R&B artists express themselves more explicitly
Figuring out why profanity on rise in genre complicated
Tank was nervous after sending his manager a preview of “When We” — he had never released a song that explicit.
“He’s like, ‘You’re crazy, but it’s jammin’!’ ” the R&B singer recalled. “It ended up being my biggest record ever.”
Released in 2017, the seductive chorus of “when we (expletive)” was obviously too explicit for radio, so a “clean” version used the phrase “when we touch.” Despite releasing his first album in 2001 and crafting heartbreak hits such as “Maybe I Deserve” and “Please Don’t Go,” it was “When We” that has been Tank’s most successful, finishing No. 1 on Billboard’s 2018 year-end adult R&B airplay chart.
“I didn’t reinvent anything vocally — a little R&B here and there, tapped into my rap cadence, tapped into my Migos (style),” Tank, now 47, said. “I was competitive.”
Being competitive — and collaborative — with hip-hop is one of the reasons today’s R&B is more explicit. Last year’s Luminate Year-end report found that R&b/hip-hop is America’s most popular genre, accounting for the most U.S. on-demand song streams and the largest share of total album consumption.
“It just seems a little bit more extravagant now because some of the R&B singers are acting like rappers,” said Colby Tyner, senior vice president of programming at Radio One and Reach Media, which operates the largest urban radio network in the U.S. “It was a clear separation of church and state. Now, it’s a little bit together, and so the music reflects it.”
So how did R&B go from Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” to Chris Brown singing “(expletive) you back to sleep”? It’s complicated.
“It used to be that television and radio was where you got your content. And if it was television and radio, it was censored because of the FCC. Well, you got Youtube, you got all these streaming services and you got social media. So, we are in the authentic era,” said Tyner. “We (the radio industry) are the last sort of bastions of ‘we can’t do
that’ because we’re controlled by the government regulations.”
Just one offensive or curse word can lead to a parental advisory label, so what’s defined as explicit can be subjective.
It’s the parent test: Would they want their children listening? While Hollywood has an independent ratings board, record companies and artists determine what receives a parental warning.
As hip-hop grew in popularity, Billboard had to adapt; Some charts began grouping rappers and singers together, triggering fights for airplay, which remains a sore subject. And with the recent explosion of melodic rap — a blend of rapping and harmonizing — spearheaded by artists such as Future, Drake, Lil Uzi Vert and Travis Scott, the Grammys now recognize it as a category.
In the 1990s, a period considered by some as R&B’S last golden age, it was almost unthinkable that an artist would curse because radio couldn’t play it. None of the top 25 songs on Billboard’s 1990 Hot R&b/hip-hop Songs chart required an explicit label. In 2022, with rap more dominant, all but one in the top 25 — Beyonce’s “Break My Soul” — needed a
clean version.
While themes of romance and sensuality have always breathed within soul music, much of today’s R&B has replaced innuendo with bluntness. But while profanity has increased, artists are divided on whether the actual content has changed, citing classics like Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” “Prince’s “Darling Nikki” and much of R. Kelly’s sexually charged catalog that dominated the ’90s and early 2000s.
“A lot of R&B artists were just as savage back in the day — they just had to be tame,” said Rico Love, vice president of the Recording Academy and a producer. “Think about it: The record companies forced them to be clean cut and preppy and all those things. I think now, artists have found their freedom.”
Hip-hop’s influence might be the lowest hanging fruit, but it’s only one factor within a larger explanation. Psychologist Jean Twenge, author of “igen: Why Today’s Super-connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy— and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood,” says technology has
decreased many rules of the past.
“More technology just allows people to be more independent. And that’s been just a very, very steady change in culture in the U.S. and in many other countries over the past hundred years … individualism is at the root of an enormous number of cultural changes that we see today,” said Twenge. “These changes have affected everybody, not just young people . ... The society has definitely shifted more in that direction of being more casual and favoring self-expression more.”
Film and TV have also become more explicit in depicting sexual situations, nudity, violence and language. Pop music carries more warnings than ever, and even family-friendly artists such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift have released albums labeled as explicit.
“It’s not just R&B, the world is more explicit,” said Grammy winner Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. “… Even in the ’90s, it would have been great to use a couple of cuss words in a couple of songs. It would’ve just hit so much better if you could’ve just went there because it just would have said it better.”
Moreover, Generation Z and younger Millennials only know a world with the internet, and nearly all teens — 95% — have access to a smartphone, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center study. As information flows faster with each generation, some believe young people are learning mature subject matter earlier, and it trickles into what they create. Plus, making and releasing music is easier than ever; expensive recording studios or record labels are no longer barriers.
“This generation feels very free and open, and a lot of people who wouldn’t have had access to create music back then, they can now create in their bedroom,” said singer-songwriter Chloe Bailey of Chloe x Halle. “So, there is a vast amount of product coming out. So maybe that’s why it seems like there’s so much explicit music because there’s just more music now, period.”
Social media behavior can also influence the content choices people make with their music. According to 2021 data from Pew, 84% of adults 18-29 say they use at least one social media site.
“Everybody’s just trying to outdo each other,” Grammy winner T-pain said. “It’s all a popularity contest. So, whoever gets talked about the most, that’s what it is. And the more risque you are, the more attention, the more you get talked about.”
While there is crossover of younger artists on the adult R&B airplay chart, which generally features more traditional R&B, the content is far less explicit. Only 11 of the top 25 songs from last year’s year-end chart were labeled explicit, with eight of the 11 by younger artists. On the yearend Hot R&B chart which tracks mainstream R&B, 19 of the top 25 songs carried an advisory.
Mary J. Blige, a nine-time Grammy winner who has been successful through R&B’S changes since the ’90s, says it’s all about expression.
“Just like when we were growing up, we came from a place where we expressed ourselves from where we were living and how we were living. So, these new generations are expressing themselves,’’ she said.
Blige says she can relate to younger artists.
“I’m so proud of them. I love them. They’re doing exactly what we did: They’re speaking from their experience, and I respect that,” Blige said. “I have so much respect for their artistry.”