cover image source: Giphy
We're rounding out February with another awesome pair of musical genres — Hip Hop and R&B — both of which originated from Black American culture. And, to be clear, when I mention Hip Hop, I'm including Rap in that same realm. In case you didn't notice, for the past few weeks, we've been traveling back in time to look at music that was created and/or popularized by Black Americans. Earlier this month, we looked at Jazz & Blues which ruled the scene in the first half century of the 1900s and continues on with dedicated scenes today. After that, we turned our eyes to Funk, Soul, Disco, & Reggae — all of which flourished throughout the 70's and again, are still much loved today. Now, we look to Hip Hop, which has grown from humble beginnings at 70's block parties in NYC to one of the most popular genres in the world today! Notably, I feel like R&B often gets tacked onto Hip Hop (shoot, I'm guilty of it here) but to me, I think of it as an evolution of Soul mixed with Pop — and yes, it's grown alongside Hip Hop, so has those elements too. R&B is sort of a culmination of a lot of the genres that we've been talking about this month. But, what is a music genre anyway? 🤷♂️ Haha, this entry paragraph has been too long already... let's listen to some Hip Hop and R&B.
How we do
In this weekly series, folks can chime in and drop links to whatever it is they've been listening to recently + browse others' suggestions. You can follow the suggested genre if you'd like, but don't feel confined to it; you're free to suggest whatever you wanna. 🙌
If you're interested in having other discussions about music, consider following the aptly named #music discussions organization.
Alright, I'm ready for some R&B and Hip Hop. Bring it on!
Note: you can embed a link to your song using the following syntax {% embed https://... %}. This should work for most common platforms!
Looking forward to listening to y'all's suggestions! 🎶
🚨p.s. Check out @rachelfazio's new series Podcast Palooza— What are you listening to?🚨
Top comments (32)
Is it working at DEV like this?
“everyday can be a better day despite the challenge
All you gotta do is leave it better than you found it”
Have a nice week start everyone!
Oh and working at DEV is quite different from this lol!! No office for us — we work from home, so I can blast my music and dance like this if I want to though, haha. 🕺
Haha, sounds amazing. Which kind of music do you usually hear the most?
I really bounce around a lot to be honest... I got eclectic tastes and I think that's one reason why this genre-changing thread works so well for me cause I'm open to liking any kind of music.
But, I think classic rock is my all-time go-to. And you might think, that's cheating, classic rock includes so much... it's just like any type of rock that is old and you'd be right, hahaha! But aside from that, I've really been enjoying funk these past few years... both old and new funk. For the old stuff, it's been The Meters, The Neville Brothers, Funkadelic, Sly & The Family Stone... for the new stuff, I really like Parcels, Vulfpeck, The Fearless Flyers, etc.
But, I still regularly pop on some good hip hop or retrowave/synthwave music... actually the synthwave stuff has been one of my more recent obsessions over the past year. I love the band called The Midnight. They got a vibe that just really gels with me. 😎
How about you — do you have a favorite genre of music?
Hey, I listened some music from all those artists and I added like 6 new songs to my playlists...
You know, I was very familiar with the new funk, I know all of those, but I didn't new none of the classic ones, and it sounds excellent to be more productive. Maybe this is not funk exactly, but it reminded me a bit of Four Tops (Reach Out I'll Be There is top-notch).
The Midnight... The vocalist sounds a lot like the vocalist from The Royal Concept, but the style reminds me a lot like Vacation Manor (listen to Magic, but they have a ton of good music), and of course they remind me to, Revelator Eyes from Paper Kites.
Me? I listen to a lot of music, I like Jazzy, Latin (I'm Latin... merengues, canta autor, folklore), Italian, 50's, disco, instrumental... but... I do have a favorite genre, indie style music, and yes, that covers a wide range of music too, haha. I'd like to hear music that I won't hear in any place, and I love to recommend music that is not popular to people and then they ask me how did I get those amazing tunes, and it is amazing when I find people who also know a lot of my music.
Every now and then I have a favorite band that I stick to for like 2 years or more, currently is Nature TV, they have such an amazing music and sometimes I feel they are so underrated, these are just a few of their amazing tunes: Gracie (personal favorite), You And Me, Hometown, Inventory
And currently I'd been listening to a southern-like style, like Jesse Woods, Sumbuck, Caamp... Maybe not so southern-style, but I believe You'll like this one Michael Nau - No Quit
I know it is a lot of music, I had some free time haha, but the last one you should hear, hopefully it will fit with you.
Wow!!! Thanks for digging into my suggestions and for chocking this message full of your own recommendations. This is so dope!
I appreciate you taking the time to put this together! Also, I'd love to get introduced to more Latin music... I don't know it all that well, but I like it and am open to being shown more. I just put on this Juan Pablo Vega song and it's great — first one of your suggestions I've put one, but you can bet I'll be digging through your whole list.
Haha, I so relate to this! It's fun to go exploring for new tunes and then to turn yourself and your friends onto stuff that you otherwise like wouldn't find. You might've heard the term crate digging, we are the modern-day digital crate diggers, my friend. 😀
Anywho, I'm gonna continue cruising through your suggestions and will let ya know my thoughts. By the way, just started listening to Magic and I totally totally hear the connection to The Midnight. The singer sounds extremely similar and the vibes of the music are also very much in line with something they'd do! Such a great suggestion!
Hey! (Casually appearing a month later just like nothing)
Sorry for the very late reply, been pretty busy trying to create content, learning, with a client... however, I didn't forget this, haha.
It would be a pleasure to give you an introduction to Latin music, but this is my take, not what everybody listens. (Except for the classics)
Juan oh! Juan (101) Latin intro (My take)
Classics:
Songs with beautiful lyrics
To move your feets
Well, there you have! If you ever need more, you know who to call.
And no doubt I'm a modern crate digger, haha.
Actually, one of the reasongs (🥁) of why I remembered this is because recently I've discovered an amazing artist that has amazing songs in a reggae style, so I had to recommend it to you, only 2 song to not make this list bigger:
I don't think you'll like them, I think you'll love them.
After dropping this message, I got to thinking and was like damn, I have a feeling that Rodrigo dropped me some suggestions a while back that I didn't yet dig into...
And yes indeed you did... I found it, haha!
I'm gonna reciprocate now and listen to these tracks... will let ya know what I think! 😀
Dude, I'm lovin' "Piel Canela" ... so classic sounding!
Hey, no worries Michael! No hard feelings, we all are are busy. But thanks a lot for taking the time to listen to does, I remembered you wanted to be introduced to latin music, so hopefully those songs get you a good intro and make you appreciate other type of music too. 😉
Edit: Actually, Piel Canela is my favorite classic Spanish song, it was a recommendation of a Mexican friend of mine.
I listened to this one earlier in the week but totally forgot to comment. What a rad song + music video! This is just a good time from start to finish. Goofy feel-good music... I like it! 🙌
Thanks, the world is not perfect and is hard to be possitive, that's why I like that song, is to be possitive, to feel good and you can always find joy even though the times are hard.
That's a good way to live right there! 😀
Big Daddy Kane.
Oh hell yeah! Good call out, Stefan.
I really wasn't very aware of Big Daddy Kane until I saw this NPR Tiny Desk concert during COVID.
His flow definitely grabbed and got me to dig back into his material a bit.
There's a cool series on Netflix called Hip-Hop Evolution and one of their episodes focuses on him quite a bit + he's in a lotta the interviews. Good stuff!
@michaeltharrington whats im your ears?
So at this very moment, I'm tuning into an old song called "Acid Raindrops" by People Under the Stairs. I'm digging around and trying to find something good to share with y'all in here... but shoot, why not this track? It's an old favorite from high school.
Name sounds familiar can't place at the moment. Not bad and they provide a different feel to the genre.
I'm into this playlist for two weeks and can't stop :D
This is a fun playlist, Arthur!
I see Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head in the second spot and that reminds of this awesome cover I saw, check it out!
It's wonderful and so touching
Wow! Thanks, I'll check it out
I've been listening to this off and on for a smooth start to this Monday
Alicia hitting all the right Keys for me today
Oh hell yeah! Alicia Keys is one of the greats.
I dropped a Tiny Desk show elsewhere in the comments, but now I gotta share one more. Hope ya enjoy this.
I had no idea about this series, really like this one and it really is a tiny desk ha
Pretty sure this counts as R&B 😄
I agree — count it!
This is super chill. Appreciate ya sharing, Oscar. 🙌
open.spotify.com/track/3zL0LAsSh3d...
Classic album right there. It's one of my faves! 🔥
The Miseducation of Eunice Waymon! ✊🏿youtu.be/-THq0-EDJrE?si=-PhbxMTfH3...
Holy crap, this is freaking awesome. What a damn mashup! 🔥
When it comes to underground hip hop, I got a good track for y'all — "Latryx" by Latryx.