A few reasons R&B doesn't suck as bad as you thought it did

The world of R&B, Urban Soul or whatever the young kids are calling it these days has been suffering for a few years now. And with good reason too. One of its best talents (who shall remain nameless) is too busy pretending to be one part rapper/two parts T-Pain and "allegedly" peeing on children to make good music while the rest are either battling some sort of addiction and/or criminal case or, sadly, just not relevant.And don't get me started on all of the Michael/Janet clones running around. If like me you grew up in the golden age of R&B then this probably pains you beyond belief. There's still hope though. Here are a couple of people (in no particular order) I've discovered recently that still bring the originality:

Eric Roberson- He's been in the game for a minute even though I just found out about him two years ago.
Discovered while he was a student at Howard, Roberson first burst on the scene with the single "The Moon" in 1994. After no album materialized from his Warner Bros. deal, he went on to collaborate with the likes of Musiq Soulchild, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Jill Scott. He's also found time to release several albums of his own on his Blue Erro Soul label. His songs are definitely about everyday experiences. No flossing or slick talk about bedding different women. Just what us regular folks go through. It's not only lyrics with him though, his voice is down right melodic. It just flows over the music. He's kind of reminiscent of Stevie Wonder to me. Before anybody jumps down my throat about the Great Wonder I just want it known I love Stevie's music as much as everybody else. The reason I compare the two is because there's a certain happiness in Stevie Wonder's voice I always hear it always sounds like he's smiling when he sings. Roberson gives me that same happy feeling. Roberson also does this thing in his concerts where he asks members of the audience to give him random words and he makes a song with them. Anybody who can make a string of unrelated words into a song is alright with me.

Check him out at myspace.com/ericroberson

Estelle-She's not really a new artist, she's been hot for a minute in her homeland England. But now she's showing America what she's about on her stateside debut Shine. She's garnered comparisons to Lauryn Hill because she's also a rapper. I get why people say that but Estelle is bringing something different to the table. Her music is fresh and she has swagger to spare. I guess it's the whole British thing, but she's coming way different from most women in the game right now. European popular music is a little bit different than what we have going on over here. She's bringing a little bit of that to America. Her music not only gives props to her hip-hop and soul roots it also had a lot of reggae influence. Not only that, she also has John Legend riding with her. She has an absolutely addictive single with Kanye West called "American Boy". I love that song.

Check her out at myspace.com/estelleonline

Steph Jones- I'm a Vibe fanatic. I've been reading that magazine for about 10 years now and I always read it cover to cover. What does this have to do with Steph Jones you ask? I'm getting to that I promise. I even look at the 50 million pages of ads in Vibe before you get to the actual articles. Well I remember always seeing this model dude in the Enyce ads and being the giggly teenager I was I thought he was, in a word, dreamy. Let's flash forward to the end of last year. I was wasting time on the net as usual and came across this song "Mr. Ordinary" and after some investigating I found out that the artist behind the song was model dude! Imagine my surprise. Well just in case you haven't figured it out, model dude is Steph Jones. He's now a major label artist signed to Ludacris' DTP Records. What's different about him besides that his side hustle is modeling is that his music is all over the place, but in a good way. He's not a strictly a R&B dude. He dabbles and that's always hot. Another thing that strikes me about him as an artist is the way he connects with his fans. His journey in the music biz was a grassroots thing. He set up a myspace page and a youtube account and word traveled. He sends his myspace friends, or frands as he calls them, regular updates and makes videos not only about his music but also his life. He's definitely embraced all that the web has to offer an artist.

Listen to his music and see what he's about here and here.

Keri Hilson- She's behind some of the biggest songs in the last couple of years and has some of the biggest producers on her team and a lot folks still don't know who she is yet. They will though. As part of the writing team The Clutch Hilson has worked with Usher, Britney Spears, Mario, Omarion, Chris Brown, Toni Braxton....I could go on and on. Not only is she good with the pen, she's impressive on the mic as well. It also is a plus that she's signed to production god Timbaland's label and has ties to Polow Da Don. From songs like "Happy Juice" and "Get It Girl" her music seems really fun, up tempo and energetic. And she's also part-timin it as a video girl (but not the whorish kind), check out Usher's latest to see her in all her glory. With her talent matched up with what Timbo and Polow bring to the table this girl is gonna be as big as the hits she helps make.

Check her out at myspace.com/kerihilson

Vikter Duplaix- Okay so technically this dude isn't a R&B artist in the traditional sense. But he makes some damn good music. His 2006 release Bold and Beautiful is the best not really but kind of R&B album I've ever heard. His music kind of gives off a dance vibe but I think that folks who like urban music can still get into it seeing as how that's where the genre seems to be going these days. But his version is way smoother. As soon as I got the album off iTunes I couldn't stop listening to it for about two weeks. All the tracks flow together so smoothly and the music is so polished and modern. I swear it's like ear candy. Turns out he's also a DJ which makes him about ten times cooler.

Check him out at myspace.com/duplaix