R&B music died after mainstream radio stopped playing popular r&b songs that was after 2007 I think. I think Billboard rules effected R&B because after that it was over for urban artists because before that Beyoncé(Who's still slaying btw), Ciara, MJB, Alicia Keys etc were slaying charts & it wasn't hard but now its difficult ala "Tinashe". Overall trends & Radio politics really make it hard nowadays for everyone to make hits. In the 90s every genre was slaying charts from Hip Hop to R&B to Pop to Rock to Adult C etc.