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Will Smith made the first modern RnB?


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Will Smith has and will always be known as the pioneer for RnB as we know it today. His soulful songs have found themselves a home in the music that he has worked so hard to push forward. He is well known for his smooth songs like "What's the 411," "Nice and Slow," "Ain't No Sunshine," and much more! He has been honored several times for his work as an RnB artist. He won the first Grammy for "Best RnB Song." He has been praised by continuously throughout his career by artists such as Marvin Gay, James Brown, and Al Green for doing what others couldn't for the genre. The rest of his RnB story is untold.

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freakin tiger is always miss leading our new members. Lol, Will hasnt been well known for R&B music, just rap, even when he has mixed both works in all of his solo albums, being more noticeable in just the two of us. But nope, he aint a pioneer in that, and without JJ he used to write stories..

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He's never done ANY serious singing in his career. "Willow Is A Playa" on Born To Reign is the only real semi-singing attempt and the song is more of a clever comedy type song anyway...nothing 2 be taken as a serious singing attempt. I'm sure he can carry a tune, but i don't want him dropping any R-N-B/Soul/Jazz/Pop albums like Queen Latifah...ha ha.

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Absolutely bull****! It was always a combination of hip hop and rnb...Will did what he always did best...crossover hip hop from underground to mainstream and hip hop with rnb (new jack swing)

New jack swing, or "swingbeat"[2], is a hybrid style popular from the late-1980s into the mid-1990s, which fuses the rhythms, samples and production techniques of hip-hop with the urban contemporary sound of R&B. The new jack swing style developed as many previous R&B styles did, by combining elements of older styles with newer trends. It uses mellifluously soulful solo or harmonizing vocals sung over rhythms and "street" beats derived from urban musical influences. The sound of new jack swing comes from the hip hop "swing" beats created by drum machine, and hardware samplers, which was popular during the golden age of hip hop, with contemporary R&B style singing.

The Ghostbusters film franchise helped spread new jack swing songs by Ray Parker, Jr. and Bobby Brown, who was nicknamed The King of New Jack Swing. The NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air[/b] also boosted the spread of this culture, as the star of the show, Will Smith, was known initially for his hip-hop duo with DJ Jazzy Jeff. During the very first episode of the long running series, Will Smith enters one of the very first scenes dancing to the new jack swing classic by Soul II Soul titled "Back To Life". A Different World and In Living Color are other sitcoms of the era which exhibit influences from the new jack swing style. Video Soul, Soul Train and Showtime at the Apollo of course had their significant influence during this era but a daily late night show titled The Arsenio Hall Show helped to promote these acts, many of which performed on his talk show.

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