British R&B Is Thriving. Why Is It Being Ignored?

When the BRIT Awards announced the all-male nominees for 2023’s Artist of the Year on 12 January, there was a lot of backlash. For some artists it felt like double discrimination, seeing as the BRITs also failed to recognise R&B talent this year. In the Pop/R&B category, there were no R&B artists nominated, despite UK R&B having a stellar year, as R&B star Mahalia pointed out in response.

But rather than giving airtime to how the BRITs got it so spectacularly wrong – which, let’s face it, they’ll likely do again – let’s focus on who’s actually killing it in British R&B right now. 

Simi Agbaje is the founder of the Blues Project, self-described the “fastest growing media platform for soul and R&B in the UK”. She says the many sub-scenes within the genre are proof of how big the boom really is. “You have your more conventional contemporary R&B,” says Agbaje, namechecking girl group FLO, whose sassy one-liners bring to mind TLC and Destiny’s Child. Plus North London’s serious storyteller Bellah and Shaé Universe, whose take on R&Drill (a fusion of R&B and drill) has been praised by Little Simz and Jorja Smith.

“There’s also alternative R&B and the more jazz influenced R&B/neo soul. As a fan, there’s a lot to connect to,” Agbaje adds. “You’re going to find something in the contemporary UK R&B landscape that’s for you.”

BBC Radio 1 Future Soul presenter Victoria Jane says the Manchester R&B scene is especially thriving, noting the 90s-feeling sound of Akemi Fox as a standout from the rainy city. “I also have to give an honourable mention to Children of Zeus,” she says of the band consisting of Konny Kon and Tyler Daley, who grinded for years before finally getting their dues from their debut 2018 album Travel Light. “Honestly they’re legends and it’s only a matter of time until the world discovers them because they make incredible music.”

Both Jane and Agbaje single out soulful duo The KTNA, who’ve had rave reviews for their EPs Life Under Siege and Resurgence and recently supported fellow Manc Pip Millett on tour. “I’m so glad they’re starting to get the recognition they really deserve,” says Jane.

The KTNA’s story brings into sharp focus the effect that an awards snub can have on a female R&B artist’s career – especially when you’ve already overcome extreme hardship just to release music. First signed at 12 years old, The KTNA were pressured to make music with overtly sexual lyrics and report being mentally abused by industry professionals. “Awards like the BRITs can give an artist validation,” says The KTNA’s Hope Katana, noting that it can make all the difference for acts operating in increasingly stressful working conditions.

There seems to be a misunderstanding about what British R&B even is, too. Singer-songwriter and previous BRIT nominee MNEK believes the UK music industry “doesn’t know what to do with R&B”. In a Twitter rant about the BRITs R&B snub, he’s sure that many people will assume that nominee Cat Burns is R&B – just because she’s Black.

Agbaje says that the problem goes all the way back to record labels, who don’t allocate enough A&R resources to it. “You can’t have this one person, usually a Black person, responsible for ‘urban’ and say we’ve covered R&B,” she says. “I have suspicions that a lot of these A&R people don’t even like R&B.”

Jane acknowledges that the BRITs did award one R&B act in FLO, for the Rising Star Award, but says, “They should’ve been up for Best R&B as well, with what they’ve achieved in one year.” (Aside from winning a BRIT, they also topped the BBC’s Sound of 2023 poll.) Jane thinks Mahalia should’ve been on the BRITs’ R&B list too, given she won Best R&B/Soul Act at the 2022 MOBOs. She also names Grammy-nominated Londoner Tiana Major9 as a big force within the scene right now. Jaz Karis, who released her first EP in 2017, is another act to pay attention to. “While she’s had no award nominations as yet,” says Jane, “her stats are incredible and she’s one of the best internationally recognised artists from the UK right now.”

Agbaje says British R&B artists’ streaming figures show just how well the scene is doing, too. “There are some UK R&B artists on 500,000 monthly listeners, some running into the millions, which is insane considering they have no investment,” she says, a statement which echoes previous reports that British record labels do not invest in UK Black R&B acts and that R&B generally fares worse than other genres. She lists Jvck James and Samm Henshaw as acts who’re doing really well – despite being slept on. “Samm Henshaw has 1.1 million listeners on Spotify and has toured internationally; he went to Asia, all over the U.S. and sold out in the UK – why is nobody talking about him?” 

Awards shows like the BRITs have specific rules around eligibility, such as having a Top 40 album or two Top 20 singles, which is why some of these acts – despite impressive streaming figures – weren’t allowed to be nominated. 

But poncy award ceremonies aside, ultimately the lack of recognition for female R&B artists is a reflection of misogyny, says Dr Metka Potočnik, who's researched extensively on gender and music, contributing to the government’s Women and Equalities Committee’s 2022 inquiry into misogyny in the industry.

“Analysis has shown 86 percent of signed songwriters and publishers in the UK – and just over 80 percent of signed artists on record labels – are male,” writes Potočnik in evidence presented to the inquiry alongside co-author Vick Bain, founder of The F-List, a directory of UK female and non-binary musicians. “This results in 74.5 percent of the artists booked to headline 50 large UK festivals in 2022 being male-only acts and significant inequality in the popular UK music charts and on radio airplay,” they argue.

Whether the industry is finally ready for change, only time will tell. In the meantime, British R&B is thriving perhaps because of these longstanding hardships. “People were having this exact same conversation about UK rap not being successful and being ignored, but that’s what’s created all these different platforms operating outside of the traditional industry,” says Agbaje.  “You’re seeing the same thing happening in R&B now, which in the end will lead to UK R&B having the same mainstream success.”

@kamilarymajdo