Diddy and Timbaland got into a heated debate about the state of R&B on Instagram Live Wednesday night (August 17) after the Bad Boy Records mogul posed the question: “Who Killed R&B?”
During the conversation, which consisted of a whole lot of yelling from Diddy, Timbo struggled to get a word in as he made his case. According to the music exec, R&B has lost its essence and he’s on a mission to change that.
“R&B is muthafuckin’ dead as of right now,” he said matter-of-factly. “The R&B I made my babies to? R&B gotta be judged to a certain thing — it’s the feeling though, doggy. No, no, no. It’s a feeling. You gotta be able to sing for R&B and then you gotta tell the truth. R&B is not a hustle. This shit is about feeling your vulnerability.
“You gotta muthafuckin make a n-gga dick hard or a woman’s vagina wet. You gotta cry. You gotta be able to get your girl back. I don’t wanna hear all this bullshit […] It’s our fault for accepting anything less for anybody getting on a mic. I feel like there was a death of R&B singing, and I’m a part of bringing that shit back! I ain’t feelin’ no emotions.”
As Timbaland attempted to explain he was looking at it from a producer’s side, Diddy asked him to name five R&B artists who could sing without Auto-Tune. Timbo seemed stumped and tried to remember the names of some of them. Diddy hopped in, “R&B don’t sound too alive. You don’t even know anybody’s name.”
Mary J. Blige also appeared during Diddy’s livestream who did her best to answer his question.
“You can’t kill something that’s in our DNA,” Blige said. “It’s gonna keep transitioning from generation to generation to generation to generation. They was trying to kill it. Before I say what I’m gonna say, let me just say this: I wanna thank all the radio stations around the country that are playing R&B music and sincerely support it.
“But, you know, a lot of the radio stations killed it for the same thing that Tank was saying. They ain’t gon’ jump on the bandwagon of whatever the hottest things is — but, let me just say this. We have to keep ourselves alive as R&B singers,” referring to Tank’s interview on the Drink Champs podcast.
Diddy Debuts 'Gotta Move On' Single With Bryson Tiller At 2022 Billboard Awards
She also recognized fellow R&B artists such as Chaka Khan, Etta James, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Jazmine Sullivan and SWV and was adamant their contributions to R&B can’t be “killed.”
“They wanna call it ‘Popular Music’ with Adele and Justin Timberlake get ahold to it, so now it’s ‘Popular Music,'” she added. “But it’s been popular music! We’ve been had it!”
Diddy debuted his R&B single “Gotta Move On” featuring Bryson Tiller at the 2022 Billboard Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in May 15. He later shared the pre-order link and short snippet of the song to his Twitter account with the caption, “ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!! GO TO 143LOVERECORDS.COM TO PRE-SAVE MY NEW SINGLE ‘GOTTA MOVE ON’ FEAT. @BRYSON TILLER!!! WELCOME TO THE LOVE ERA.”
But yet you made an album with you singing in autotune. And that recent gotta move BS record. GTFOH you hypocritical fairy.
Naw r&b is very much alive and well even now and will not die out any time soon… Take for example with artist like H.E.R or even KEM and so many others, just saying guys.
We all know what makes your dick hard…. and it ain’t r and b…. it’s r**** n***** asses financially and sexually to show your dominance over them. Once a dog ass n**** , always a dog ass n****. He doesn’t have an ear for music, he just got a nose for sniffing out his next victim.
Fuck Diddy. He’s robbed every artist that he’s came across financially. How TF is he going to critique the genre when he done nothing for it other than executively extortion the artist that he manage out of their own masters, royalties, copyright, and production credits. Timbaland actually did produce records for artist at least and help craft, mold, and guide the careers of many r and b artists who were able to make an okay living with it. (unlike Puffy)
He’s just mad that Tevin Campbell, Danny Boy, and Luther Vandross wouldn’t give him the time of day so now he’s taking his frustrations out on the entire genre because of it. Just ignore him.
RNB aint dead. They just call it rap music now. All this singing and simping on a track ? Autotune ? Dudes with their hair dyed in stupid colors ? Id argue half of your favorite Gen Z rappers would have been considered RNB 20 years ago. They just dont do slow songs. But their “rapping” definitely compares to the club hits from Jodeci, Dru Hill, R. Kelly, Montell Jordan and others. They are singing to rap beats. That was the definition of RNB to an entire generation.
This goofy ass fusion of rap and RNB destroyed them both.
I disagree New Edition made it cool to rap and sing
Mary J and Timbaland are just staying neutral in public…they know the shit absolutely sucks….however, there are a small handful making great music….STILL….Ari Lennox is bad as hell, Giveon, H.E.R., and there’s more…
only a couple outchea.. currently Sabrina Claudio and jhene and HER
It’s way more than that, but you gotta be able to get online and these streaming apps and find it. It’s a lot more music out there now than there ever was, the difference is now it’s not all over the radio, so it’s not put in your face like that anymore so people assume it’s not there. Also just because you’re not feeling doesn’t mean it’s dead or not there. We start to age out of certain stuff as we grow older, so trying to listen to new artist and expecting to get the same feel as artist you listen to when it was your age group is unfair.
Tank ain’t gat shit to say about RnB after Mario bodied them on versus…
its dead because Kelz is locked up & he will forever be the king, but he belongs in their so until another Kellz comes along bump that 60s-90s classics or listen to these females trying to be men talkin bout wap. choices
Someone tell Diddly that ain’t nobody feeling much of his shit anymore either, or most his artists…
No one else noticed how diddy took it the G** route?! Talking about rnb should make a guys d hard!? Lmao. What dudes does this happen to listening to a man singing about a women?? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW. DIDDY HAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE TRASH! He got that city girl to make him her B now so she be staying in the bag while he calling her daddy lol.
Yung Miami is Diddy’s Strap-on dominatrix and shopping buddy so that’s why he’s fine with that.
maybe he meant a female r n b singer making a fella’s dick hard ? Cassie, aaliyah, swv, jade, janet, mjb , alicia keys and many more is/was fine as hell
That’s y I only listen to 90s and 00s R&B this new generation is garbage and fuck auto tune
So is rap music!! DEAD! Some is negative, toxic and deadly!! I listen to old school R&B & Rap!!