To me, it’s Bobby brown

Nigga basically laid the blueprint for every r&b thug and directly influenced usher and r kelly who are two goats

Marvin Gaye

Luther Vandross

James Brown

For modern r&b it’s the weeknd

I grew up on all types of R&B from the 70s onwards but i honestly dont know

Luther dominated the charts back then bro he’s an icon, made you feel what love truly was through his voice

As far as modern rnb definitely Teddy Riley. The genre as a whole that's kinda tough to answer ngl

Where do you recommend I start with Teddy?

I considered teddy but he wasn’t really considered a singer...

His pen game and production produced some legendary s*** though

You probably heard alot of work and don't even realize it tbh because he's also a producer and worked with Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, MJ, SWV, etc. But I'd start off with his work with guy and blackstreet (he lead both groups) and then look his production discog. He also gave us Pharrell

James Brown /thread

His influence goes beyond just r&b too. There's a reason he's coined a father of hiphop

Think about the "r&b pop crossover male megastar" lane. James birthed that s***:

MJ
Prince
Usher
JT
Chris Brown
Justin Bieber
Bruno Mars
The Weeknd

MJ and Prince are literally James Brown clones how yall talk about Baby and Gunna being Thug clones today

True, I only considered him because he actually had a career as a artist too, but if it was up in the air for anybody I would've still picked him or jimmy jam and terry lewis for modern and gamble and huff for like oldies rnb and soul

Tbh New Edition's entire run doesn't get enough credit.

They were already successful before Bobby got kicked out, but In a span of like 87-96 they put out:

Heartbreak
Don't Be Cruel
Ralph Tresvant self titled
Johnny Gill self titled
Poison
Home Again

All classics in my view. Definitely one of the greatest group runs in music history.

These facts plus Boys II Men and 702 got put on by Michael Bivins

I never really considered James brown r&b..I always considered him funk and soul. But he is obviously The Godfather of all of this s***. He even influenced Bobby I think.

But the same could be said for Bobby.

Usher, r kelly, Chris brown, bruno Mars (steals half his stage show from b brown) all are directly influenced by Bobby and since dont be cruel was so successful he put Michael Jackson on notice which is why dangerous is a new jack swing album. Mj himself said my prerogative was his favorite song

Michael Jackson. Even though he wasn’t a R&B artist per se, Prince up there too

Strictly R&B/Soul music though it’s Stevie & Marvin Gaye by a landslide

pnd>

Stevie Wonder :

mariah carey

Don't be Cruel is a classic album, 0 skips

My vote goes to Kellz tho

If u don’t name r kelly, you’re an idiot

Kellz robbed from Aaron Hall

bald head and all

in the moment a good 50% of RnB is weeknd blueprint music

overall? probably teddy