Top 5 Male R&B Artists of All Time

As much as I love hip hop, rhythm and blues is what touches my heart most. There are plenty of great female R&B artists, but it's more personal to me to hear a man's voice telling his listeners what's on his mind. I regularly pop in CDs from some of my favorite male artists like Usher, Lloyd, Mario, the Temptations, Bill Withers, Joe, and Musiq, and listen to them croon to me about what's going on in their heads, through their bodies, and out of their mouths. Let me introduce you to my top five artists.

Number Five: Robin Thicke

He is the son of actor, Alan Thicke, and vocalist, Gloria Loring, born March 10, 1977. Teaching himself to play the piano at 12 years old and able to play anything on the radio by age 14, he later went on to create music for artists like Brandy, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera, and Brian McKnight. His first album "A Beautiful World" was #152 on the charts, selling 159,000 copies, and his music success behind the scene continued to increase. His song "Oh Shooter" was created after witnessing an armed bank robbery. With 15 platinum albums to his credit from other artists, he had the singing bug and wanted to be heard. Super producer Pharrell Williams asked Jimmy Iovine how he could become involved with the Robin Thicke project, and after recording "Wanna Love You Girl," listeners finally took notice of the man behind the music. In March of 2007, listeners got another earful of his beautiful voice on "The Evolution of Robin Thicke," which hit #1 on the Billboard Top R&B and Hip Hop Albums and #5 on the Billboard charts. Thicke's album is a straight shot through without pressing next on any song, but the ones that stand out to me are "Complicated" because it pretty much spells out every relationship I've ever had and "Lost Without You" because it dares to express a man's vulnerability. I also respected him putting his wife, Paula Patton (of the movie "Idlewild" featuring Outkast), as the only love interest in the latter video.

Number Four: R. Kelly

Born January 8, 1967 on the southside of Chicago, he sang as a youngster on street corners as well as in music classes at his high school, Kenwood Academy. Wayne Williams helped to sign him to Jive Records in 1989, and Kelly joined the group, Public Announcement, recording songs like "She's Got That Vibe" and "Honey Love." When he came out with these songs, I was in elementary school and not mature enough to really understand what he was talking about. Even songs like "You Remind Me" when he went solo were okay songs, but I didn't connect. To my innocent ears, his music was rather risqué. My brother kept saying when I got older I'd understand why he was so great. Indeed I did, with gritty but vulnerable songs like "You Remind Me of Something," "When a Woman's Fed Up," "Imagine That," "A Woman's Threat," "Feelin' On Yo Booty," Half On a Baby," "Don't Put Me Out," "One Man" and so on, he talks about everything from loving a woman, sexing a woman, breaking up with a woman, impregnating a woman, and hanging out with a woman. Although a lot of R&B music is incorporating hip hop within it, R. Kelly is the only one I've seen so far to make the two work well together, but I'm still more of a fan of his traditional songs like "Remote Control," "Naked," and "In the Kitchen." He makes it no secret that he loves the female body and I love that he does because I've yet to buy an album from him that I didn't find a few jams to close my eyes and groove along to.

Number Three: Tyrese (Gibson)

Born December 30, 1978 in a rough area of Watts, he took his sixteen-year-old talent to a Coca Cola tryout and after a few bars, he was hired to do the popular commercial we've all seen by now. Remember it? He wore the brown, white, and black plaid shirt with jeans, harmonizing "Always Coca Cola" on his headphones, while an African American lady with ponytails peeked back at him as he blushed. This commercial was the start of a successful career, with songs like "Lately" and "Sweet Lady" on his platinum-selling self-entitled album in 1998. That album was cool, but "I Wanna Go There" with "Signs of Love Makin'" was better. When I heard the song "On Top Of Me," Tyrese's voice was officially as up to par as his looks. Incredibly attractive in an appealing chocolate coating, slanted eyes, and teeth so white that toothpaste companies should be stalking him for ads, it was no question that he would model for Tommy Hilfiger and Ford or be on the big screen in movies like "2 Fast, 2 Furious" and "Baby Boy."

Number Two: Ne-Yo

Born October 18, 1982, Shaffer Chimere Smith is using a pen like fighters use fists (assuming the fight is fair). 189.5 million listeners for Mario's song "Let Me Love You" and Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" both written by Ne-Yo are proof that his hand is as valuable as his voice. He's also written hit songs for Mary J. Blige, B2K, Faith Evans, and Musiq. But when he sat the pen down long enough to sing, his first album "In My Own Words" sold 305,000 copies its first week and went on to sell three million copies (two million in the U.S. and one million in other countries). His single "So Sick" topped the Billboard charts at number one. His new album "Because of You" was released recently along with DVDs for 2006's impeccable movie "Stomp the Yard" in which he stomps and dances with the confidence of legitimate black fraternity men. I was floored when I saw him stepping because I'd only seen him groove to the music, but he was so tight with every move. "Stomp the Yard" became my new favorite movie ("Higher Learning" had been my favorite movie for about a decade) and although "Stay" didn't get as much radio play as "So Sick," whenever "Stay" comes on, I stop whatever I'm doing to sing along. I thought "Mirror" was the essential mood starter until I heard "Addicted" and "Say It." Those four songs make my heart beat faster. On top of being a really good actor, an astoundingly superb singer, and an impressive dancer, if you've ever seen an interview with him, I'd be surprised if you managed to not smile. He's funny, charismatic, and classy. There aren't too many music artists that I'd jump to concerts for but Ne-Yo is without a doubt the man I must see live.

Number One: Marvin Gaye

Born April 2, 1939 in Washington, DC in a poverty-stricken area, Marvin was traveling with his father and singing at church conventions, revival meetings, and sundry services. His gospel-trained voice led him into liking more secular songs by artists like Little Willie John and Ray Charles. He used artists like Sam Cooke and Jesse Belvin as ammunition to perfect his performance to match his voice. In 1955, Marvin quit high school to join the Air Force, but returned in the summer of 1957 to join a doo wop group. Songs like "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" put him at #8 on the R&B charts while "Pride and Joy" put him at #2. But the songs you may be more familiar with are "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Your Precious Love," and "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You." Then there's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." But the songs that sparked my interest the most were "What's Going On" written by Obie Benson of the Four Tops, Al Cleveland, and Marvin, in which Marvin used the emotions from a series of letters from his older brother, Frankie, about the Vietnam War. It was rare at the time for an R&B artist to use his beautiful voice to talk about a controversial issue but Marvin used his smooth, sweet tenor, growling rasp, and an unbelievable falsetto to belt out this song. This song hit #1 on Billboard's black album charts and #6 on the pop charts, staying on both for over a year. My other favorite song of his, "Let's Get It On," was on the top ten of pop Hot 100 album charts. The song was live and if you really want to see him in motion, get a copy of "The Real Thing in performance 1964-1981" DVD. The man sang so soothingly onstage to the point where I wondered if he pictured his love interest on stage with him. Never have I seen a man be so passionate all by himself, but in the same spirit, Marvin Gaye is a passionate singer so it fits.

The interesting thing is that my other four top artists look up to Marvin Gaye as inspiration. Tyrese even took it a step further by putting a carved version of Gaye's face into the floor foyer of his home with two million tons of pressure from water jets. As if the pressure of the music industry wasn't hard enough, these artists handle it with finesse.