Chris Brown isn’t here for the “dead R&B” conversation on social media. On August 17, Diddy sparked days of discussion about the genre after tweeting, “Who Killed R&B?” and follow up with “What is your definition of R&B?”
Artists and producers, from Summer Walker to Tory Lanez to Hitmaka, reacted to Diddy’s assumption that R&B was no longer here. Chris took to his Instagram platform on August 20 to quash the negotiations and shift the blame to the lack of desire for real singers, lack of coverage and ugliness.
“When was the last time you heard a slow song on the radio,” Chris wrote on Instagram Story. “No, saying R&B is dead… please shut up. People today want fast food instead of a real meal.”
Chris then changes his speech to highlight the lack of media coverage of R&B.
“Don’t blame the real singers here, see what channels people have to watch music videos. Damn BET definitely isn’t. MTV too,” Chris wrote.
Like Chris, Diddy also points to a public organization and their influence on consumption and reward behind R&B. On August 19, he called Billboard and classified their genre.
“Now that I have your attention..I hope you all understand how important R&B is to our culture!! We need more love!! We need more souls,” wrote Diddy. In a separate tweet, he wrote, “@Billboard why are R&B and Hip-Hop put on the same chart to compete with each other? Can someone in charge there explain to us WHY? !! “
Chris Brown says junk music is being forced by the audience
Breezy also blames the market’s lack of digestible music on the choice of stars in the music industry.
“And then the industry is forced to adopt people as real music lovers know that it’s trash,” Chris writes.
Along with her tweets, Diddy sparked conversations about the genre with famous artists and producers/writers. For example, he spoke with Tory Lanez, who disagrees that R&B is dead but says its culture remains. Tory added that there seems to be a sense that R&B has to be as “rough and rough” as what’s going on outside.
“Now it’s like this, where it has to be toxic. As someone who started and did this malicious work for about 8.9 years on R&b, it’s not my poison. I want to hear about love again. I feel like there aren’t enough moments in R&B right now.” He added, “it’s its culture that I think is dead.”
– LOVE (@Diddy) August 19, 2022
Summer Walker, Jermaine Dupri and HitMaka join The Convo
On August 19, Diddy also posted excerpts of him discussing the genre with Summer Walker and Jermaine Dupri. Summer’s clip highlights the current desire for music that is shorter than the traditional long-running R&B songs of the past.
“Time is really a thing. I’ve heard it a million times, ‘Oh summer is so long, so long.’ Like, I remember when the songs back then were 6 minutes, 5 minutes and it was okay. I mean, if it’s music, especially let it go,” Summer said.
– LOVE (@Diddy) August 19, 2022
Meanwhile, Jermaine says the solution to R&B success is young artists who want to emulate what he, Puff Daddy and other successful producers/artists have done.
“… Midfielders in the 90s were the defenders of R&B and made sure that R&B had its sound and style.”
– LOVE (@Diddy) August 19, 2022
However, HitMaka seems closer to the wave of Chris Brown. A day after Diddy’s first tweet about R&B, HitMaka opened up about her words on Instagram and Twitter.
“Diddy has completely lost his mind talking about the damn R&B. R&B debut is great if you can’t recognize then you have to leave,” HitMaka tweeted. “Stop trolling.”
He retweeted the tweet to his Instagram page. He’s tagged multiple artists, including Chris Brown, HER, Jazmine Sullivan, Tink, Jhene Aiko, Usher, Jeremih, Bryson Tiller, Summer Walker DVSN, and Silk Sonic.
HitMaka wrote in her Instagram caption: “I feel like you need anything to make the single hit #1. “Is Must go on bring R&B back to life 2? # Best regards “
Chris says everyone is “Just ugly”, Diddy seems to respond
Chris ended his R&B chat with what sounded like a bit of a troll.
“R&B isn’t dead… you guys are just ugly,” Chris wrote.
Within hours of Chris’ post, Diddy tweeted about the debate. He explained that his message was for love, not disrespect.
“It’s been 3 days of debate…this is the clarity of the message…it’s not disrespectful to anyone,” Diddy wrote. “This conversation is out of love and I purposely want to draw attention to R&B! That’s what I see as an effective balance between hip-hop and R&B. That balance is honesty and reality when it comes together, tunes, hurt and most importantly LOVE!!! “
The message is that R&B games need more love, hurt and support!!
– LOVE (@Diddy) August 20, 2022
