Mary J. Blige Blames Justin Timberlake & Adele For Rebranding R&B As ‘Popular Music’

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ social media queries about the state of R&B sparked several conversations over the years. The genre has come under fire as some claim that R&B’s influence in popular culture has significantly decreased since its heyday decades ago. Mary J. Blige recently shared her two cents about the state of R&B.

Diddy recently presented the question, “Who Killed R&B?” on Instagram Live and afterwards asked his followers to define the genre. The new generation has sonically altered much of what is currently classified as R&B. The Queen of Hip Hop-Soul lauded the genre and the new generations of performers blazing their own trails while chatting with Diddy on the state of R&B.

You can’t kill something that’s in our DNA. It’s gonna keep transitioning from generation to generation to generation to generation. They was trying to kill it. Before I say what I’m gonna say, let me just say this: I wanna thank all the radio stations around the country that are playing R&B music and sincerely support it. But, you know, a lot of the radio stations killed it, for the same thing that Tank was saying. They ain’t gon’ jump on the bandwagon of whatever the hottest things is—but, let me just say this. We have to keep ourselves alive as R&B singers. They wanna call it ‘Popular Music’ with Adele and Justin Timberlake get ahold to it, so now it’s ‘Popular Music.’ But it’s been popular music! We’ve been had it!

She continued by mentioning herself as well as a number of her contemporaries, including Chaka Khan, Etta James, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Jazmine Sullivan, and SWV. Blige asserted once more that the abilities of these musicians and those like them cannot be killed.

Additionally, Blige urged people to refrain from criticizing radio stations for their lack of R&B support, calling such behavior sheepish and a factor in the genre’s downfall. She concluded by saying, “Be a shepherd.” Watch more of Diddy and Mary J. Blige’s discussion about why R&B isn’t dead in the clip that follows.

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