R. Kelly or D'Angelo...who you got?

[Rev]

anybody who does not choose Kellz in this case is kidding themselves

 

[SuperPawgHunter]

anybody who does not choose Kellz in this case is kidding themselves

Bro', it is easy to like D'angelo over R. Kelly. Kellz does cast a far bigger shadow, but D'angelo, bruh .... that nikka music is too damn soulful. I like what he do, and that is maybe what is blinding me. Dude is do-it-all type of artist, and I fukk with his music HEAVILY.

D is different, bro'.

I could never smash light-skinned sistas to D'angelo's music. I can to Maxwell, Sade, but not D'angelo. D'angelo got that, Holiness church, down a country dirt road kind of feel. That's a different level of blackness, bro'. Light-skinned nikkas can't make that kind of music

If that last part don't make sense, it's 'cause you light-skinned.

 

[Knicksman20]

Bro', it is easy to like D'angelo over R. Kelly. Kellz does cast a far bigger shadow, but D'angelo, bruh .... that nikka music is too damn soulful. I like what he do, and that is maybe what is blinding me. Dude is do-it-all type of artist, and I fukk with his music HEAVILY.

D is different, bro'.

I could never smash light-skinned sistas to D'angelo's music. I can to Maxwell, Sade, but not D'angelo. D'angelo got that, Holiness church, down a country dirt road kind of feel. That's a different level of blackness, bro'. Light-skinned nikkas can't make that kind of music

If that last part don't make sense, it's 'cause you light-skinned.

Nikka, I’m light skinned & I understand exactly what the fuk you’re saying

 

[brownsugah]

That fact that it’s 77 to 44 with R. Kelly winning further confirms my feelings that I stated before about the opinions in this section.

 

[Ukbrotha]

I’m a huge fan of both. Even loved D’s Messiah album. D’s music is just so spiritual and soulful. The issue is, RKelly is an all singing, music making juggernaut. He can do that soulful style as good as anyone and he can do the rnb stuff as good as anyone and more several styles. Most of his work is just untouchable. Shame he’s a scumbag paedophile.

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

That fact that it’s 77 to 44 with R. Kelly winning further confirms my feelings that I stated before about the opinions in this section.

what do u mean

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Why you folk acting like D'Angelo's brand of music has never been done before. So now you dudes are going so far as to say he created that brand of soul just so you guys can generate some type of argument that he's better than the most influential and prolific R&B artist of the past 30 plus years?

Neo soul was rooted in a specific 1970's R&B style but it was not a carbon copy. It was often underpinned with hiphop, jazz, electronic-house etc type feels that you didn't get in the type of R&B it was rooted in but it was closer to trad soul than the hiphop soul r kelly was making.

 

[Billy Ocean]

Neo soul was rooted in a specific 1970's R&B style but it was not a carbon copy. It was often underpinned with hiphop, jazz, electronic-house etc type feels that you didn't get in the type of R&B it was rooted in but it was closer to trad soul than the hiphop soul r kelly was making.

Yea, but people can't really pin R. Kelly as a "Hip Hop Soul" artist tho. He's made a large amount of music that can fit into alot of different categories of music. Kells even has a lot of music in his catalog that can easily be classified as neo-soul. He wrote Maxwell's biggest hit Fortunate, which is a neo soul song.

 

[Rev Leon Lonnie Love]

That fact that it’s 77 to 44 with R. Kelly winning further confirms my feelings that I stated before about the opinions in this section.

Nah you just delusional that's all 

Just accept that not everyone gets wet over D'angelo like u do.
The fact that u named yourself over one of his albums says it all

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Kells has used various styles throughout his career. To say he only uses one style of singing makes me believe that you are not familiar with his full body of work and you're minimizing his versality. He most definitely has used a traditional old school soul style many times throughout his career. Case in point:

he's done those type of songs but they aren't his forte/what people know him for

Whatever floats your boat. Kelly voice is more remarkable live than D'Angelo's is imo and I would say that you are in the minority in believing otherwise.

dude, Im positive if you ask people who who grew up on motown, stax, chitown soul etc.. who is better between r kelly and d'angelo, they will pick d'angelo 9/10.

Again...you are showing a severe lack of knowledge of Kells body of work. Kelly cannot be labeled "Hip Hop soul". For every one of his Hip Hop inspired tracks I can post up at least 15 traditional soul and/or R&B tracks. And for every Hip Hop inspired Kelly track that you may consider classic I can post 15 more that are considered classic that is more of a traditional soul and/or R&B track. Kelly has made FULL albums aimed at an older, non Hip Hop audience. See Happy People/U Saved Me, 12 Nights of Christmas, Black Panties, Love Letter, etc. He also has written and produced countless grown man tracks for a bunch of accomplished non Hip Hop artists like Maxwell, Whitney Houston, Joe, Michael Jackson, K-Ci and Jo-Jo, Charlie Wilson, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Tamia, etc. To say that he has more tracks considered classic because he is "Hip Hop soul" again shows you know very little about his body of work and if you do then you are being very disingenuous. His main connection with the urban demographic is because he is THAT GOOD.

Im fully aware of his body of work. His most popular stuff falls under hiphop soul. His more trad R&B sound is good but not on the level of D'angelos. The tracks that most older heads (55+ years of age) like by R Kelly is stuff like Stepping In The Name of Love. They don't listen to stuff like "Down Low" lol. Now, I rock with those kelly songs because Im from a younger generation but to put it into context..


Looking Back to 1999 When D’Angelo Said R&B Had Become ‘A Joke’, Let’s See If He Was Right

Let’s flashback to the late 90’s when D’Angelo was preparing his second album “Voodoo” and made a famous statement about the quality of r&b music at the time. R&B music had become Pop, playing on a wide range of radio stations across the globe with its popularity as great as ever. Unimpressed to where the genre had evolved, D’Angelo found his influence from the likes of artists like James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and Marvin Gaye.

In the interview where the comments originated, D’Angelo made the following statement:

“(Contemporary R&B)’s a joke, and the funny thing about it is that the people making this s*** are dead serious about the stuff they’re making,” he says, laughing. “It’s sad, they’ve turned black music into a club thing.”

We could speculate all day about exactly who he was talking about or specifically what songs evoked this negative reaction from him. He never did clarify in the years to come, but he really didn’t need to. His “Voodoo” album released later that year in 2000 and was critically acclaimed. Led by the single “Untitled (How Does it Feel)” with its mesmerizing video, the album sounded like nothing else out at the time. His debut album “Brown Sugar” had helped establish the neo-soul sub genre alongside artists like Maxwell and Erykah Badu, and now “Voodoo” took his artistry to the next level.

Let’s get back to dissecting the comments he made. First, “Contemporary r&b is a joke”. For starters, here were some of the biggest r&b songs in 1999: Deborah Cox “Nobody’s Supposed to be Here”, Whitney Houston “Heartbreak Hotel”, TLC “No Scrubs”, Maxwell “Fortunate”, Destiny’s Child “Bills, Bills, Bills”, Faith Evans “Never Gonna Let You Go”, Eric Benet & Tamia “Spend My Life With You”, Deborah Cox & RL “We Can’t Be Friends”, and Donell Jones “U Know What’s Up”. If you look at those songs, they’re widely considered timeless r&b classics. Sure, the music isn’t exactly the same as generations before, but you can certainly argue that these represent a strong evolution of where r&b came from. When you compare some of these songs to the music that influenced D’Angelo, you can see where the gap exists.

The next part of the quote states “The the funny thing about it is that the people making this s*** are dead serious about the stuff they’re making.” We have to believe he was referring to some of the more commercial r&b songs that had begun to gain popularity. As hip-hop began to see it’s monumental rise in the late 90’s, r&b would begin to mimic it in some ways. Starting to fade are the times when each song was composed from start to finish as a masterpiece, packed with live instrumentation and vocal performance. In were the times of machine made beats, watered down lyrics, catchy jingles, and rap features taking over. Certainly these ware good songs too, just much different than r&b had been used to in previous years.

Finally, the quote ends with “It’s sad, they’ve turned black music into a club thing.” This quote seems even more relevant in 2016 as we’ve just recently seen someone of r&b’s biggest stars, including Usher, Ne-Yo, and R. Kelly, making music specifically as strip club anthems. Many of r&b’s biggest legends created music throughout the decades that was so undeniable that DJ’s were forced to play it, and the fans loved it. As the late 90’s hit, artists would be creating music specifically targeting rotation in the club, and some would say this compromised the artistry. While we can’t say for certain this is what D’Angelo was speaking on, it’s definitely as widespread as ever today as we’ve moved towards a single driven culture in music.

As we look at how r&b has evolved even in the past decade, we can trace it through artists like Chris Brown, Trey Songz, Ne-Yo, Usher and even R. Kelly; some of the genres biggest stars. We’ll start with the younger generation. Chris, Trey and Ne-Yo began in the mid 00’s and you could tell their music emulated their influences like Michael Jackson and R. Kelly. Eventually they deviated from that a bit, and their music took on the sound made popular at radio like EDM and hip-hop influences. “Loyal” by Chris Brown is a good example of where r&b had evolved to in the mainstream.

Usher is an interesting artist to look at, because he’s had a lot of success while evolving over the past two decades, yet his music has changed almost completely. When he started out in the 90’s even through his biggest album “Confessions”, he was making what most considered a “pure r&b” sound that came out of the 90’s era. You could see things start to change with “Yeah!” as he emulated the “Crunk&B” sound and his following albums which trended more towards pop, EDM, and club bangers. It’s fair to say his music has gotten younger as he’s gotten older, and the most mature music he made was when he was in his early 20’s.

R. Kelly is an even more extreme example. His last two albums were “Black Panties” and “The Buffet” and both were very hip-hop driven, over sexualized, tailor made for radio, and a far cry from some of his biggest r&b hits. There is no disputing R. Kelly as the king of r&b, but you can clearly see how he evolved from “Bump N Grind”, “I Believe I Can Fly”, “Half on a Baby” and “When a Woman’s Fed Up” in the 90’s, to “Fiesta”, “Ignition”, “Snake” and “Thoia Thong” in the early 00’s.

The point we’re trying to make is that artists are now influenced by what’s currently popular as opposed to being influenced by artists or eras of music that came before them; and that’s precisely what we feel D’Angelo was getting at. When he returned with his “Black Messiah” album in 2014, he clearly reached back to the influences he grew up on and blocked out everything out that was currently popular. The album was a big success and netted him three Grammy Nominations, but even more importantly, showed that he knew what he was doing all along.

To bring things full circle to the point we made earlier in the article, music always evolves, but the fans don’t always evolve with it. It’s not a stretch to say that D’Angelo as a music fan was unhappy with where the r&b music he grew up on was going, and made these statements. We’re sure that many r&b fans who loved the genre throughout the 90’s felt the same way, just like most older fans of r&b cannot listen to anything considered younger r&b music these days. Most fans consider the music they grew up on to be the only “real r&b”, unwilling to accept the future evolution of it. So we’ll have to disagree when D’Angelo said that r&b had become a joke. The younger fans of r&b love the current iteration of the genre just as much we the older fans loved it during their generation growing up.

Looking Back to 1999 When D'Angelo Said R&B Had Become 'A Joke', Let's See If He Was Right - YouKnowIGotSoul.com

 

[NormanConnors]

A more "talented clip"? What the fukk does that even mean? And please name all the genre's that D'Angelo covers. R. Kelly has written and performed traditional R&B, Soul, Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, Gospel and Country music. And who are these "music heads" you are referring to? Please post anything that backs up your implication that "music heads" believe that D'Angelo is more talented than R. Kelly. Also, I already pointed out that D'Angelo is a better instrumentalist. R. Kelly doesn't really do instruments. It's not really his forte.

See yall cats campaigning for Robert are basing it off of catalog and not groundbreaking material...

D can do ALL genres of music, r&b, jazz, fusion (), soul, funk, gospel, rock, it dont matter.


As far as music heads i mean brothas that can jam and are beast in there own right like Raphael Saadiq, Quest love, Robert Glasper.

And you do know D'Angelo wrote this which had an R Kelly fresh off of 12 play on it




Post something from Robert as cold as this




Breh isnt seeing D at all, LIVE or on WAX

 

[brownsugah]

See yall cats campaigning for Robert are basing it off of catalog and not groundbreaking material...

D can do ALL genres of music, r&b, jazz, fusion (), soul, funk, gospel, rock, it dont matter.


As far as music heads i mean brothas that can jam and are beast in there own right like Raphael Saadiq, Quest love, Robert Glasper.

And you do know D'Angelo wrote this which had an R Kelly fresh off of 12 play on it




Post something from Robert as cold as this




Breh isnt seeing D at all, LIVE or on WAX

And D’Angelo was only 20 when he wrote and produced “U Will Know” for all of those artists as well. Dude was kinda a prodigy tbh.

 

[smokeurobinson]

I've come to learn that you are a very slow dude. Here's my statement:

"Kelly writing most his shyt, producing most his shyt having a more expansive discography and writing classics for others DEBATABLE? All those are facts. You delusional stanning or trolling."

That is not me having an issue with what someone likes or dislikes. That is me stating facts. If you choose to you can try to dispute those facts. Go ahead.

Look homie....Just remember u started with me asking me questions about MJ when I was focused on pointing out that we need to have the same energy with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. Everything I've said in here is me just taking shots back. As far as I'm concerned we even. But I know you...You'll be starting with me again in due time. You always start first.

 

[Black Bolt]

I got Kelly.

He's the...

- Better songwriter
- Better vocalist
- Wrote dope/classic songs for other accomplished and legendary artists
- More expansive discography
- More versatlie and creative
- More classics. Songs and albums
- produces damn near all his shyt

lol, I voted D but appreciate Kells body of work is vast. The bolded is laughable tho

 

[nieman]

What is this Wikipedia ass shyt? Neo soul is more then new soul artist just like pop music is more then just popular songs.

I gotta agree with Billy Ocean. He was simply a soul artist, with a hip-hop twist. Hell, Mary was in that category before D'Angelo. They wen't back a reclassified him as "neo-soul" when they saw that the music had a legitimate mainstream market.

because D'Angelo does the same at more talented clip, breh covers more genre's musically, plays more instruments, is more talented period, any music head whether in the industry or out will tell you that. Thats without even factoring in live performance.

D'Angelo is in that Prince/Stevie Wonder category. Comparing him to R Kelly who is a blatant biter is laughable, one minute breh is trying to sound/look like Aaron Hall, Lenny Williams next, and Marvin after that, breh has no identity.

Technically, Kels is much closer to Prince than D'Angelo would ever be. This isn't about whose music you like better, but the output doesn't compare. And I really don't agree that D'Angelo has the vocal range of Kels. He's nowhere as versatile or has the pen game. No matter what, you're gonna get a D'Angelo track from him. But with the R penning for others, you got different styles. Instruments and more digestible music is where D'Angelo trumps Kels, because sometimes you're not in the mood to hear the explicit type of music R was known for,everything else you have to give to R.