baba
“grit”
About the Artist
88
New to R&B?
From The Booth
How rap learned to sing: The rise of melodic rap from Bone Thugs to T-Pain to Rod Wave
Bone Thugs' harmonies, Nelly and Ja Rule's sung hooks, T-Pain and the Auto-Tune wars, 808s & Heartbreak, Drake, Future and Young Thug, the SoundCloud emo turn, and why singing rappers now run the charts.
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The evolution of R&B: From new jack swing to alt-R&B to whatever's next
Teddy Riley's swing, Mary J.'s hip-hop soul, D'Angelo's Voodoo, Usher's Confessions, Frank Ocean's Blonde, SZA's SOS — four decades of R&B evolution and the eternal 'R&B is dead' debate.
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The R&B independents: How Frank Ocean, Daniel Caesar, Brent Faiyaz and Tinashe did it without a major
Blonde's exit from Def Jam, Golden Child Recordings, Lost Kids, Tinashe's post-RCA run and the alt-R&B underground — the streaming-era playbook R&B independents used, and what a rapper can borrow from it.
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More from baba
Other songs baba has entered into the competition.
“ee”
This competition
“pp”
This competition
“Click click”
This competition
“3254”
This competition
“jump”
Spring Showdown 2026
“tata”
Spring Showdown 2026
“bba”
Spring Showdown 2026