Neo-Soul

Neo-soul typically runs 70 to 100 BPM and sets a Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ, electric and upright bass, and a deliberately loose drum kit against a vocal that drifts between melisma and intimate spoken phrasing. Producers like J Dilla and Questlove are famous for pulling the snare slightly off the grid, which gives the genre its drunken, behind-the-beat feel. Horn arrangements appear in flashes rather than full sections. Mixes favor analog warmth, tape compression, and just enough vinyl noise to sound used.

The shorthand 'neo-soul' was coined as marketing copy by Kedar Massenburg at Motown around 1997 to describe the music coming from D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, and the Philadelphia collective the Soulquarians. Maxwell's 'Urban Hang Suite' (1996), Badu's 'Baduizm' (1997), and D'Angelo's 'Voodoo' (2000) are the three canonical records. Producers Jay Dee (J Dilla), Questlove, and Q-Tip provided the rhythmic backbone, and Lauryn Hill's 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill' (1998) connected the sound to mainstream R&B. The lineage continues through Robert Glasper, Anderson .Paak, Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote, and SAULT.

Pay attention to the drums first: the deliberately sloppy timing on D'Angelo's 'Voodoo' is the genre's defining gesture. Listen for Rhodes and Wurlitzer keyboards used as the harmonic bed rather than acoustic piano. Vocals tend to overlap themselves in dense stacked harmonies rather than the lead-and-backing structure of classic soul.

Single: D'Angelo, 'Untitled (How Does It Feel)' (2000). Album: Erykah Badu, 'Mama's Gun' (2000) for the rhythmic and lyrical center of the movement.

D'Angelo played almost every instrument on 'Voodoo' himself; Questlove recorded his drums separately, then deliberately nudged them off the click so the album would sound like a band falling forward together.