Best R&B Albums Of 2024
Source: Joshua Kissi / BMAC
In a year where we saw Beyoncé make a switch over to country, Alicia Keys take her talents over to Broadway and Rihanna complete her eighth consecutive year of choosing entrepreneurship over music, it wouldn’t be strange to begin wondering if anyone still wants to make R&B music.
Thankfully, 2024 proved that contemporary soul music is far from dead. Many releases by artists we’ve all grown to love, whether it be over the past two years or past 20, delivered greatly in keeping the genre alive. The 2025 GRAMMYs got it right for the most part in the “Best R&B Album” nominees category, but there were definitely a handful of great contenders that dropped this year worth highlighting as well.
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Our editors came together with our own nominees and honorable mentions, ultimately agreeing on 10 projects that we feel represented all angles of R&B this year. As always, it’s never a conversation about “best sales” or who got the most streams on Spotify; we’re listening to everything! From NxWorries breaking their eight-year hiatus with the release of Why Lawd? to ex-Nickelodeon star Leon Thomas following up a big GRAMMY win alongside SZA earlier this year with his own album of bangers just a few months ago, let’s just say it was a harmonious year overall.
Whether you’re hearing some of these for the first time or they’ve been on your playlist all year long, we strongly believe these are the albums that sum up what 2024 sounded like from a contemporary R&B perspective.
Keep scrolling to see who we chose as the Best R&B Albums of 2024, and let us know where we got it right and who you’d add to the list:
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
KEENAN “HIGz” HIGGINS
J.R. “BANG” DAVIS
NIA NOELLE
PAIGE BOYD
KIARA JACOBS
KYA KELLY
