Nelson George On The Evolution Of Funk,R&B & Hip Hop (band, blues)

[Motion]

A good interview with music/cultural critic Nelson George. Checkout some of his books.

One of the last sections of The Death of Rhythm & Blues deals with hip hop, and hip hop basically ate R’n'B. The generation of musicians that came up, say, post-Teddy Riley, they were so hip hop-based that a lot of the musicality of R’n'B really got lost. Mary J. Blige, her first two albums she mostly sings over samples, and that became standard. It wasn’t about band music, it was about R’n'B over hip hop, and that dominated for a long, long time, with the exception of the neo-soul moment. The neo-soul thing, that whole generation of D’Angelo, Jill Scott, Maxwell, was in the tradition of R’n'B, but at the time that seemed like an underground thing, because what became mainstream R’n'B through R. Kelly and Beyonce and Mary was much more hip hop. I think that’s the hugest thing [since the original book] – that traditional R’n'B got eaten by hip hop.

Nelson George part 2: chasing Prince and loving Springsteen | The Ask

[Motion]

As far as what he said about Neo-Soul being underground. That's kinda what appealed to me about that music,that it had an underground/college radio vibe to it.

[propexpert]

Among the many items on my bucket list is to assemble young musicians into R&B/funk bands. As someone who came of age in the 1970s with Kool & the Gang; Earth, Wind & Fire, George Clinton's P-Funk collective and the Isley Brothers, among countless other bands, it hurts me to see R&B/Funk go the way of the musical dodo bird. Hip hop is OK for what it is, but what it is not is MUSIC.