Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the hottest R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.
This week Queen Naija anointed fans with her debut Missunderstood, Omarion dropped his full-length album The Kinection and rising R&B darling Ayanis delivered Yani. Check out the rest of the best new R&B below.
Queen Naija — Missunderstood
Queen Naija‘s Missunderstood is finally here to much fanfare. 18 songs deep, including “Pack Lite” and “Lie To Me” featuring Lil Durk, the rising R&B singer also connected with Toosii, Lucky Daye, and Kiana Lede throughout the project. Missunderstood lives to clarify who Queen Naija is and sonically represents why she’s here to stay for the long haul.
Omarion — The Kinection
Omarion came through this week with nothing but positive vibes and energy with his latest release The Kinection. It features his previously released tracks “Can You Hear Me?” with T-Pain and “Unbothered.” The Kinection is certainly one for the day-one Omarion fans.
Ayanis — Yani
After sharing her Pretty Ricky-inspired song “Ecstasy,” Ayanis arrives with her debut release Yani. Full of women’s empowerment anthems and love songs over moody R&B production, the album also includes features Mulatto on “Drip” and Wiz Khalifa on “One Night.” Ayanis is definitely one R&B darling to look out for.
Melii — “Way Too Soft”
Melii shared her gangsta music video for “Way Too Soft.” The New York native is set to release her next project sometime soon in the winter and is expected to feature a more stripped-down Melii. “Everybody has a broken side,” she said on a statement. “I no longer work off ego. I’m true to self. I’ve grown so much, I have times where I do fall off and ego kicks in, but I’ve learned how to manage my life a lot better.”
Sainvil — 2020 Was Hijacked
Sainvil is right. 2020 Was Hijacked is an accurate descriptor of how this year has gone for all of us and Sainvil expresses this years happenings with his smooth vocals on his project packed with seven songs. 2020 Was Hijacked also features Melii on their collaborative track “HBK.”
Check out this week’s R&B picks, plus more on Uproxx’s Spotify playlist below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.