In February, we launched Spotify CLASSICS, our first-ever program to celebrate catalog music. Our inaugural list focused on the Classic Hip-Hop and R&B Albums of the Streaming Era and featured timeless bodies of work like Beyonc 's Lemonade, Frank Ocean's Blonde, SZA's Ctrl, Rihanna's ANTI, and Jazmine Sullivan's Heaux Tales, to name a few.
Today we're unveiling the second chapter of our CLASSICS program: The 100 Greatest R&B Songs of the Streaming Era. Spotify defines the Streaming Era as a timeframe that spans 2015 until present day.
R&B went through an identity crisis during the first half of the 2010s, but the genre found its footing during the streaming era. R&B morphed into a style of music that absorbed hip-hop, pop, Afrobeats, electronic, alternative, and indie into its sound, breathing new life into the genre.
Spotify's U.S. editorial team-along with Carl Chery, Creative Director, Head of Urban Music at Spotify-has taken on the ambitious task of corralling all shades of R&B under one umbrella, and in the end, this list offers a snapshot of all the genre has offered in the streaming era. Based on criteria such as quality, impact, replay value, influence, and cultural significance, Spotify CLASSICS is 100% qualitative. The program is driven by our editors' music and cultural expertise-and not by data-meaning that massive streaming numbers were not a requirement for the 100 songs you see below.
Note: All songs were released on Spotify after January 1, 2015. The Spotify streams are current as of April 8, 2024.
100. Mahalia ft. Ella Mai What You Did 5K/Sony, 2019
Spotify Streams: 119,207,837
Fun Fact: The song samples Rose Royce's I'm Going Down. Mary J. Blige and Cam'ron previously sampled the song. Cam'ron appears on the remix to What You Did.
99. Libianca People 5K/Sony, 2022
Spotify Streams: 599,870,162
Fun Fact: Jakarta, India, is the top city listening to People on Spotify.
98. Lucky Daye ft. Alex Isley, Masego & Jack Dine Good & Plenty (Remix) Isley & Dine, 2021
Spotify Streams: 51,032,263
Fun Fact: Joey Badass sampled Good & Plenty on his song Passports & Suitcases.
97. PJ Morton ft. JoJo Say So Morton/Empire, 2019
Spotify Streams: 35,878,123
Fun Fact: Say So won Best R&B Song at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. PJ Morton has won five Grammys as an R&B artist.
96. Kali Uchis Moonlight Geffen, 2023
Spotify Streams: 640,798,930
Fun Fact: Kali Uchis first teased the song on her TikTok account on November 20, 2022.
95. SiR D'Evils Top Dawg Entertainment, 2018
Spotify Streams: 119,009,859
Fun Fact: Jay-Z released a song with the same title on his debut album, Reasonable Doubt.
94. Sampha (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano Young Turks, 2017
Spotify Streams: 91,697,106
Fun Fact: (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano is Sampha's most-streamed solo song on Spotify.
93. Ravyn Lenae ft. Steve Lacy Skin Tight Atlantic, 2022
Spotify Streams: 23,727,173
Fun Fact: Skin Tight was a late addition to Ravyn Lenae's album, Hypnos. Steve Lacy brought it to Ravyn's attention as they were starting to mix the album.
92. Yebba Distance RCA, 2021
Spotify Streams: 31,535,923
Fun Fact: Distance was recorded in New York City's legendary Electric Lady Studios. D'Angelo's Voodoo, Bilal's 1st Born Second, and The Roots' Phrenology were also recorded at Electric Lady.
91. Tiana Major9 ft. EARTHGANG Collide Motown, 2019
Spotify Streams: 45,894,014
Fun Fact: Collide was nominated for Best R&B Song at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.
90. Thundercat Them Changes Brainfeeder, 2020
Spotify Streams: 302,994,988
Fun Fact: Them Changes borrows its drums from The Isley Brothers' Footsteps in the Dark, Pts. 1&2.
89. Kelela LMK Warp, 2017
Spotify Streams: 12,352,417
Fun Fact: Stereogum, Noisey, and Highsnobiety all ranked Kelela's LMK at #7 on their Best Songs of 2017 lists.
88. Oxlade KU LO SA Troniq Music/Epic, 2022
Spotify Streams: 18,882,490
Fun Fact: The A COLORS SHOW version of Oxlade's KU LO SA has over 81 million views on YouTube.
87. Kehlani ft. Masego Hate the Club Atlantic, 2020
Spotify Streams: 34,330,901
Fun Fact: Kehlani name-checks Shabba, a popular reggae/dancehall party now known as Donovan's Yard. Young Thug also shouts out Shabba on Metro Boomin's Trance.
86. Janelle Monae Only Have Eyes 42 Atlantic, 2023
Spotify Streams: 8,967,190
Fun Fact: Only Have Eyes 42 samples reggae artist Derrick Harriott's The Loser.
85. Snoh Aalegra I Want You Around ARTium/AWAL, 2019
Spotify Streams: 147,258,213
Fun Fact: I Want You Around is Snoh Aalegra's first Platinum single certified by the RIAA.
84. Ro James Permission ByStorm/RCA, 2015
Spotify Streams: 69,369,232
Fun Fact: Permission samples Willie Hutch's Brother's Gonna Work It Out. The sample was previously used on Chance The Rapper's Lost.
83. Ty Dolla $ign ft. Musiq Soulchild, Tish Hyman & 6LACK Your Turn Atlantic, 2020
Spotify Streams: 14,684,668
Fun Fact: Your Turn was originally included on the tracklist for a Ty Dolla $ign album slated to be released before the COVID-19 pandemic.
82. Masego ft. FKJ Tadow EQT, 2017
Spotify Streams: 442,923,172
Fun Fact: The Tadow video was released almost two years after the song came out.
81. Jacquees B.E.D. Cash Money/Republic, 2016
Spotify Streams: 261,215,353
Fun Fact: B.E.D. s chorus interpolates the bridge of Avant's Read Your Mind.
80. Khalid Location RCA, 2017
Spotify Streams: 1,347,691,159
Fun Fact: Location has been officially remixed three times: The first including Lil Wayne and Kehlani, the second featuring Lil Simz, and the third featuring Jorja Smith and Wretch 32.
79
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
In February, we launched Spotify CLASSICS, our first-ever program to celebrate catalog music. Our inaugural list focused on the Classic Hip-Hop and R&B Albums of the Streaming Era and featured timeless bodies of work like Beyonc 's Lemonade, Frank Ocean's Blonde, SZA's Ctrl, Rihanna's ANTI, and Jazmine Sullivan's Heaux Tales, to name a few. 
