R&B Classics

Most people who know me know that I love a bit of classic R&B, hip-hop soul, or whatever you call it - you know the genre. Through a deep sea of favourites, i'll try and pick a couple to kick off the R&B section on this blog. Through growing up in the late 90's mid 00's, I was led into these tunes as they got air time on the radio and on various music channels. Nowadays, the majority of house // electronic // hip-hop DJ's sample R&B tunes and either use them in a mix or to create their own edits & songs.

Female signers with a rapper featuring with a verse seemed to be a common trend. While although it's still a bit strange hearing Joe Budden, a now member of hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse, rap a verse on a Christina Milian song, I still enjoy it. I know this was a method to bump up the earnings and hit a new audience, and i'm not complaining. To my knowledge it was pioneered by Biggie and Puffy during the throwback 'Ready to Die' promotions for a couple of the albums songs, and this method of production was triggered. Anyway, maybe I wouldn't have been into these tunes as much if a hip-hop influence wasn't present... I doubt it as I still love this sub-genre to this day, but it's obvious loads of people were.

But yeah, I know loads of classic R&B songs can be either solo male // female, a group and sometimes even the R&B artist features on a hip-hop song. But the rapper featuring is clearly a trend in 90's & 00's R&B. Anyway... to wrap up, below i've posted three classic R&B tunes all featuring a rapper, and neither are sitting dusty in my iTunes library.

They are, "Boy - Mariah Carey Featuring. Cam'ron", "Best of Me (Part 2) - MYA Featuring. Jay-Z" & "All I Have - Jennifer Lopez Featuring. LL Cool J".