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Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul)<ref name="Ross"/> is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contemporary R&B. Heavily based in soul music, neo soul is distinguished by a less conventional sound than its contemporary R&B counterpart, with incorporated elements ranging from funk, jazz fusion, and hip hop, and to pop, rock, and electronic music. It has been noted by music writers for its traditional R&B influences, conscious-driven lyrics, and strong female presence.
Neo soul developed during the 1980s and early 1990s, by Black-Americans in the United States, as a soul revival movement. It earned mainstream success during the 1990s, with the commercial and critical breakthroughs of several artists, including D'Angelo, Maxwell, Erykah Badu, and Lauryn Hill. Their music was marketed as an alternative to the producer-driven, digitally approached R&B of the time, although many of them were ambivalent about the term.
Since its initial mainstream popularity and impact on the sound of contemporary R&B, neo soul has been expanded and diversified musically through the works of both American and international artists. Its mainstream presence declined during the 2000s, although newer artists emerged through more independent means of marketing their music. In his book The Essential Neo Soul (2010), music journalist and culture critic Chris Campbell writes that, while the genre has been "woefully misunderstood and its artists mis-marketed", there is "a historical and social relevance that validates its designation as the current face of alternative progressive soul music (in both underground and overground circles), complete with a distinct origin and developmental evolution".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Mark Anthony Neal, "neo-soul and its various incarnations has helped to redefine the boundaries and contours of black pop."<ref name="Neal">Neal, Mark Anthony (2003). "Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation Template:Webarchive". Routledge: pp. 117–118. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref>
EtymologyEdit
As a term, neo soul was coined by Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell.<ref name="shapiro3">Template:Cite book</ref> The success of D'Angelo's 1995 debut album Brown Sugar has been regarded by several writers and music critics as inspiration behind the term's origin.<ref name="shapiro3"/><ref name="Kot">Kot, Greg. "Dusting of Old King Soul Template:Webarchive". Chicago Tribune: 1. July 21, 1996. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref><ref name="Mitchell">Mitchell, Gail. "Soul Resurrection: What's So New About Neo-Soul? Template:Webarchive". Billboard: 30, 36. June 1, 2002. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref> While some artists have ignored the label, others have received the designation with controversy because it may seem contrived to music audiences and imply that soul music had ended at some point in time.<ref name="Mitchell"/> In a 2002 interview for Billboard, Massenburg said that genre classifications are often unpopular because they may be suggestive of a short-lived trend. However, although he said neo soul is still essentially soul music, Massenburg felt there was a need to market artists of the genre for listeners to have an understanding of what they were buying.<ref name="Mitchell"/>
In a 2010 article for PopMatters, music writer Tyler Lewis said that neo soul has been received with much controversy: "Given the way black music has been named by (usually) outsiders ever since the blues, the reaction to the name by artists who ostensibly fit into the 'neo-soul' category represents a wonderful example of black self-determination in an industry that is still defiantly wedded to narrow definitions and images of black folks."<ref name="Lewis">Lewis, Tyler (September 28, 2010). Review: Airtight's Revenge Template:Webarchive. PopMatters. Retrieved September 28, 2010.</ref> Jason Anderson of CBC News compares the etymology of neo soul to that of "new wave" and comments: "As imperfect as the term may be, neo-soul is still an effective tag to describe the mix of chic modernity and time-honoured tradition that distinguished the genre's best examples. Neo-soul artists tried to look both backward and forward, acting in the belief that a continuum might exist."<ref name="Anderson">Template:Cite news</ref>
CharacteristicsEdit
Despite some ambivalence from artists, the term received widespread use by music critics and writers who wrote about artists and albums associated with the musical style.<ref name="Mitchell"/><ref name="Ross"/> African American studies professor Mark Anthony Neal has described neo soul as "everything from avant-garde R&B to organic soul ... a product of trying to develop something outside of the norm in R&B".<ref name="Burch">Template:Cite news</ref> According to music writers, the genre's works are mostly album-oriented and distinguished by its musicianship and production, incorporating "organic" elements of classic soul music with the use of live instrumentation, in contrast to the more single-oriented, hip hop-based, and producer-driven sampling approach of contemporary R&B.<ref name="Mitchell"/><ref name="Ratliff"/><ref name="Farley"/> Neo soul also incorporates elements of electronic music,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> jazz fusion, funk, rap, gospel, rock, reggae, and African music.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In her book Musical Rhythm in the Age of Digital Reproduction, music author Anne Danielsen wrote that neo soul toward the end of the 1990s exhibited a musical development that was part of "a remarkable increase in musicians' experimentation with and manipulation of grooves at the microrhythmic level – that is, the level in played music that is usually understood in terms of phrasing and timing."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Noting that most of the genre's artists are singer-songwriters, writers have viewed their lyrical content as more "conscious-driven" and having a broader range than most other R&B artists.<ref name="Ehrlich"/><ref name="Mitchell"/><ref name="Farley"/> AllMusic calls it "roughly analogous to contemporary R&B."<ref name="genre">[{{#ifeq: yes | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d12955{{
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}} Genre: Neo Soul]. AllMusic. Retrieved April 26, 2010.</ref> Dimitri Ehrlich of Vibe said that they "emphasize a mix of elegant, jazz-tinged R&B and subdued hip hop, with a highly idiosyncratic, deeply personal approach to love and politics".<ref name="Ehrlich"/> Music writers have noted that neo soul artists are predominantly female, which contrasts the marginalized presence of women in mainstream hip hop and R&B.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Jason Anderson of CBC News called neo soul a "sinuous, sly yet unabashedly earnest" alternative and "kind of haven for listeners turned off by the hedonism of mainstream hip-hop and club jams."<ref name="Anderson"/> Neo soul artists are often associated with alternative lifestyles and fashions, including organic food, incense, and knit caps.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
According to music writer Peter Shapiro, the term itself refers to a musical style that obtains its influence from older R&B styles, and bohemian musicians seeking a soul revival, while setting themselves apart from the more contemporary sounds of their mainstream R&B counterparts.<ref name="shapiro3"/> In a 1998 article on neo soul, Time journalist Christopher John Farley wrote that singers such as Hill, D'Angelo, and Maxwell "share a willingness to challenge musical orthodoxy".<ref name="Farley">Farley, Christopher John. Music: Neo-Soul on a Roll. Time. Retrieved May 9, 2010.</ref> Miles Marshall Lewis commented that 1990s neo soul "owed its raison d'être to '70s soul superstars like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder", adding that "in concert, Erykah Badu and D'Angelo regularly covered Chaka Khan, the Ohio Players, and Al Green, to make the lineage crystal clear."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In citing Tony! Toni! Toné! as progenitors of the genre, Tony Green of Vibe viewed that the group pioneered the "digital-analog hybrid sound" of neo soul and "dramatically refreshed the digitalized wasteland that was R&B in the late '80s".<ref name="Green">Green, Tony. "Props: Tony! Toni! Tone! Template:Webarchive". Vibe: 168. May 2003. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref> Neo soul artists during the 1990s were heavily inspired by the eclectic sound and mellow instrumentation of Gil Scott-Heron's and Brian Jackson's collaborative work in the 1970s.<ref name="Bordowitz">Bordowitz, Hank. "Gil Scott-Heron Template:Webarchive". American Visions: June 1, 1998. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref> All About Jazz cited Jackson as "one of the early architects" of the sound and his early work with Scott-Heron as "an inspirational and musical Rosetta stone for the neo-soul movement".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HistoryEdit
1980s–early 1990s: Stylistic originsEdit
Template:See also Template:Multiple images Neo soul originated in the 1980s and early 1990s, with the work of musical acts such as Prince, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Terence Trent D'Arby, Joi,<ref name="Mock">Mock, Brentin. The Joyful Noise of Janelle Monáe Template:Webarchive. The Atlantic. Retrieved May 18, 2010.</ref> and Mint Condition, whose music deviated from the conventions of most contemporary R&B at the time.<ref name="Ehrlich"/><ref name="Mitchell"/><ref name="Farley"/><ref name="Green"/> Tony! Toni! Toné!-member Raphael Saadiq later embarked on a solo career and produced various works of other neo soul artists.<ref name="allhiphop">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Influential to neo soul, UK act Sade achieved success in the 1980s with music that featured a smooth jazzy style of pop rock called sophisti-pop.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The band was part of a new wave of British R&B-oriented artists during the late-1980s and early 1990s that also included Soul II Soul, Caron Wheeler, The Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, and Lisa Stansfield.<ref name="Henderson">Henderson, Alex (August 1, 2003). British Soul. Allmusic. Retrieved March 6, 2011.</ref> AllMusic's Alex Henderson writes that, "Many of the British artists who emerged during that period had a neo-soul outlook and were able to blend influences from different eras".<ref name="Henderson"/> Other British progenitors of the neo soul movement at the time included Young Disciples and Omar Lye-Fook,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the latter of whom has been cited as "the father of British neo-soul" and an influence on many future artists.<ref>Cordor, Cyril (2005). Biography: Omar Template:Webarchive. Allmusic. Retrieved March 6, 2011.</ref>
According to Christopher John Farley, Prince had been "carrying a torch for neo soul for decades, refusing to make R&B that played by the rules or fit into comfortable formats. In the mid-'90s, he was suddenly joined by a host of other soul artists who also wanted to break boundaries".<ref name="Farley2">Template:Cite book</ref> American artists that further popularized this sound during the early 1990s included Zhané, Groove Theory, Joi, Tony Rich, and Me'Shell NdegéOcello.<ref name="Ross">Ross, Sean. "After a False Start, The Neo-Soul Genre Picks Up Steam on the Mainstream Track Template:Webarchive". Billboard: May 8, 1999. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref><ref>Valdés, Mimi (September 2003). "The Sound of Music Template:Webarchive". Vibe: 200–208. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref><ref>Cinquemani, Sal (July 3, 2001). Me'Shell NdegéOcello: Plantation Lullabies | Music Review Template:Webarchive. Slant Magazine. Retrieved March 5, 2011.</ref><ref>Aaron, Peter (October 2010). Goddess of Groove: Meshell Ndegeocello – Roll the Music :: Roll Magazine: Creative Living in the Hudson Valley. Roll Publishing. Retrieved March 5, 2011.</ref>
NdegéOcello's 1993 debut album Plantation Lullabies was later credited as the beginning of neo soul;<ref name="Easlea">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> according to Renee Graham of The Boston Globe, it was "arguably the first shot in the so-called 'neo-soul' movement".<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The success of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s 1993 album Sons of Soul was also viewed as a precursor to the soul music revival in the mid-1990s.<ref name="Coker"/><ref name="Stanley"/> Cheo Hodari Coker said in 1997 that the album "largely sparked the soul music revival that has opened the door for a new generation of singers who build on the tradition of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder".<ref name="Coker">Coker, Cheo Hodari (January 12, 1997). Time to Jam—or Jam? – Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 25, 2011.</ref> Allmusic editor Leo Stanley wrote that by the release of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s follow-up album House of Music in 1996, "their influence was beginning to be apparent, as younger soul singer-songwriters like Tony Rich and Maxwell began reaching the R&B charts. Like Tony! Toni! Toné!, Rich and Maxwell relied on traditional soul and R&B values of songwriting and live performances, discarding the synth-heavy productions of the late '80s and early '90s".<ref name="Stanley">Stanely, Leo (August 1, 2003). House of Music – Tony! Toni! Toné! | AllMusic: Review Template:Webarchive. Allmusic. Retrieved June 24, 2011.</ref>
A few hip hop groups are cited as well. Malcolm Venable of Vibe highlights the early work of hip hop band The Roots, who used live instrumentation, as a precursor to neo soul's commercial breakthrough in the mid-1990s.<ref name="Venable">Template:Cite journal</ref> Kierna Mayo, former editor-in-chief of Ebony, said that alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest's early 1990s albums The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders "gave birth to neo-everything ... That entire class of D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, and Lauryn Hill".<ref name="vv">Template:Cite news</ref>
Mid–late 1990s: Mainstream breakthroughEdit
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In 1995, former corporate marketer turned artist manager Kedar Massenburg established the record label Kedar Entertainment Inc., through which he released the breakthrough neo soul recordings of artists such as Badu, D'Angelo, and Chico DeBarge.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Music journalists have specifically credited the successes of D'Angelo's Brown Sugar (1995), Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (1996), Badu's Baduizm (1997), and Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) with shaping and raising the neo soul movement to commercial visibility into the late 1990s.<ref name="shapiro3"/><ref name="Ross"/><ref name="genre"/><ref name="Huey">Huey, Steve. [{{#ifeq: yes | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p173891/biography{{
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}} Maxwell: Biography]. Allmusic. Retrieved March 30, 2009.</ref><ref name="Nelson">Nelson, Trevor. Radio 1 Listeners Top 50 Albums of 1993–2003. TrevorNelson. Retrieved March 30, 2009.</ref><ref name="Harvilla">Harvilla, Rob. Maxwell Returns. So Do the Giant Panties Template:Webarchive. The Village Voice. Retrieved March 31, 2009.</ref> According to Farley, D'Angelo's album "gives a nod to the past, ... mints his own sound, with golden humming keyboards and sensual vocals and unhurried melodies ... His songs were polished without being slick and smart without being pretentious", while Badu "brought an iconoclastic spirit to soul music, with her towering Afrocentric headwraps, incense candles, and quirky lyrics".<ref name="Farley2"/> Baduizm sold nearly three million copies and won Badu two Grammy Awards.<ref name="Ryzik">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hill's Miseducation album featured her singing and rapping, with deeply personal lyrics,<ref name="Farley2"/> and was one of neo soul's primary successes,<ref name="Ross"/> achieving massive sales, critical acclaim, and five Grammy Awards.<ref>Raftery, Brian (November 1, 2001). Biography: Lauryn Hill Template:Webarchive. Allmusic. Retrieved March 5, 2011.</ref> The 1997 film Love Jones capitalized on neo soul's success at the time with its soundtrack album, which impacted the Billboard charts and featured artists such as Hill, Maxwell, The Brand New Heavies, Me'Shell NdegéOcello, Groove Theory, and Dionne Farris.<ref name="Graham"/><ref>Promis, Jose F. (August 1, 2003). Love Jones – Original Soundtrack Template:Webarchive. Allmusic. Retrieved March 6, 2011.</ref>
After a brief marketing downturn, neo soul gained more mainstream popularity in 1999 with commercial successes by Hill, Maxwell, Eric Benét, Saadiq, and Les Nubians.<ref name="Ross"/> It impacted mainstream radio while influencing contemporary R&B acts, such as R. Kelly and Aaliyah,<ref name="Farley2"/> to incorporate some of its textural and lyrical elements.<ref name="Ross"/> In Kelly's song "When a Woman's Fed Up" (1998), the singer incorporated a more soul-based sound and referenced Badu's 1997 song "Tyrone" in the lyrics.<ref name="Ross"/> Other female artists broke through with their debut albums, including Macy Gray, Angie Stone, and Jill Scott.<ref name="genre"/><ref name="allhiphop"/> Although Scott's album Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 would not see release until 2000, she co-wrote and sang on "You Got Me" (the 1999 hit single by hip hop band The Roots) and received further exposure as a supporting performer on the band's tour that year. "Thanks to her stint on 'You Got Me' and subsequent live shows", Joel McIver wrote, "Scott can be credited as the first female artist to emerge in Erykah Badu's wake who could seriously claim to have challenged her superiority at the top of the neo-soul tree".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the musical collective Soulquarians—consisting of such artists as D'Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Mos Def, Common, James Poyser, J Dilla and Q-Tip—contributed significantly to the neo soul movement with what Greg Kot described as its members' "organic soul, natural R&B, boho-rap".<ref name="Kot2">Kot, Greg. "A Fresh Collective Soul? Template:Webarchive". Chicago Tribune: 1. March 19, 2000. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref> The collective developed through the production work of The Roots' drummer and producer Questlove.<ref name="Venable"/>
Early 2000s: Height of hypeEdit
In 2000, D'Angelo released his second album Voodoo, serving as a further alternative to the mainstream of late 1990s R&B and hip hop, as neo soul reached its apex in the new decade.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A production of the Soulquarians,<ref name="Kot2"/> it was an exemplary creative milestone of neo soul.<ref name="Anderson"/><ref>Neo-Soul's Familiar Face; With 'Voodoo,' D'Angelo Aims to Reclaim His Place in a Movement He Got Rolling. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 6, 2011.</ref> Ben Ratliff of The New York Times called the album "the succes d'estime that proves the force of this new music: it is a largely unslick, stubbornly idiosyncratic and genuinely great album that has already produced two hit singles".<ref name="Ratliff"/> The year also saw Badu's second album Mama's Gun, by which time the singer had been dubbed by writers as "the queen of neo-soul",<ref name="Ryzik"/> although she said of the honorific title, "I hated that because what if I don't do that anymore? What if I change? Then that puts me in a penitentiary."<ref name="Ryzik"/> Scott's first album Who Is Jill Scott? sold millions worldwide and proved one of the genre's significant releases.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Template:Multiple image Other successful performers marketed as neo soul at this time included Bilal, Musiq Soulchild, India.Arie, and Alicia Keys, who broke through to broader popularity with her debut album Songs in A Minor (2001).<ref name="Ehrlich"/><ref name="genre"/><ref>Seymour, Craig (February 2002). "The Re-Energizers Template:Webarchive". Vibe: 68–73. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref> According to AllMusic biographer Andy Kellman, although Bilal may have been the "one R&B artist for whom the neo-soul categorization seemed limiting", his 2001 debut album 1st Born Second was an "exemplary" release for the genre and a top-10 R&B chart success.<ref name="AM">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hip hop acts such as The Roots and Common, also associated with the Soulquarians,<ref name="Kot2"/> released albums that incorporated neo soul: Phrenology (2002) and Electric Circus (2003).<ref name="allhiphop"/> Commenting on neo soul's hype, Daphne Brooks wrote in 2004, "The increasing attention paid to heavily hyped 'neo-soul' artists such as Jill Scott and Indie.arie ... suggest[s] that cultural memory is now recognized as a marketable aesthetic strategy of expression in contemporary pop."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Mid–late 2000s: Mainstream declineEdit
The 2000s later featured a decline in output by neo soul artists,<ref name="Lewis"/><ref name="Spin"/> with many of them failing to make a commercial impact after previous successes or not releasing a follow-up album.<ref name="Graham">Graham, Renée (November 14, 2003). Boston.com / A&E / Music / Soul searching Template:Webarchive. The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 6, 2011.</ref> Badu's commercial viability decreased as each of her releases following her debut Baduizm departed further from that album's music.<ref name="Anderson"/> Hill followed-up her 1998 debut—considered the best-selling neo soul album—with a combative, confessional live album (2002's MTV Unplugged No. 2.0) in which she expresses her misgivings about fame, and her recording career diminished soon after.<ref name="Anderson"/> Melena Ryzik of The New York Times wrote in a retrospective piece on that "era of left-of-center black singer-songwriters", stating "many of them struggled to keep their creative momentum, conflicted about their early mainstream success."<ref name="Ryzik"/> Producer and Soulquarians member Questlove elaborated on the artists' regression from the mainstream, saying "I think most of us went through our psychosomatic, quasi-self-saboteur stage. Once we got that first taste of success, I think just the pressure of reacting got to all of us. Some of us released some of the craziest records of our career."<ref name="Ryzik"/> Other artists such as D'Angelo and Hill went on indefinite hiatus from the music scene.<ref name="Anderson"/><ref name="Ryzik"/> Tyler Lewis from PopMatters attributed the decline to "the downside of [the] rejection of the term ['neo soul']", going on to say:
The Boston GlobeTemplate:'s Renée Graham wrote of the artists' ambivalence towards the term in a 2003 article on neo soul's standing, "Despite its critical success, if neo-soul had an initial failing, it was the media-created label itself – a term that the artists, whom it was meant to represent, generally rejected".<ref name="Graham"/> In a 2003 interview, music publicist John Constanza said that "The neo-soul movement is still there, but it's been underground, and it's trying to get the attention of the mainstream again".<ref name="Graham"/> Mark Edward Nero of About.com stated, "In general, neo-soul has remained almost exclusive to R&B outlets such as urban radio and Black Entertainment Television ... the majority of neo-soul artists have yet to crossover to mainstream American music listeners, partially because the music's sound generally focuses on artist expression, rather than popular appeal".<ref name="Nero">Nero, Mark Edward. Neo-Soul: What Is Neo-Soul? Template:Webarchive. About.com. Retrieved March 5, 2011.</ref>
After D'Angelo and Hill's withdrawal from the mainstream, Bilal appeared to be another artist from "the soul music vanguard" of the late 1990s and early 2000s to succumb to professional setbacks and fade from the public view, after his heavily bootlegged album Love for Sale was shelved in 2006, although it developed an underground following in subsequent years.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Smash Gordon, of the Fabric club's blog, later called the leak "one of the biggest mysteries in neo-soul history".<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref>
In the latter part of the decade, emerging artists such as Heather Headley, Anthony David, J Davey, Eric Roberson, and Ledisi signed to independent soul labels and received exposure through independent retailers, neo soul-oriented web sites, college and public radio stations, city club venues, cable networks such as Music Choice and BET J, and publishing deals as writers and producers for major label-recording artists.<ref>Mitchell, Gail (July 1, 2006). "The Next Soul Survivors Template:Webarchive". Billboard: 27–29. Retrieved November 2, 2011.</ref> Erykah Badu and Maxwell returned from their respective hiatuses and released well-received albums, her New Amerykah albums and his 2009 album BLACKsummers'night, and they subsequently toured together.<ref name="Anderson"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> VH1 Soul's series Soulstage, which began in 2007, showcased new music by artists such as Badu, Jill Scott, India.Arie, Q-Tip, and Saadiq.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2010s–present: Late periodEdit
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Since its original popularity, neo soul has been expanded and diversified musically through the works of both American and international artists.<ref name="Ratliff">Ratliff, Ben. Out of a Rut and Into a New Groove Template:Webarchive. The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2010.</ref> The more popular neo soul artists of the 2010s included Scott, Maxwell, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, Amy Winehouse, Chrisette Michele, Leela James, and Raheem DeVaughn.<ref name="allhiphop"/><ref name="Nero"/> DeVaughn has described himself as an "R&B Hippy Neo-Soul Rock Star", viewing it as a reference to his eclectic musical style.<ref name="Dinsmore"/> In its 2010 issue on critical moments in popular music, Spin cited D'Angelo's Voodoo and its success as a turning point for neo soul: "D'Angelo's pastiche of funk, carnal ache, and high-minded, Afrocentric rhetoric stands as neo-soul's crowning achievement. So unsurpassable that it'd be eight years before we'd hear from Erykah Badu and Maxwell again, while Hill and D'Angelo remain missing. But Alicia Keys, John Legend, and Cee-Lo picked up D's mantle and ran with it".<ref name="Spin">Template:Cite journal</ref> Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club discerns "a line of revelatory, late-period neo-soul albums" with the releases of Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night (2009), Badu's New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010), Bilal's Airtight's Revenge (2010), and Frank Ocean's Channel Orange (2012).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the 2010s and 2020s, other neo soul acts included Tyler, The Creator,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Fitz and the Tantrums,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Mayer Hawthorne,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Sol Chyld and Amos Lee.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In August 2019, Okayplayer journalist Keith Nelson Jr. published a piece highlighting 11 recording artists who are "on the precipice of pushing neo-soul forward" into its third decade of existence: Steve Lacy ("cut from the abstract neo-soul cloth of Frank Ocean where you’re just as likely to have a jam session as you are to hear philosophical quips"), Mahalia ("singer-songwriter, with honeyed vocals … songs of love and anguish typically exist in narratives, similar to Jill Scott, who paved her path"), Adrian Daniel ("experimentation and vulnerability that is reminiscent of fellow Brooklynite Maxwell"), VanJess ("sister duo float between the soulful chemistry of Floetry and the unapologetically assertive of City Girls … artful sexual empowerment"), Donovan ("avant-garde singer and instrumentalist … bedroom intimate vocals and [emotive] production"), Ari Lennox ("can make Tinder plights sound rich with soul … akin to Erykah Badu"), Marco McKinnis ("Anthony Hamilton meets D'Angelo … hazy ambient sounds"), Baby Rose ("exquisitely guttural voice makes [love] palpable"), Kyle Dion ("a register so high it sounded like tearful begging"), Lucky Daye ("his love odes are imbued with a Raphael Saadiq-esque adventurousness"), and Iman Omari ("a faint Bilal tinge … music that leans heavy on a jazz/hip-hop").<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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