Kenyon Dixon Talks Unpopular R&B Opinions And What The Genre “Isn’t” Missing

Kenyon Dixon, known to the streets as R&B Kenny, is the biggest, self-proclaimed advocate of all things R&B.

The Watts-Los Angeles native comes from a musically inclined family. Now, after having worked with many of your favorite artists, including Jill Scott, Justin Timberlake, Tyrese, Tank, Ginuwine, and more, he’s raising his own gifted child while still giving fans the R&B they love.

Dixon stopped by VIBE’s Los Angeles office for his own V-Sessions, where he performed a medley featuring a sultry ’90s classic and a full cover of an early 2000s hit—which he believes is from the best era of R&B.

When it comes to that time in music, the crooner is full of unpopular opinions. He feels 2000s R&B is better than ’90s R&B, because “it almost always parallels church [music].”

“’90s R&B doesn’t resonate as much to me cause while everybody was listening to ’90s, I was listening to gospel that was what the ’90s R&B was mimicking,” Dixon explained. “2000s R&B, for me, is what I found to be a lot more innovative. That’s when we started to get into a new type of sound. You think about The Neptunes, The Underdogs—they really shaped an entire generation of a new sound. That’s when we found a way to still incorporate church, but be a little more creative and innovative and take risks.”

The two-time Grammy nominee expressed, “I credit 2000s R&B with the courage that I have as an artist to take risks. Because when I think about the producers and artists who weren’t afraid to be different, a lot of them to me were [the] 2000s. We’re talking about the era of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Musiq Soulchild, Bilal. I haven’t found much music better than that. I think I just have a personal connection to 2000s R&B—hence having a song called ‘2000s R&B.’”

When asked about who he feels is taking risks within R&B, Dixon first defined what that means.

“Taking risks in R&B [means] just sticking to making music—quality music,” he explained. “It’s not popular to make sustainable music. You’re literally going against the grain when you care about the art in a way that you are willing to make what you want to.”

Artists he feels fall into that definition are TA Thomas, Kevin Ross, and Lalah Hathaway—whom he “is finding really dope ways to take retro sounds and recreate them in a way that still feels nostalgic but new.” He also named Jade Novah and Alex Isley—whom he shares a daughter with and is just as talented as her parents.

Aside from jamming together and witnessing her create music, Dixon gushed about being able to learn from her.

“I think when you are a child, and you have these interests, you don’t understand choice. There’s a certain innocence there that we spend our entire adulthood trying to figure out how to get back to. She has the freedom to just do whatever it is that she feels and I learned from that,” Dixon shared.

Continuing, “As a parent, I allow her to choose her own path, and I just help guide her and give her the tools that have been helpful to me. But it is mentorship in a way. I just like to let her fly, see where it lands, and if I see where it can improve, I can offer something.”

Check out more from Kenyon Dixon’s V Sessions above.