The 20 Best R&B Radio Hits of 2024
I posted the rap and country lists earlier in the week, rock/alternative and pop to follow. Here's the Spotify playlist:
1. SZA - "Saturn"
#5 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #6 Hot 100
In spite of all her success, it still feels like SZA is being held back by her label from releasing whatever she wants to release when she wants to release it. Ever since SOS was finally released, she's talked about a bunch of songs she didn't get to put on the album that were going to come out on a deluxe version of the album, and "Saturn" was originally pitched as the first single from the deluxe SOS. Now it appears the next thing she'll release is an entirely new album called Lana, and with a stadium tour with Kendrick kicking off in a few months, hopefully we'll get that sooner than later. I was kinda lukewarm on the biggest SOS singles like "Kill Bill" and "Snooze," but I really like "Saturn.
2. Maeta f/ Free Nationals - "Through The Night"
#21 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I like all of Maeta's stuff that I've heard, but this song is a definite standout, it'd be cool if she did a whole project with Anderson .Paak's band.
3. Toosii f/ Muni Long - "I Do"
#16 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Muni Long had a great year and really cemented her spot in R&B. I put "Made For Me" on the list last year, if I hadn't then it'd probably be #1 here.
4. Coco Jones - "Here We Go (Uh Oh)"
#9 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
So many R&B songs sample rap and R&B hits from 15-25 years ago that I tend to roll my eyes and lower my expectations right off the bat, but the vocals and the melodies on "Here We Go" really add something to the Twista/Lenny Williams interpolation.
5. Tems - "Love Me JeJe"
#30 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I guess even in Afrobeats they've got their classics that they like to revisit, I didn't know Seyi Sodiumu's 1997 song "Love Me Jeje" before Tems did her version but I really love what she did with it.
6. Lucky Daye - "That's You"
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Lucky Daye's Algorithm is a fantastic album, he surpassed even what he did on Candydrip. The Bruno Mars-penned lead single is not even one of the album's high points, but I respect that Bruno is helping craft hits for artists that really deserve it.
7. PsiRyn - "Sober"
#27 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I definitely miss the days when there were more girl groups in mainstream R&B, and I love that someone like Kandi Burruss, a member of Xscape who wrote classics for Destiny's Child and TLC, has taken it upon herself to mentor a new group and try to restore that feeling. I don't love the name PsiRyn, but "Sober" is a very promising first single.
8. Maxwell - "Simply Beautiful"
#10 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Al Green's I'm Still In Love With You is an amazing album that's been sampled many many times (most famously "I'm Glad You're Mine" on multiple Biggie songs), and this year two songs from the album were revisited by big names. First "What A Wonderful Thing Love Is" was sampled on Kendrick Lamar's "6:16 in LA" and then a few months later Maxwell released a cover of "Simply Beautiful," a song he's performed live for years (which had also been previously sampled by Kanye on a Talib Kweli track). I don't know when if Maxwell will ever release his 6th album (he released three new singles between 2018 and 2021), but I wouldn't mind if he just took it easy and released some great occasional covers.
9. Tinashe - "Nasty"
#30 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #61 Hot 100
Tinashe has built up such an excellent catalog and I love that she's been able to thrive as an independent artist after being a little squandered by RCA, but I was a little nonplussed when I started hearing this viral clip everywhere of a song where she sings in a robotic monotone over a droning dial tone synth. Thankfully, the song is more than just the part that was big on TikTok.
10. Jordan Adetunji - "Kehlani"
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #24 Hot 100
For the third year in a row, Baltimore rapper Rye Rye's "what" ad lib from Blaqstarr's 2007 track "Shake It To The Ground" has been sampled in a Hot 100 hit (the previous two times were both Drake songs).
I feel like as this song has blown up over the last few months I've heard multiple radio DJs struggle to pronounce Jordan Adetunji's name and eventually give up and start saying things like "my boy Jordan" or "here's Jordan with 'Kehlani'."
11. Kehlani - "After Hours"
#23 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #72 Hot 100
Kehlani released 2 excellent projects this year (one an album and one a 'mixtape') and had a successful tour. But being the namesake of someone else's big hit, which she of course jumped on a remix of, seemed to overshadow her own recent music, and then there were some truly bizarre and concerning stories coming out of her recent divorce.
12. Lay Bankz - "Tell Ur Girlfriend"
#29 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #58 Hot 100
Another song that kind of broke out of R&B's relatively low commercial ceiling these days by getting big on TikTok. I really love the use of the Ginuwine "Pony" sample on this, flips it in a creative way with a totally different vocal melody, so it's not just playing off of nostalgia.
13. Usher f/ Pheelz - "Ruin"
#24 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Usher is still a world class performer and really made everybody took notice over the past couple years, with the Tiny Desk Concert and the Vegas residency and the tour and of course the Super Bowl halftime show, it was really enjoyable to see him take this victory lap. Amidst all this, he released his first new album in ages, and timed it to capitalize off the Super Bowl, but Coming Home ultimately felt a little like an afterthought compared to all the live stuff. All the singles were solid, though, "Ruin" was a pretty good attempt to dip his toe into Afrobeats.
14. Muni Long - "Ruined Me"
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Revenge is a really good album, I'm glad its had legs beyond "Made For Me," I really like "Make Me Forget" too.
15. Honey Bxby - "Touchin'"
#30 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I once mused that "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" by Busta Rhymes is one of the biggest '90s rap hits that I'd never heard sampled or imitated. But that changed this year when two songs sampling the "Put Your Hands" drums competed for spins. Honey Bxby's "Touchin'" came out first and got Busta on a remix, but Offset and Don Toliver's "Worth It" got on the radio first and became a bigger hit peaking at #8.
16. Luther Vandross - "Michelle"
#40 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
I love the Beatles but I feel like everyone reserves the right to hate a few Beatles songs (besides just the obvious minor or obnoxious ones). And "Michelle" is just one of those songs I have never liked one bit. But I really adore this Luther Vandross cover, which had been discovered by a friend of his when going through Vandross's archives, and was released this year alongside a documentary and best-of compilation.
17. Jeremih f/ Bryson Tiller and Chris Brown - "Wait On It"
#15 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, # Hot 100
I hate the way Jeremih has been treated by the music industry. He's had so many hits and has done hooks on so many hits for other artists, but it's been 9 years since his last album (which is double platinum and had three big singles!) and it feels like he may never release another. His biggest recent single kind of coasts on the name recognition of two bigger artists who I don't like as much, but they all sound pretty good on this.
18. Tommy Richman - "Million Dollar Baby"
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #2 100 Hot 100
I try not to overthink what genre to put a song in when I do these lists, but there's a lot of mixed messaging with "Million Dollar Baby." Tommy Richman is a White singer, who rose to fame after signing with a Black R&B star, Brent Faiyaz. His videos look like rap videos if you put them on mute and he sings a lot of hip-hop slang, but he sings in a White boy struggle falsetto over dinky synth funk beats that remind me of '90s Ween songs. His one big hit was huge on both pop and R&B radio, and he recently irritated a lot of people by tweeting "I'm not a hip-hop artist" and then submitting his music for rap categories at the Grammys. I don't know what all this means, but I guess I'll categorize him as an R&B artist for at least the purposes of this list.
19. 4batz f/ Drake - "Act II: Date @ 8 (Remix)"
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #7 Hot 100
In the 2010s, the famous 'Drake effect' often took the shape of Drake jumping on a rising artist's biggest song and blowing it up, which happened with Future, Migos, ILoveMakonnen, WizKid, Fetty Wap, and Summer Walker. For the first time in a long time, Drake did that for 4batz, a weird novelty act kid singing falsetto in a ski mask. And while I think the idea that Kendrick ended or permanently hobbled Drake's career has been really overhyped and exaggerated, right now "Act II: Date @ 8" kinda stands as one of the last really big Drake moments before things got a little weird for him with the Kendrick beef.
20. The Weeknd f/ Playboi Carti - "Timeless"
#7 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #3 Hot 100
The Weeknd is kind of the biggest R&B artist in the world over the past decade, but a lot of his hits are synth pop songs like "Blinding Lights" that bypass R&B radio and go straight to Top 40. The pop single for his forthcomig album, though, "Dancing in the Flames," is total dogshit, so for the first time in a while, it's his R&B radio single, featuring Playboi Carti and co-produced by Pharrell, that really has the juice.
The 10 Worst R&B Radio Hits of 2024
1. Chris Brown - "Residuals"
2. Fridayy - "Baddest In The Room"
3. Sentury - "Tonight"
4. Bryson Tiller - "Whatever She Wants"
5. Marques Houston - "Cowgirl"
6. Austin Rogers - "Tip"
7. YG Marley - "Praise Jah in the Moonlight"
8. Inayah - "For The Streets"
9. J. Brown - "If You Could See You"
10. Keith Sweat - "Lay You Down"
Previously: The 20 Best R&B Radio Hits of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
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on Friday, December 06, 2024 at 12:13 PM.
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