![]() Songs like “Needyougone,” with its thick basslines, envelopes you in a cacophony of ambient sounds with Liv.e’s voice being more of a guide through it all than the narrator. Liv.e’s music harkens back to neo-soul’s analog roots that helped birth the lo-fi renaissance of the last decade. His beautiful duets with Ty Dolla $ign and The Internet’s Syd are evidence Leven Kali is a neo-soul newcomer who belongs to be here. He can make a random Thursday night sound like it’s brimming with hedonistic possibilities (“ Thursday”) and when he says “I’m yours” (“ Yours”) you believe it. This 23-year-old upstart’s music is imbued with enough bedroom intimacy to sound like he’s telling a secret only to you. As with most neo-soul, Hakim’s music can’t fit in a box, it can only be felt by the soul. There’s an almost ghostly psychedelic tinge to his voice on songs like breakout single “ I Don’t Know,” which is so in tune with the instrumentation it almost sounds as if Hakim himself is emanating from each acoustic guitar string plucks. Nick Hakim’s music is a mosaic of sounds that warp around you. Mark’s enticing ability to stretch her soft voice into dynamic range is reminiscent of some of Corinne Bailey Rae’s best work. ![]() She’s as likely to “give your eyes a taste” (“Generous”) as she is to slap that taste out your mouth with defiant proclamations of “if I want it, I’ll ask for it." (“ 1894”). The 26-year-old songstress’ music is imbued with the sort of sultriness that entices without exploiting. His voice is smoldering in the way a lit candle is, illuminating in its slow burn and relaxing in its effects. That’s SiR - a mood conductor often sending listeners on hazy travels to different emotional states. Listen to “John Redcorn” and melt listen to “ D’Evils” and fade listen to “ Fire” and elevate. That feature, on one of the biggest albums of the year so far, could be the launchpad that’ll put this neo-soul stalwart in the faces of millions, exactly where his talents warrant he should be. It’s Giveon’s rasp that gives Drake’s “ Chicago Freestyle” the frostiness needed for a song to be named after the Windy City. There’s a weight to Giveon’s bassy baritone that rests on your mind until it descends to your soul. It's also empowering to women across the world. Beauty, an abusive lover isn’t dealt with through tearful ballads, but rather with a trial by fire with lines like, “You try to control me then try to console me you don’t even know me I just think you’re trolling.” The enchanting musical duo of Alexe Belle and Isis Valentino never sound like they’re surrendering to love in a way that’s akin to their Wondaland Arts Society boss Janelle Monáe. The whispered intimacy and healer vibes of her music are reminiscent of new school neo-soul princess Jhené Aiko. ![]() Umi’s voice sounds as if it rests on a cloud it pierces to shine inviting light on. The calming assertiveness of her voice is borderline therapeutic and with the world currently burning in civil unrest, she may emerge from the flames a shining star that soothed the souls of many. When you can make a song about hearing demons (“ I Get Tired”) a bop, you’re on your way to mining the human condition for hits.įrom the earthy lineage of neo-soul goddess Meshell Ndegeocello, KeiyaA can sorrowfully expel “get your boot off my neck, so we can both progress” (“ Way Eye”) with both urgency and grace. Q is from the ilk of Bilal with a falsetto that can pierce through any indifference and a penchant for snatching your attention with the tantalizingly abstract. He didn’t just add a verse to fellow neo-soul star Baby Rose’s “ Show You,” he took the sonic world she curated for her love and expanded it. QĬhances are your introduction to Q was on the soundtrack for the fourth season of HBO’s Insecure. Okayplayer has highlighted 23 artists that are pushing neo-soul forward. We are now in 2020 and the movement is as strong as ever. Neo-soul makes masterpieces out of life’s minutia, where a long walk with Jill Scott or some brown sugar from D’Angelo carries a deeper layer of meaning often overlooked by traditional R&B.įor more than two decades, the neo-soul sound has produced some of the most prolific artists of generations including Maxwell, Floetry, Frank Ocean, Anderson. Former Motown Records president William “Kedar” Massenburg coined the phrase in the 1990s as a means to properly categorize an emerging sound that fused jazz, soul, hip-hop, and R&B that his early artists - D’Angelo and Erykah Badu - were at the helm of. Neo-soul was born out of a necessity for the representation of the black alternative. From Nick Hakim to KeiyaA to Ari Lennox, here are 23 contemporary artists pushing neo-soul forward in 2020.
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