Rising Stars: R&B

Keeping a watchful eye on the rising tides of R&B can be a tricky proposition — it seems like a different wave can crest and break every time you turn around. Lucky for you we’ve got our eyes and ears peeled for the hottest R&B artists on the upswing. The-Dream is a heavyweight writer/producer for everyone from Beyoncé to Rihanna, and on his own he lives up to his name with the intoxicating layers of vocals lighting up “I Luv Your Girl.” Trey Songz takes the birthday song to another level with 2010’s “Say Aah” — “We don’t buy no drinks at the bar/we pop champagne ’cos we got that dough” — and Canada’s Melanie Fiona goes soul-deep on “It Kills Me.”

The R&B trend of reaching out for hip-hop assistance becomes clear, in Next Steps.

Generic lines in contemporary R&B have become so blurred that it’s common to spot a rising star with an orbiting hip-hop meteor in tow — that’s why Jeremih joined forces with 50 Cent for 2010’s “Down On Me,” and why we find LeToya (Luckett), who’d been a part of the original Destiny’s Child lineup in the ’90s, negotiating a second ascent to stardom with Ludacris on 2009’s “Regret.” And up to now, Solange may have gone through life as “Beyoncé’s little sister,” but one listen to the classic, clap-along Motown feel of “I Decided, Pt. 1” should make it clear that she’s ready to make her own way in the R&B world.

In Deep Cuts, discover an up-and-comer who delivers her R&B from leftfield.

Screaming guitars? A beat barrage for the drum ’n’ bass crowd? A sci-fi concept holding everything together? That doesn’t sound like conventional R&B — then again, there’s nothing conventional about rapidly rising R&B star Janelle Monàe, who cites Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz as an influence and styles herself after the robot lady from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis . . . and whose “Cold War” is a blazing highlight on debut album The ArchAndroid. Chrisette Michele takes outstanding 2009 breakup song “Blame It On Me” into timeless soul territory, and Anthony David is joined by fellow R&B riser Algebra on “4evermore.”

In the time it takes to read this sentence, a whole slew of new artists will be breaking through to R&B stardom, so how do you keep up? Well, for starters, you can let us keep track for you. We’ve assembled the ultimate collection of rising stars who come at things from every angle. Whether it’s the big, belting pipes of American Idol finalist-turned-silver-screen-Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson; sultry neo-soul that’s anything but by-the-numbers from Atlanta’s own Algebra Blessett; or the gospel-tinged tones of Noel Gourdin (“The River”), we haven’t missed a trick when it comes to what’s happening right now in R&B. Whatever their path, superstars have got to start somewhere, and now you can get in on the ground floor of the action by snapping up all 45 of these soulful sides in one shot.