The Best Unheralded R&B Of 2014 — npr.org

MNEK performing with Gorgon City in London this April. Joseph Okpako/Redferns via Getty Images hide caption MNEK performing with Gorgon City in London this April. If we're being honest, there was no consensus in R&B this year. Not until Black Messiah stepped up to the plate in the 9th inning, i.e. last weekend. Nothing we were all listening to. No one weekend when everybody you know woke up with a smile on their face. "Loyal" was inescapable but the people remain conflicted on those sentiments and X never got a foothold in our hearts. Usher dropped heat, but almost stealthily, and not that album. There was R&B on the dancefloors, but it came through DJ Mustard's blender, sped up and brassy. Veterans Beyonce and Pharrell rode the 2013 spillover momentum. Neophytes Jhene Aiko and SZA made noise for those yearning for the alternative sound while Sam Smith and BJ the Chicago Kid belted out emotional love songs that played to different crews in different places.

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