Hip Hop Soul

Hip hop soul is the style of R&B that emerged in the early 1990s when singers began performing over hip hop production rather than the synthesized pop-soul of new jack swing. *Mary J. Blige*'s "What's the 411?" (1992), executive-produced by *Sean Combs*, set the template: soul and gospel-trained voices, street subject matter and dress, and beats built from sampled breakbeats and booming drums. Tougher and more confessional than its predecessor, hip hop soul dominated Black popular music through the decade — *Jodeci*, *TLC*, *Aaliyah* — and permanently merged the R&B singer and the rapper's world.