1995 marked an explosive decade for R&B music as it transitioned from its soulful origins towards more hip-hop-influenced sounds and dance beats.
Erykah Badu made her mark by merging R&B, jazz and hip-hop into “Next Lifetime.” Mary J. Blige also pioneered this unique partnership by recreating soul classics over rhythmic beats – something Erykah Badu hadn’t attempted with “Next Lifetime”.
Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson established herself as one of the most successful female pop stars ever with her 1993 album janet, featuring “That’s the Way Love Goes,” for which she won a Grammy award for best rhythm and blues song. Producers Jam and Lewis returned for Design of a Decade which produced “Runaway”, an elegant tribute to travel that features lush synth-based productions.
Boyz n the Hood soundtrack in 1995 marked her big-screen debut and 2004 saw the release of Damita Jo, continuing her sensuous style while exploring themes of empowerment.
A wave of R&B artists gave it a more contemporary sound in the 1990s, drawing influence from hip-hop and neo soul production styles for more edgy arrangements and aggressive lyrics; group harmonies also flourished notably among female groups like Supremes, Total Blackstreet and TLC who boasted vocally adept members.
Toni Braxton
Toni Braxton has become one of the most influential and best-selling female R&B singers of all time. Born in Severn, Maryland and raised within a religious household with music playing an integral role, she started her musical career alongside her sisters as The Braxtons group.
Once her group disbanded, she signed with LaFace Records and recorded her debut self-titled album which garnered her a Grammy Award and set in motion the rest of her career.
In 1996, she released Secrets as her second album and it became an enormous hit. A combination of traditional R&B ballads as well as soft rock ballads with elements of hip-hop soul and dance were featured within its tracks.
In 2000, she returned to the top of the charts with her third album The Heat. This marked a shift in direction as she adopted an urban sound. Later in 2014 she collaborated with Babyface on Love Marriage & Divorce which earned them both a Grammy Award.
SWV
After initially forming as a gospel group, SWV (Sisters With Voices) quickly transitioned to become one of the most successful R&B groups of the 1990s. Leanne Lyons, Cheryl Gamble and Tamara Johnson have become key members and produced hit after hit including Weak, Right Here, I’m So Into You and You’re The One.
Coko and her dynamic vocal talents gave the trio its signature sound. Their debut album It’s About Time became an instant classic that cemented both their unique sound and neighborhood-girl image.
This song is a slow-burner that explores the excitement, desire and emotional connections found within intimate relationships. It celebrates sexual chemistry and making your partner weak with pleasure – Babyface produced track became a smash hit on Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts respectively as well as featuring on Waiting To Exhale soundtrack. While Taj eventually parted ways with her bandmates she kept busy signing modeling contracts, earning a BA degree from Belmont University and marrying NFL running back Eddie George.
Montell Jordan
Montell Jordan first gained notoriety with his 1995 hit song “This Is How We Do It,” from his 1995 debut album with that name. This infectious, upbeat track sampled and interpolated Slick Rick’s cautionary Def Jam track “Children’s Story”, yet captured an upbeat moment when hip-hop and R&B crossed over in mutual appreciation.
Jordan also released hits such as the relationship revenge plot “Payback,” featuring Coolio, and deep album track “Comin’ Home,” both reflecting hip-hop’s increasing influence over soul music at that time. Though he left Def Jam in 2003, he continued releasing pop hits until retiring from music altogether in 2010. Masterpeace became his spiritual self-help marriage guide with wife Kristen called Masterpeace before leaving music behind altogether in 2010.
Montell has made “This Is How We Do It” a global catchphrase and currently heads Victory World Church in Dacula, Georgia with his wife. Additionally he’s an accomplished songwriter and actor appearing in films such as The Nutty Professor, Fighting Temptations and 2015’s The List. In addition he established Victory World Music collective within his church.
En Vogue
En Vogue is an iconic female group in music history, selling more than 20 million albums worldwide and helping pave the way for later female acts such as TLC and Xscape. Furthermore, En Vogue has long been known for their charitable endeavors, having collaborated with multiple organizations to raise awareness about various causes.
Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy of Club Nouveau created En Vogue as a group. Following auditions, they decided on Cindy Herron (formerly Miss Black California), Maxine Jones and Dawn Robinson who then recorded under their original name 4-U before changing it to En Vogue for future releases by Foster and McElroy.
Born to Sing was an enormous hit when released, producing three hit singles including the number two hit “Hold On.” Their second album Funky Divas also achieved great success – particularly its third single “Whatta Man,” written with Salt-N-Pepa member Pepa Robinson that reached number 10 on the charts. Robinson left in 1997 requiring them to rerecord some songs for their third and most recent effort, EV3.
Mary J. Blige
Blige has won nine Grammy Awards in three different genres – R&B, pop and hip hop. Additionally, she is four-time Emmy Award recipient and has sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Blige holds the distinction of becoming the only performer ever to achieve eight albums reaching number one on Billboard 200 chart, three World Music Awards wins and is three-time recipient of World Music Award honors.
What’s the 411? was an instant classic. With its influential hybrid “hip-hop soul” sound incorporating beats ripped off old Biz Markie tracks and Patrice Rushen singing over disco synths, its release became an unmissable event for contemporary R&B listeners.
Blige made her film debut as Justice Charlier of Sunset Strip gentlemen’s club Rock of Ages in 1997. Later that same year she made her television acting debut in The Jamie Foxx Show as seemingly southern Ola Mae who wanted more than gospel singing for an audition with Jamie Foxx; that same year she appeared on Lifetime series Strong Medicine as Simone Fellows who refused help for heroin dependency.
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey has long been beloved as an icon in contemporary r&b music, including her classic holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. However, Daydream from 1995 showcased some of Mariah Carey’s purest pop songcraft and expanded upon what people expected from Mariah’s music.
Carey nails her sensuous bottom register with ease on this soothing single. The acoustic instrumentation recalls classic 1970s R&B slow jams; yet, Carey stands out with her vivid lyrical imagery depicting an easy young love that faded into nightfall.
Carey’s first song after her divorce from producer/Svengali Tommy Mottola marked the start of a musical makeover. The accompanying video with its seductive scenes of Carey breaking free and speeding away in her Jet Ski helped create this new image, and its addictive melody left no one standing still.
D’Angelo
D’Angelo first made his mark as a soulful singer and multi-instrumentalist during amateur night contests at New York’s Apollo Theater, emerging in the mid 1990s as an amateur night contestant at New York’s legendary Apollo Theater. His debut album Brown Sugar–with its cover version of Smokey Robinson and Marvin Tarplin’s “Cruisin'” from Smokey Robinson and Marvin Tarplin’s Cruisein’ album–became an instantaneous success and helped give rise to what became known as Neo Soul–something D’Angelo himself became adept at doing in subsequent releases.
D’Angelo joined a collective known as the Soulquarians–including drummer Questlove and producer J Dilla–and blended classic soul with hip-hop production aesthetics to craft his unique sound. Singing over multiple instruments gave his songs an inclusive quality; guitars could alternate between chicken scratches, smooth funk-jazz licks, or hard fuzzy edges from Prince; while horns rose symmetrically or dropped unexpectedly with short riffs.
D’Angelo revolutionized R&B music by using his vocals alongside instrumentation; his influence could be heard in subsequent works by Erykah Badu, Maxwell and Jill Scott as they introduced their own versions of neo-soul into their compositions.