera was still coming in second to Britney. Her appearance on the sexy 2001 remake of &quot;Lady Marmalade&quot; suggested a way into the spotlight. She radically altered her image for 2002's &lt;I&gt;Stripped&lt;/I&gt; and became Xtina, widely mocked for her look even as her voice proved soulful and mature. But in 2006 she released the acclaimed &lt;I&gt;Back to Basics&lt;/I&gt;, a tribute to the jazz and soul she says inspires her, and cemented her status as a grown-up diva.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Teen Beat" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/christina-aguilera/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Kristinia DeBarge" description="Everything is in place for Kristinia Debarge to be a huge pop star. She's got the pedigree: her dad (James DeBarge) and his siblings made up hit '80s R&amp;B outfit DeBarge. She's got the right formula for a sizzling debut: Babyface (who discovered the young singer and helped her win a Def Jam contract) wrote and produced much of it. And most of all, if her debut single is any indication, she's got the talent: &quot;Goodbye&quot; is a burning hot, dance-pop kiss-off that borrows from Steam's 1969 classic &quot;Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.&quot;
- Rachel Devitt" category="Dance Pop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/kristinia-debarge/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Amy Winehouse" description="If you like your chanteuses liberally doused in Chartreuse, Amy Winehouse is someone to raise a salutatory snifter to. As renowned for her boozing exploits and plunging dress sizes as for her marked musical abilities, the Londoner has risen to prominence on the back of gritty, often bleak autobiographical work. Winehouse readily admits that she writes from direct experience, and with songs that revolve around doomed relationships (&quot;Stronger than Me&quot;), drink (&quot;Rehab&quot;) and recreational drugs (&quot;Addicted&quot;), you soon get the picture. But that aside, it's Winehouse's voice -- which saw her welcomed with open arms by Britain's two premier performance schools -- that forms the foundation of her appeal. By turns as knowing and vulnerable as Billie Holiday's and as streetwise as Ms Dynamite's, it reflects her fluctuating musical fixations (jazz, hip-hop and latterly Motown) and is a perfect tool to deliver her wry and affecting observations on the pratfalls and pain inherent in the pursuit of love. As Winehouse puts it: &quot;I told you I was trouble/ You know that I'm no good&quot; (&quot;You Know I'm No Good&quot;).
- Jamie Dolling" category="Retro Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/amy-winehouse/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Luther Vandross" description="The 1980s were a period of unchecked greed and decadence, when the world donned rose-colored glasses that filtered out the homeless and made the hole in the ozone layer seem patched. All those good feelings and denial of social woes meant that romance was
back in style, and while the glasses clinked and millionaires' bankrolls flourished, so too did music to love by. Luther Vandross was the primary voice who provided the soundtrack for romantic rendezvous in the Reagan era, and by the mid-1980s, merely mentioning his name conjured up images of happy couples sipping Merlot in dimly lit rooms and chuckling at inside jokes -- and, alternately, jilted lovers consoling themselves. Blessed with a voice that was warm and soulful, Vandross' songs dripped with
romance, promised love on the horizon, or turned a teary eye towards duos fading into solitude. When things came crashing in and bleak reality reared its ugly head in the mid-1990s, florid R&amp;B gave way to less sentimental music . Even so, Vandross could always be counted on as the perfect complement to a night spent with a &quot;friend&quot; or the first few nights spent sleeping alone. He passed away on July 2, 2005, at the age of 54." category="Quiet Storm" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/luther-vandross/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Seal" description="In this age when marketers prefer to direct music at narrow audiences, Seal combines pop, R&amp;B, hip-hop and moody rock with a down-tempo dance vibe. The wide appeal and wide range of his sound is, in many ways, a product of the British singer's multifaceted background. Born Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Ongowe' Bongota Adelo Samuel to a Nigerian father and Brazilian mother, Seal earned a degree in architecture and worked as a leather clothing designer before joining the English funk band Push in the 1980s and, later, a blues band in Thailand. His most fortuitous collaboration was with house and techno producer Adamski, with whom Seal created 1990's &quot;Killer.&quot; The No. 1 hit earned him a solo record contract. His eponymous 1991 debut produced the smash hit &quot;Crazy,&quot; as well as a fruitful partnership between Seal and famed producer Trevor Horn. Over the next 16 years, Seal released four more albums, including his (also eponymous) 1994 sophomore effort (which featured &lt;I&gt;Batman Forever&lt;/I&gt; hit &quot;Kiss from a Rose&quot;) and 2007's &lt;I&gt;System&lt;/I&gt; (which featured a duet with wife Heidi Klum). Like Sade, his fellow uni-named Brit, Seal takes long breaks between recordings, letting his hits build over time.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Adult Alternative" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/seal/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Leona Lewis" description="The age when televised talent contests were popular kingmakers has no better poster child than Leona Lewis, an English neo-soul singer and songwriter who won the third series of a British TV talent show called &lt;i&gt;The X Factor&lt;/i&gt; and became a huge international pop star nearly overnight. Lewis began writing songs at 12 and winning local talent contests around London a few years later. Her big pipes earned her an instant following in the UK (here toothsome good looks probably didn't hurt either) before she even released her first single, &quot;A Moment Like This,&quot; in December of 2006. That single set records by being downloaded over 50,000 times in 30 minutes and was followed the next year by her debut LP, &lt;i&gt;Spirit&lt;/i&gt;, which had its songs and producers selected jointly by record moguls Simon Cowell and Clive Davis.
- Nate Cavalieri" category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/leona-lewis/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jamie Foxx" description="Born in small town Texas and raised by his grandparents, Jamie Foxx found early success on the comedy club circuit, before joining the cast of the Wayans brothers' sketch TV show &lt;I&gt;In Living Color&lt;/I&gt;. He then starred in his own self-titled sitcom for several years before making the switch to feature films. Despite being known primarily as an actor/comedian, his first love was always music, and he actually released a little-heard debut album entitled &lt;I&gt;Peep This&lt;/I&gt; back in 1994. In 2004, he sang the hook on Twista's smash hit &quot;Slow Jamz,&quot; and people everywhere took note of his smooth vocal abilities. That same year he dazzled audiences with his turn as Ray Charles in the biopic &lt;I&gt;Ray&lt;/I&gt;, where he flexed his pipes again, singing all of the songs in the film and taking home a Best Actor Oscar for his performance. One of his tunes from the film was sampled by Kanye West as the basis for &quot;Gold Digger,&quot; another No. 1 hit. In late 2005, he released &lt;I&gt;Unpredictable&lt;/I&gt;, a collection of glossy R&amp;B tracks featuring collabos with Kanye West and Ludacris among others. The album debuted at No. 2 on the charts, and soon rose to the top spot.
- Brolin Winning" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jamie-foxx/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="T-Pain" description="Coming out of Tallahassee, Fla., T-Pain started recording four-track keyboard beats and rhyming over them beginning at the age of 10. As a teenager, he rolled with a crew called Nappy Headz, finding local success with rowdy street records like &quot;Robbery&quot; and &quot;F.L.A.&quot; After the group's shine began to dim, T-Pain switched his focus to singing. In 2004, he reworked Akon's hit single &quot;Locked Up&quot; into his own tune entitled &quot;F*ck*d Up,&quot; and the song took off regionally. Akon himself was so impressed by the cut that he signed the young singer to his Konvict Records imprint. In the fall of 2005, T-Pain dropped his first major label single, the Zapp-flavored &quot;I'm Sprung,&quot; in anticipation of his debut album &lt;I&gt;Rappa Ternt Sanga&lt;/I&gt;. In 2007, T-Pain staked his claim on hip-hop and R&amp;B with &lt;I&gt;Epiphany&lt;/I&gt;, spawning the ubiquitous club joints &quot;Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')&quot; and &quot;Bartender.&quot; With vocoder in tow, T-Pain himself became ubiquitous, collaborating with Chris Brown, R. Kelly, Huey, DJ Khaled and every Florida rapper in existence. In 2008, he released his third album, the circus-themed &lt;I&gt;Thr33 Ringz&lt;/I&gt;, which featured the hit single &quot;Can't Believe It.&quot;
- Brolin Winning" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/t-pain/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Zero 7" description="Studio assistants turned superstars, London's Henry Bins and Sam Hardaker are now finding their cool and sexy tunes played all over the world. Prior to their highly acclaimed debut album, &lt;i&gt;Simple Things&lt;/i&gt;, Zero 7 started making waves with a series of EPs and remixes, including Radiohead's &quot;Climbing Up The Walls&quot; and Lenny Kravitz's &quot;If You Can't Say No.&quot; Soul vocalists Mozez, Sia Fuller, and Sophie Barker take their downtempo sound into the mainstream, yet their music shows no inclination to sell out.
- Nicholas Baker" category="Trip-Hop" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/zero-7/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Keyshia Cole" description="Hailing from Oakland, California, Keyshia Cole fell in love with music at a young age. Talented and determined, she recorded with a diverse group of local artists (MC Hammer, Messy Marv, Dwayne Wiggins) as a teenager, before leaving the Bay Area and relocating to Los Angeles. Once in L.A., she was quickly signed to a major label, and hasn't looked back since. She contributed songs to several movie soundtracks, then released her debut solo album &lt;I&gt;The Way It Is&lt;/I&gt; in 2005. The record was a hit thanks to popular singles like &quot;I Changed My Mind&quot; and &quot;I Should've Cheated,&quot; setting Cole on the path to R&amp;B stardom. Her sophomore album &lt;i&gt;Just Like You&lt;/i&gt; (2007) finds Cole's heart and mind in the same contemplative tug of war on love, but this time around, she mixes lachrymose balladry with some &quot;I'm-so-over-you&quot; dance-floor heat (i.e. &quot;Let It Go&quot;).
- Brolin Winning" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/keyshia-cole/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Duffy" description="When little Aimee Anne Duffy's father cued up a VHS tape with archaic episodes of the Brit music showcase program &lt;I&gt;Ready Steady Go!&lt;/I&gt;, the grainy performances of the Beatles and Stones left an indelible impression. By the time she was 15, she was singing in bands herself, and at 23 she had truncated her name, buddied up to Suede guitarist Bernard Butler and signed to A&amp;M. She instantly captured the manic adoration of the British media, who heralded the Welsh singer as the most recent in a line of playful, soul-inspired pop singers like Amy Winehouse. Her music certainly hitches itself to the Winehouse wagon with its ice-cold '60s grooves and Dusty Springfield influence, but Duffy's squeaky-clean image makes her a curious foil.
- Nate Cavalieri" category="Retro Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/duffy/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ginuwine" description="Ginuwine sings just like his name, bringing some seriously earnest crooning that occasionally falls into a pleading whine. It's okay with the ladies, though; Missy Elliot loves him and so do a lot of people looking for contemporary candlelight crooning." category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ginuwine/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Fergie" description="Born Stacy Ferguson in 1975, the woman now simply known as Fergie rose to fame as essentially a set-piece for one of the most popular pop-rap bands of the new millennium. But things weren't always so rosy for the California native. Her first go around in the music industry, with group the Wild Orchid, left her confused and depressed. After Orchid was dropped from their recording contract in the late-'90s, Fergie struggled with addiction and mental instability. But then she landed a role as a temporary background singer for up-and-coming hip-hop act the Black Eyed Peas. In 2003, she was offered a permanent position. And when their songs &quot;Where Is the Love&quot; and &quot;Let's Get It Started&quot; rocketed up the charts, she quickly became a star, appearing in music-related journals such as &lt;i&gt;Blender&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;FMH&lt;/i&gt;. The runaway success of 2005's &quot;My Humps&quot; -- Fergie's meditation on female anatomy -- led to a solo career. Her 2006 album, &lt;i&gt;The Duchess of York&lt;/i&gt;, was her debut.
- Sam Chennault" category="Hitmakers" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/fergie/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Anthony Hamilton" description="Hailing from Charlotte, N.C., Anthony Hamilton began singing in church and local talent shows before moving to New York in the early 1990s and signing with Uptown Records. After the label folded, he bounced to MCA and released his debut album, &lt;I&gt;XTC&lt;/I&gt;, in 1996. Sporting a classic vocal style different from the neo-soul crooners who were then coming into vogue, the LP got good reviews but failed to generate much hype. Hamilton soon started writing songs for artists like Donell Jones, toured with D'Angelo and sang on records by Eve and Tupac, among others. He finally hit the big-time in 2002 after teaming up with Nappy Roots for their single &quot;Po' Folks&quot; and earning a Grammy nomination in the process. Hamilton then hooked up with Jermaine Dupri, who signed him to So So Def and produced &lt;I&gt;Comin' From Where I'm From&lt;/I&gt; in 2003. A steady stream of records followed, including the archival collections &lt;I&gt;Soulife&lt;/I&gt; and &lt;I&gt;Southern Comfort&lt;/I&gt;, and 2008's &lt;I&gt;The Point of It All&lt;/I&gt;.
- Brolin Winning" category="Retro Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/anthony-hamilton/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Boyz II Men" description="With their early 1990s hit &quot;Motownphilly,&quot; Boyz II Men assured their status as big-time chart-toppers, able to control the No. 1 spot for weeks at a time (often only to be replaced by another one of their singles). Their tight harmonies give a nod to the Doo-Wop artists of the 1950s, while crisp production assures a distinctly modern sound. They've had success with smoking R&amp;B dance tracks, but their true talent lies in their rendering of syrupy romantic ballads that can drive just about anyone to tears. Their perfect A Cappella songs can melt your heart like butter, moving through open chords with exacting precision. Scores of weak imitations later, Boyz II Men continue to sell millions of records as they work with hot producers like Babyface and superstar singers such as Mariah Carey.
- Jessy Terry" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/boyz-ii-men/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Toni Braxton" description="Few artists start off on such a good foot as Toni Braxton, whose eponymous first album stealthily climbed the charts after it was released in 1993, KO'ing more established acts along the way and reaching the uppermost rungs. Unlike those she left lying on the mat, Braxton's success couldn't be attributed to a catchy hook or groovy beat. Instead, her songs rely on her husky vocals, which take jazz's heated inflections and map them over sauntering RnB rhythms. With a voice that so convincingly conveys sadness, remorse and occasionally joy, Braxton became the soundtrack for couples rediscovering love and lonely listeners nursing broken hearts alike. Her vocal abilities led to top 10 hits (such as &quot;Another Sad Love Song&quot; and &quot;Unbreak My Heart&quot;), Grammies, a starring role in Broadway's &lt;I&gt;Beauty and the Beast&lt;/I&gt; and a headlining gig in Vegas. At times, Braxton's career seems to have been fraught with almost as much struggle as success (she's battled with labels twice and has filed for bankruptcy). But this veteran performer (she got her start in 1989 with the Braxtons, a group she formed with her four sisters) has continuously prevailed over setbacks, thanks at least in part to her unique, evocative voice.
- Rachel Devitt" category="Quiet Storm" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/toni-braxton/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Chrisette Michele" description="Simply put, Chrisette Michele has one of the most beautiful voices in modern R&amp;B. Her restrained phrasing and sweet tenor points towards bygone eras, allowing her to carve out a niche within pop music. It's a distinctly retro sound, but unlike Joss Stone or even Amy Winehouse, Michele doesn't seem content to simply relive the old days. The production work on her 2007 debut, &lt;I&gt;I Am&lt;/I&gt;, is distinctly modern. That album was greeted with widespread critical acclaim, and though it didn't have a large commercial impact, it did seemingly reach the right people, and the New York singer was nominated for two Grammys in 2008. Michele has also lent her beautiful voice to tracks by hip-hop stars such as Jay-Z and Nas.
- Sam Chennault" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/chrisette-michele/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="India.Arie" description="India.Arie made waves in 2001 with her debut release on Motown Records, &lt;i&gt;Acoustic Soul&lt;/i&gt;. The album was not a blockbuster but it did produce some singles with considerable staying power, including &quot;Video&quot; and &quot;Brown Skin.&quot; Arie also garnered a few Grammy nominations out of the deal. More importantly, Arie has become the darling little sister of the Neo-Soul set, garnering comparisons to artists like Jill Scott and Macy Gray for her conscious lyrics and vibrant, organic sound." category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/indiaarie/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="The-Dream" description="Atlanta singer-songwriter The-Dream (born Terius Nash) became a household name in late 2007 with his smash hit &quot;Shawty Is a 10.&quot; With a drooping melody, light synth embellishments and a piano line that dances around the downbeat, the song -- off his December 2007 debut, &lt;i&gt;Lovehate&lt;/i&gt; -- is the equivalent of R&amp;B cotton candy. But Nash's story begins before then. Among many other credits, he wrote Rihanna's smash hit &quot;Umbrella,&quot; as well as J. Holiday's &quot;Bed.&quot; In addition to &quot;Shawty Is a 10,&quot; The-Dream also scored big with &lt;i&gt;Lovehate&lt;/i&gt;'s &quot;Falsetto&quot; and &quot;I Luv Your Girl.&quot; In 2009, he released sophomore effort &lt;I&gt;Love Vs Money&lt;/i&gt;. The album channels the lite electro-funk of Prince, while also echoing R. Kelly's arrogant sexuality. Add The-Dream's uncanny ear for melody and ability to sculpt instantly memorable hooks, and you have one of the biggest new stars in R&amp;B.
- Sam Chennault" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/the-dream/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Barry White" description="An icon of the disco era, Barry White turned a behind the scenes career in the music idustry into a highly succesful career as a performer and hitmaker. Strip away the lush strings and you'll see that White followed in the footsteps of such creamy R&amp;B baritones as Lou Rawls, Isaac Hayes, and even the politically charged Gil Scott Heron. Not really a singer, White used his voice well, employing pillow talk interludes like an amorous Orson Welles doused in Brut 33. Barry White used a heady brew of disco sheen and his bedroom voice to score hit after hit in the '70s. His &quot;Love's Theme&quot; in 1974 pretty much sums up White's mojo, but the hits kept coming until 1979 (perhaps corresponding to the moral backlash against the sexual revolution?). But even chaste monks can't help but be tickled by Barry White, who passed away on July 4, 2003
- Nick Dedina" category="Disco" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/barry-white/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Mario" description="Akin to other teenaged artists like Bow Wow, Lil' Romeo, and B2K, Mario seemed to come out of nowhere, scoring a huge hit with his debut single, &quot;Just A Friend 2002&quot; (Biz Markie recorded the original &quot;Just A Friend&quot; back in 1989 -- when Mario was 3). Signed to powerhouse label J Records (Alicia Keys) at the age of 15, his self-titled LP was a must-have for thousands of adoring female fans. In late 2004, he released his second LP, &lt;i&gt;Turning Point&lt;/i&gt;, flaunting a noticeable maturity in both his voice and lyricism, and scoring another hit with the single &quot;Let Me Love You.&quot;
- Brolin Winning" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/mario/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Jay Sean" description="Though few in the U.S. knew the name Jay Sean before the May 2009 release of his hit collaboration with Lil Wayne, &quot;Down,&quot; the singer had already found substantial success on two continents. His debut, 2004's &lt;i&gt;Me Against Myself&lt;/i&gt;, fused modern R&amp;B with Bollywood and was a big hit in Sean's parents' home country of India. The album also had a substantial impact in the U.K. (where Sean was born), thanks to hit singles &quot;Stolen&quot; and &quot;Eyes on You.&quot; His follow-up, 2008's &lt;i&gt;My Own Way&lt;/i&gt;, was equally successful, and Sean was dubbed the U.K.'s answer to Ne-Yo. He soon caught the attention of the American record industry and in late 2008 was signed to Lil Wayne's label, Cash Money. Sean and Lil Wayne quickly recorded their duet, which shot to the top of the American charts. He recorded five additional songs for 2009's re-release of &lt;i&gt;My Own Way&lt;/i&gt;.
- Sam Chennault" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/jay-sean/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Ciara" description="An R&amp;B singer out of Atlanta, Ciara hit the scene in the summer of 2004, hooking up with Lil Jon and Petey Pablo for her debut single &quot;Goodies.&quot; Set to a synth-powered beat very similar to the one in Pablo's hit &quot;Freek-A-Leek,&quot; the song (which she described as &quot;Crunk&amp;B&quot;) raced up the charts, setting the stage for her debut album of the same name. &lt;i&gt;Goodies&lt;/i&gt;, the LP, was released in the fall of 2004. In 2006, Ciara returned with &lt;i&gt;The Evolution&lt;/i&gt;, a more grown-up effort that bangs from the moment you press play. The singer/songwriter/producer/performer once again skyrocketed to the top, with hits like the symphonic &quot;Like a Boy,&quot; the sultry-sweet &quot;Can't Leaven 'Em Alone&quot; featuring 50 Cent, and the sexy Polow Da Don-produced hit &quot;Promise.&quot;
- Brolin Winning" category="Contemporary R&amp;B" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/ciara/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Anjulie" description="Anjulie is one of those precocious types who was probably born with the word &quot;success&quot; stamped on her forehead. The youngest child of Guyanese parents who immigrated to Toronto, Anjulie Persaud began playing and composing her own music while she was still a teenager. When she was 17, she scored herself an internship at Toronto's Metalworks recording studio. There, she befriended Jon Levine, keyboardist for Canadian R&amp;B outfit the Philosopher Kings. Levine was so impressed with the young singer-songwriter that they began writing together -- for his band, for other artists and eventually on Anjulie's debut album, which dropped in July of 2009. The album's lead single was the vintage soul cut &quot;Boom.&quot;
- Rachel Devitt" category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/anjulie/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
<outline type="include" text="Musiq (Soulchild)" description="A soulful vocalist hailing from Philadelphia, Musiq first made waves with his single &quot;Just Friends&quot; off the soundtrack to &lt;i&gt;Nutty Professor II: The Klumps&lt;/i&gt;. In fall of 2000 he released his debut album &lt;i&gt;Aijuswanaseing&lt;/i&gt;, a laid-back mix of full-bodied bass grooves, sensitive lyrics, and jazzy beats.
- Brolin Winning" category="Neo-Soul" url="http://feeds.rhapsody.com/musiq/data.opml?rws=%2Fsoul-r-b%2Fcontemporary-r-b%2Fartist-chart.opml" />
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