Hip hop soul

Hip hop soul is a type of Contemporary R&B that originated in the early 1990s and is generally based around melodic, soulful singing over Hip Hop beats. Hip hop soul evolved directly out of the dominant form of contemporary R&B at the time, New Jack Swing, which was also characterized by strongly hip hop-inspired rhythms. However, hip hop soul is a notably less dance-oriented style with generally slower tempos and a greater emphasis on sampling directly from the hip hop genre. This style hit its peak in popularity in the early and mid-1990s, and is generally associated with Mary J. Blige, who is known as "The Queen of Hip Hop Soul" due to her role in popularizing it with her debut album What's the 411? and therefore changing the course of mainstream contemporary R&B. What's the 411 was produced in large part by Sean "Puffy" Combs, who was arguably the most important producer in the genre, also contributing to TLC's CrazySexyCool and kickstarting the careers of hip hop soul artists like Faith Evans and Total through his Bad Boy Records. Hip hop soul was not, however, a phenomenon merely limited to Combs and artists that worked with him: it was the dominant sound of contemporary R&B in the early and mid-1990s, as can be seen by the success of completely unrelated artists like Jodeci and R. Kelly. By the late 1990s, hip hop soul had largely faded out of relevancy and was usurped by movements such as Neo-Soul that retained influence from hip hop and contemporary R&B but placed more emphasis on more progressive structures, a less conventional sound, and live instrumentation.