You’ve seen the conversations about R&B. Is it dying? Is it in the midst of a lowkey resurgence?
Some will say it hasn’t been the same since beatmaking replaced live instrumentation and vocalists no longer came up singing in church. That the lyrics are loveless, tired retreads about infidelity and toxic relationships. That the soul is missing. The Canadian phenomenon Rhyan Douglas is here to dispel any such notions about a genre in decline. Already cosigned by Atlanta star 6LACK and touted by VIBE and Billboard, Rhyan Douglas is the future of R&B.
Raised in the Toronto suburb of Brampton by parents who filled the home with gospel and reggae, Rhyan showed promise at an early age. As far back as junior kindergarten, he stood out from his peers because of his voice. His musical inclination led him to enroll in his school’s arts program, where he sang in the choir and played in the band, learning clarinet before moving on to other instruments, including piano and guitar.
His songs are littered with real-life details that ground the material, He sometimes likens it to folk music—or folk soul and the truth of that categorization is in the details.