@Mireille Zarife

Call it alté, call it the new alternative, call it whatever you want. Fresh, light and just a little off-centre, the tracks here point away from the mainstream to somewhere genuinely new, with a wave of genre-bending artists whose sound is transforming West African music. Our editors update selections here regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

R&B is one of the more dynamic spaces in modern music—and this is where you'll find the boundary-pushing artists leading the conversation. Taking cues from hip-hop and electronic, but still anchored by tradition, here are the tracks pointing the way R&B is heading. Our editors rotate selections regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

This is the space for all that’s new in R&B. Crossover ballads, modern hybrids, fresh sounds that call back to the past—if it’s got that vibe, you’ll find it here. Selections are updated regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

One of the first custom labels owned by a black artist, the Chicago-based Curtom Records was founded in 1968 by Curtis Mayfield and his manager Eddie Thomas. The label enabled Mayfield to release albums by his group The Impressions, and later his solo material, along with other artists that he produced or helped nurture. Though Mayfield's records sold best, Baby Huey and Linda Clifford became cult classics.

Ne-Yo has a nearly unrivalled ear for melody: His best pop songs don't have one hook but several, and he stitches them together without revealing a single seam. This playlist, which focuses on numbers he's written for other R&B singers, defines smooth, cruising from Mario's soul-baring slow jam "Let Me Love You" to Beyoncé's self-empowered send-off on "Irreplaceable".

A hand-picked mix of hits and album cuts by the stars who shaped '90s R&B. Our editors regularly update this playlist—if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

Here’s an R&B playlist that strips things down to the essentials: no bells, no whistles, no studio magic—just voice, instrument, song and spirit. Some of the tracks here are reworks, instances of an artist recording a new, more minimal version something they’ve already released. Some were just born this way. Ballads, slow jams, new and old, here’s the sound of R&B at its barest. We update this collection regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

Memphis-based Stax Records was the beating heart of the Southern soul scene in the ‘60s, with artists like Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. In the racially divided South, Stax was a progressive anomaly with their integrated groups—including the label's house band, Booker T. & The MG's. Isaac Hayes was an early songwriter for the label before launching his own career at the end of the decade.

Bound together by soul, the stars and fast-rising artists in this playlist are remaking the R&B sound in their own image—with a proud British twist. This week, that means the recently released Sasha Keable and Leon Thomas collaboration, “move it along”. As the song’s title implies neither of the angelic voices therein has time to waste on uncommitted lovers, and while Keable and Thomas are not holding any grudges, they need you to understand your time is up! Listen to “move it along” on the UK R&B playlist, and if you hear something you’re into, add it to your library.