The music of the voice, first and always
R&B is the genre pop goes to when it wants to feel something. Born where gospel met the blues, raised by Motown and quiet storm, it has always put the human voice — its runs, whispers, and ache — at the center of the record. Modern R&B stretches from slow-burn confessionals to songs that lean so far into hip-hop and electronic music that the border disappears, but the test never changes: does the singer make you believe it?
This week's chart answers with a generation speaking softly and carrying huge voices. Kehlani's “Folded” sits at No. 1, with Leon Thomas and Mariah The Scientist close behind, and Brent Faiyaz and SZA in the mix — artists who treat intimacy as a production style. And the ancestors are present, as they always are in R&B: Diana Ross's “Upside Down” and Stevie Wonder's “Superstition” charting in the same list, the funk and disco roots showing through the new growth.
Top 10 this week
The head of the R&B chart, at a glance. The full hundred, playable top to bottom, is just below — and it refreshes itself from the live chart every time this page loads.
- Folded — Kehlani
- MUTT — Leon Thomas
- Burning Blue — Mariah The Scientist
- butterflies. — Brent Faiyaz
- Love Me Not — Ravyn Lenae
- Upside Down — Diana Ross
- So Good — Jhené Aiko
- Kill Bill — SZA
- Superstition — Stevie Wonder
- NOBLE — F3miii
The full R&B chart
Slow music in a fast feed
R&B should be streaming's hardest genre — it's patient music in an impatient medium, built on mood rather than moments. Instead it has thrived, because mood is exactly what playlists sell. The late-night playlist, the slow-morning playlist, the drive-home playlist: R&B is the default setting for all of them. Quiet storm used to be a radio format after dark. Now it's the water the whole internet swims in.
Press Play All and take this chart the way it asks to be taken — in order, unhurried. The tempos are lower and the stakes feel personal: heartbreak, devotion, regret, groove. Every pop singer of the last thirty years learned phrasing from this genre. This is where you hear the teachers, and the students who are about to become teachers themselves.
Looking for a slow jam that isn't here?
The chart is only the front door. On the main site you can search millions of songs by artist, album, track, or genre — and every one of them plays the same free 30-second preview.
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