As for what to call modern hip hop, I’d go for something along the lines of experimental r&b. I mean, if a bunch of rappers want to extrapolate that form into something more melodic, it’s experimenting, right? ( Or maybe they’re trying to be more ‘ white’ about it, but I feel like that genre classification wouldn’t fly.) That or maybe they’re trying to demonstrate the ‘ other side’ of the streets where rap birthed that the rest of us don’t know about. Maybe that side was more left of center or prettier or softer or watery, and all that hard edged rap was just bluff. It’s difficult for them to be branching left and right and of course the success varies ( IE: N.E.R.D failure vs …anyone else) but audiences definitely should be open to them expanding some genre limitations.

Also, I feel like there’s a lot of genre’s we haven’t defined that could use defining. I think it’s pretty cool that you thought of THIS unidentifiable one–it’s not one I would’ve payed as much as attention to. I might’ve clumped all of those artists into ” Hip-Pop” in my mind all this time without looking at them closely.

K-os is experimental, crossover and sometimes simply boring and corny. Not blaming the singing on the cross/over status either. For the record I couldn’t stand the N.E.R.D. record. Being experimental, going left, being different doesn’t exactly guarantee it being good. Hip-hop music is always first and foremost from the street, which birthed it.

Of course there’s some element of cross-over in all of this singing rapper stuff, but to say that the artists above are all just “watered-down rap” is going a little too far i think. There’s a big difference between “The Love Below” and the Black Eyed Peas.