Considered by some to be the last decade where R&B music was at the center of Black Music Culture, the 90’s began with the ever emerging youth culture vying for dominance in the marketplace against the more established and adult-oriented artists of the 1980’s.

By decade’s end, the positioning of Hip Hop as the popular culture in music not only sealed the fate of the aforementioned legacy artists but invariably altered the sound, look and feel of R&B. The 1990’s are also marked by a number of regional movements coming to the forefront of music(Southern and West Coast Rap) as well as the maturity of New Jack Swing and the birth of Neo-Soul.