OGBama
Moderator
For those who are strictly producers and those who are artists and producers, there was a time when Black music was unapologetically infused with soul that couldn't be contained and marketed until the Harvard Report: A Study of the Soul Music Environment that was funded by Clive Davis on May 11, 1972 proved otherwise and the result was artists having to create a polished R&B sound that became a blueprint for crossover success. Connect this to Hip Hop as majors did the same by buying indies and creating urban and street subdivisions of majors and the formula for what made Hip Hop popular based on the introduction of Soundscan in March 1991 became obvious and with Hip Hop since the 1970s defining itself via its artists as street music, street to corporate America became a caricature of hypersexuality for both men and women, criminality, misogyny, and various social "isms" and left a generation in a state of perpetual adolescence. Urban music was (and still is) about reaching the largest audience possible e.g. mainstream and urban became seen as more palatable whereas Black was seen as a threat. "Black Music Month" was an idea that came from Dyana Williams (ex-wife of Kenneth Gamble of Gamble & Huff) and it led to Jimmy Carter signing off on it June 7, 1979. To call Black music Urban is to make it soulless.
