People always flock to 90s R&B when they’re feeling nostalgic. It was a perfect decade for music in general, cash flow running through the industry at an unprecedented rate. Because artists could reasonably make a career from music alone, the idea of selling out still held real virtue too. But R&B in particular entered a stylistic peak at this time. The emergence of New Jack Swing, boy bands, harmonies galore. Babyface and LA Reid were still dominating the industry, Andre Harrell launched Jodeci and Mary J Blige.
However, because 90s R&B was flooded with so much talent, there are some records that fly under the radar. Oftentimes, it’s lesser known talents bubbling up and their work doesn’t get the proper love it deserves. Similarly, established acts might not get a big hit from an album and get overlooked. Consequently, we’ve cobbled together four underrated records in a decade loaded with R&B classics.
90’s R&B Albums People Should Revisit Today
Jamie Foxx- Peep This
It’s a shame that Jamie Foxx wasn’t the immediate R&B star he should’ve been. Sure, eventually, he got his due in the mid 2000s after enough time in film and TV. However, people absolutely kept him in that acting bubble alone. The funny guy with some singing chops. It’s an unfair, reductive way of viewing someone as immensely talented as Jamie.
In a just world, an album like Peep This would’ve dominated the charts. It’s peak 90’s R&B, a distinct blend of suave and style with earnest romance and feverish desire. Records like “If You Love Me” could’ve been prototype Jodeci hits; the dramatic swell in his stacked vocals shows the kind of devotion to the craft you can’t find in artists today. Hopefully, Sexyy Red and Drake rapping on a flip of the deeply yearning “Infatuation” incentivizes people to give Peep This its flowers.
Society of Soul- Brainchild
The imprint that the Dungeon Family has left on all Black art can’t be understated. Typically, people think about Outkast when they consider the group. However, the lineage goes so much deeper when you consider how much they reflect music in Atlanta. They produced one of the biggest TLC songs ever, “Waterfalls,” Future spent his early days in the Dungeon. Additionally, there are several side projects within the group itself that tend to go unnoticed.
Take Society of Soul, fronted by R&B royalty Sleepy Brown and super-producers Rico Wade and Ray Murray. Their 1995 album Brainchild acts as a progenitor to the Soulquarians movement with a distinct southern flair to it. “Changes” is irresistibly groovy, the kind of thick bass and horns you could only feel from the velvet interior of a Cadillac. Meanwhile, “Wind” is a deeply spiritual experience. Collaborating with Sleepy’s dad and saxophonist on Brick, Jimmy Brown, it’s deeply earthly and sweeping, like Jimmy, Sleepy and co. are calling out to God. In the lineage of 90’s R&B, Society of Soul might as well have predicted what was going to happen with neo-soul down the line.
Brownstone- From the Bottom Up
The best part about samples is that, when you finally hear the original, it completely washes everything away. There’ll be no point in playing the reworked version with a new artist. The OGs did it perfectly. This is what happened with Tory Lanez’ “Say It,” a 2016 hit that was catchy enough but ultimately curbs a lot from Brownstone’s “If You Love Me.” Tory’s whole M.O. was trying to conjure the spirits of old 90’s R&B classics and reap the rewards. However, nothing quite compares to Brownstone.
Meeting each other through different auditions and coming together via Michael Jackson’s label, their 1995 album From The Bottom Up truly separates the best vocalists from the professional and acceptable. Mimi, Maxee, and Nicci are fantastic singers in their own right but their best moments see them swell their voices together at once. Their gospel influence brings holiness, a purity to the love they croon over. On records like “Grapevyne,” heartache is of titanic scale when they sing together on the hook. Their love was neither passive nor overly melodramatic. Instead, Brownstone threads the needle through power and all-consuming passion. Channeling that on From the Bottom Up should put the group in conversations with SWV and TLC for best female R&B groups.
Quincy Jones- Q’s Jook Joint
Working under Quincy Jones had to be a blessing back in the day. Having arguably the greatest producer of all time give out the cosign is a major seal of approval. It served as proof that they were an artist worth taking seriously. Consequently, Q’s Jook Joint plays like a 90’s R&B all-star game. Sure, there’s plenty of traditionalist veterans all over the record. Take the various Barry White features, or Ronald Isley and Ray Charles making appearances on their respective tracks.
However, the songs that really soar are the ones where Quincy anoints which newer artists were worth caring about. Take “Moody’s Mood for Love,” a sensual masterpiece where Brian McKnight coos over an angel’s choir of harmonies from Take 6. James Moody saxophone solo at the end plays like a climax, a representation of the record’s embodied horniness. Quincy’s ear was sharp as ever, spotlighting the best 90’s R&B had to offer.
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