10 R&B albums you may have missed while waiting for Timberlake

theGRIO SLIDESHOW - With tomorrow's new release from crooner Justin Timberlake (The 20/20 Experience), who's been championed as the savior of R&B, we at theGrio want to highlight a few albums within the past seven years that deserve more recognition....

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

The longevity of R&B music has been in question for sometime now. Sometimes referred to as “the forgotten genre”, it’s no secret that R&B does not have the dominance that it once had, especially on the charts.

The Grammys even made up a new name to categorize what would be today’s version of R&B titled “Urban Contemporary”.

Changing of the guard: How Frank Ocean, Miguel and more helped R&B find its soul again

Many of the genres titans have abandoned the traditional R&B sound in favor of electronic dance music or EDM leaving the genre weaker than ever.

With tomorrow’s new release from crooner Justin Timberlake (The 20/20 Experience), who’s been championed as the savior of R&B, we at theGrio want to highlight a few albums within the past seven years that deserve more recognition for keeping what is left of R&B thriving.

Chris Martin is a Brooklyn-based writer. He is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and co-editor of itstheratpack.com. You can follow him on twitter at @SozeSays.

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