R&B Is On The Rise. But Why Does The Industry Still Call It 'R&B/Hip Hop'

The music industry has incorrectly categorized R&B and Hip Hop, and now it’s gonna have to readjust. 

For years, the music industry has been categorizing R&B and Hip Hop as one umbrella category. That’s inaccurate.

The issue with this merged categorization is that R&B has a very different trajectory than Hip Hop does.

Now that R&B is growing and Hip Hop’s growth is shrinking, it’s important to properly label the genres in order to keep the story accurate. 

This article was prompted by a Luminate Data newsletter that identified the growth in R&B as a template for how subgenres can help measure the trajectory of core genres.

The newsletter was titled, “How R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Share Could Get Its Groove Back”.  

Though the insights were well-meaning, R&B being labeled as a subgenre of this R&B/Hip Hop umbrella cannot accurately relay the stories behind the data.

Not only is the genre label inaccurate, but it’s just another way of saying ‘Black’ music. I always thought I was speculating based on the history of genre categorizations and common knowledge, but the Library of Congress validated what was so glaringly obvious to me. 

According to the Library of Congress: 

The term "rhythm and blues," often called "R&B," originated in the 1940s when it replaced "race music" as a general marketing term for all African American music, though it usually referred only to secular, not religious music….. The meaning of the term continued to change over time, and today it is still used as an umbrella term for many different African-American musical forms. 

When the current music industry needed to include rap under that umbrella, they just expanded the term to R&B/Hip Hop. To be fair, this category mainly applies for charting and data collection purposes.

HOWEVER, the more I learn about the music industry, the more I realize the relevance of data in shaping history. 

Recently, the music industry has been bubbling about the R&B/Hip Hip growth slowdown.

If you didn’t know, R&B/Hip Hop has been the #1 genre in the U.S. since 2017.

Even though that is still the case, the rate of growth has been declining since around 2020. In 2024, I started to feel like the music industry was dang near jumping for joy to find out which growing genre would eventually outpace R&B/Hip Hip Hop. Is it pop? Is it rock? Is it Latin music? Maybe it’s Country?

But what is causing the decline in the R&B/Hip-Hop genre? It’s not R&B. It’s the rap portion of this umbrella. Perhaps due to the increasingly similar sounds, the unmarketable violent and pharmaceutical content, and growing racial & political tensions in the U.S., the ‘hip hop’ (because that’s mislabeled too) is starting to slip. 

I have a Drake-Kendrick theory too - HERE.

Meanwhile, R&B is thriving.

Despite all the criticism it has received over the past decade, R&B is a growing genre.

The Luminate Data newsletter included this chart:

If you know R&B, some songs on the list may have you scratching your head. BUT, it is interesting that they’ve made this distinction. That means that Luminate Data (the #1 music streaming data company that also powers Billboard charts) saw their R&B ‘subgenre’ ticker going off so much that they had to dive into the growth. 

This growth is going to cause the industry to start redefining its genre parameters.

In February, I shared this belief on my Instagram page:

“The fact that the industry categorizes R&B/Hip Hop as one genre tells you all you need to know about their curiosity for Black music. I actually anticipate that R&B will rise in the next few years, which will eventually force the industry to reshape its categories once again”

R&B is already on the rise, but it’s BIG numerical shifts that make the music industry move. As I said, the curiosity isn’t about music; it’s about how much money that music can make. That’s the name of the game. 

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR R&B?

Funding is going to shift.

For YEARS, labels said “R&B is too expensive, and it doesn’t yield a large enough return.”

Luminate, the power bank for Billboard Music’s charts & metrics, explicitly said that it has its eye on R&B. That means investors are paying attention, too.

So music companies, once they get a little more confirmation of R&B’s growth, are likely to start allocating more funds to R&B. That’s record deals, distribution deals, publishing deals, live show & touring, film and TV licensing (*cough SZA proved R&B works at the Super Bowl level), and much more.

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT

Another area where funding might change is artist development. Truth is, R&B is expensive. It often requires choreography, vocal coaching, vocal production, show production, glam, styling, background singers and dancers, quality instruments, musicians (live and studio), music directors, video directors,songrwiters, and more. 

But if R&B is projected to make the type of money that catches investor attention, the music industry will pay for those services.

• So if you’re an R&B songwriter, write and put it out there.

• If you do costume production for theatre or live shows, put it out there.

• If you’re a musician, play that instrument & put it out there.

• You sing? Sing, baby- background or lead.

• If you understand vocals, produce vocals for the singers around you.

• Vocal coaches, the world is your oyster.

• If you’ve been in the game forever, your expertise and example are needed.

There’s much to do in this R&B space. I started writing this article from a place of frustration because they’re always getting it wrong. But now, all I see are opportunities to set the record straight by being vocal and getting invovlved. 

Don’t hop on a bandwagon that’s headed to your venue. Use your know-how, take the shortcut, and meet them there. That way, you can charge admission and run the show. 

Sincerely, Latifah