As you can see, you will need to click on the graphic above to enlarge & thus be able to fully examine it. What I have created is a way to compare the women of R&B by both material quality (on the x-axis) & vocal ability (on the y-axis). In other words, the further to the right an artist is placed, the better her body of work is & the higher up an artist is placed, the better singer she is. A few notes:- The criteria I used when choosing just which R&B females would make the cut was whether I would, at the very least, be willing to buy an album of hers or not (Sorry, Tamia!).
- Each lady's rank is determined by judging either her album(s) or, if not that, her mixtape(s), which, for any woman who has released an album, would only improve her standing; as for the ladies who have yet to release at least one of the aforementioned sets, I have compiled a list that ranks them, from top to bottom, based on their potential:
1. Vonzell Solomon
2. Bridget Kelly
3. Pia Toscano
4. Syesha Mercado
5. Ester Dean
6. Stephanie Edwards
7. T-Boz
8. Camile Velasco
9. Chilli
10. Megan Rochell
11. Frenchie Davis
12. Kiley Dean
13. Karen Rodriguez
14. Willow Smith
15. Lisa Tucker
16. Lil Rounds
17. Trenyce
18. Christina Christian
19. Nadia Turner
- As for the blue arrows (see: Cassie, Tiffany Evans, Melanie Fiona, Karina, & Kelly Rowland), using leaked material as an indication of what we can expect out of future releases from the aforementioned ladies, I believe they each have the potential to improve their respective bodies of work with varying degrees of significance.
- If there are any women in the graphic that you do not recognize, feel free to use the word version below to figure out who she is/they are.
- This is all, of course, based on my opinion, but feel free to share your opinions & comments!
10 comments:
Wow, you had to have put a lot of time and effort into this! I basically agree with everything (especially Mimi being the overall best, bc its true). This is great though bc you really can see an "objective" sort of view on every artist, and it goes to show that you can't really compare artists by just their vocals.
Well, i love your concept but i disagree with alot of the rankings...Keri hilson has wwaaaayyy more vocal ability than ciara and she should at least be higher than amerie. Watch this performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcM_kFWiPKw. Mary j. blige should be lower than lauryn hill. Monica should be higher than keyshia cole,letoya luckett should be higher than keyshia cole, have you heard lady love?I would put brandy just slightly under jazmine sullivan. Cassie and Mariah are in there rightful spots though...
I appreciate your comments, both Chris & Credits. I see where you're coming from, Credits, but I think where we disagree can mostly be boiled down to tone. For example, I'm a bit of a Ciara stan & for me personally, the sound of her voice outweighs Keri's slight edge when it comes to range. With LeToya, I like most of Lady Love (more for the material than vocals though), but I had to downgrade her a little bit because I don't like her first album. I almost agree with you when it comes to Jazmine Sullivan vs. Brandy, but while I love Brandy's tone, Jazmine's tone as well as her runs are what give me life in her music, so I felt she had more to offer in the vocal department. Again, just me lol.
Yea, i guess it's a personal preference sort of thing but it is almost on point for me minus the changes i would have made. Brandy's tone and runs are amazing, have you listened to any of her unreleased material? 'Perfect love' is a great example. Same thing with jazmine's unreleased stuff like 'catalog girl' and 'in vain'. Keyshia doesn't do it for me vocally anymore, her first too albums, yea, but now...i don't know. Mary doesn't do it for me either, she definitely has a soulful sound but i don't know about range, maybe i should listen to her more. I'd hate to start a keri vs. ciara war lmao but i hear more range in her voice than i do in ciara's.
I know you put a lot of work in this, but... sorry. this is a mess.
Ciara wish she could sing like Keri.
In what world Keyshia outsang Monica?
Brandy singing better than Mary J.Blige?
If you are comparing VOICE, than you'll have to re-think this commentary.
^^^^^^i agree with the fact that Keri sings better than Ciara
I agree that monica sings better than keyshia
But in what world do you think that mary j. blige has more vocal ability than brandy? Brandy will sing circles around mary. come on. Do the research by listening for yourself.
@credits It's hard for me to argue with you when it comes to Brandy because as you can see, her (& Mariah's) material is my favorite of everyone. I guess I just feel like while Brandy does have amazing vocals, it's her material that really makes her stand out (e.g. she puts those chops to good use!). Now, I completely agree with you re: Keyshia's vocals. I realize that she isn't all that impressive live anymore, but my mind can't get off of how spot-on she was in some of her performances when she was coming up, so I had to consider that. (Heck, I realize Mariah isn't 100% now like she was 15 years ago, but I still had to rate her based on "The Voice" that made her famous.) And I absolutely don't blame you (or Anonymous) when it comes to Keri vs. Ciara. I just have a soft spot for CiCi that most people don't seem to understand... lol. I would like to clarify, however, that I meant to give Keri some credit in the range department with my previous comment.
@Anonymous I'd say that Monica & Keyshia, on her best day (see: above), are comparable range-wise, but I slightly prefer Keyshia's tone (I'm gonna have to rely on Keyshia's studio material to back me up here lol). And I'm gonna have to agree with 'credits' re: Brandy vs. MJB. Her voice is simply stronger--have you seen her singing in her bathroom on YouTube? lol
I know you all might consider me crazy, but I'm actually really enjoying discussing this with everyone. I did spend a while listening to music to try to rank everyone properly relative to their peers. I might have just missed something, like the very nice performance Credits shared with me, that proves that one of these ladies that I love is capable of more than I thought, which is great!
I'm glad you took the keri hilson performance into consideration. She does things like that on her songs but mostly in the background, if you listen to 'breaking point' 'love ya' 'all the boys' she does these high notes in the background during the climax. Even in nas's 'hero'
Of course i watched brandy's bathroom bangers! :) lol and it is almost scary how deep her voice can go in her songs, like at the end of 'definition' and in the second verse of 'warm it up with love' from human.
And yes...Keyshia is on a steady decline with me. Performance wise and all.
I noticed your list of people who haven't released albums...I'm still waiting for Megan Rochell, i love that girl!!!
If you make a male list, make sure Maxwell is somewhere at the top :)
@credits Human?! Now you're speaking my language!! lol
lol Human was seriously underrated! I can't wait until her new album comes out but in the meantime her unreleased material keeps me alive. "i don't care" is my track right now
Post a Comment