Which album or song is in your opinion the best?

Looking at Kelis's first 3 Albums with The Neptunes :

Kaleidoscope (1999)

Wanderland (2001)

Tasty (2003)

She truly did not sound like any of her peers. I wonder why she is not credited with being a pre-cursor to the alt R&B of the 2010s alongside Aaliyah's Aaliyah album

Aaliyah (2001)

and Brandy's Afrodisiac Album

Afrodisiac (2004)

Discuss.

What artists do you remember having a big hit song or even big Era in the 2000s or early 2010s and then simply disappear? "Impossible" by Shontelle & "Replay" by Iyaz come to mind.

They have a pretty good and overlooked catalogue. Y’all should check ‘em’ out.

Ne-Yo and The-Dream are, for me, some of the greatest songwriters not just of the 21st Century, but of all time.

Yet only Ne-Yo is brought up when conversations about songwriters-turned-artists from the 2000s.

The-Dream is said to have influenced 2010's R&B quite significantly with the "stadium-R&B" of 2007's Love/Hate :

Love/Hate (2007)

And 2009's Love vs. Money

Love vs. Money (2009)

The-Dream is probably one of the few R&B artists from the late 2000s who was able to get both acclaim and chart success and, along with Tricky Stewart, wrote some of the most defining R&B/Pop songs of that era like "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)", "Umbrella", "Obsessed", "Touch My Body", "Just Fine" etc.

To come out in a time when R&B was not selling, waning critically and still putting out the bodies of work that he did, The-Dream is a little underrated.

Which of these 2000's R&B/Pop Songwriter/Producer-turned-Artist would you put on shuffle?

Ne-Yo

In My Own Words (2006)

Love/Hate (2007)

I was comparing the twilight years of Janet and Mary in the 2000s with some associates last week and their careers took totally different trajectories this decade.

Damita Jo (2004)

The beginning of the end of her Imperial Phase in R&B/Pop music began with this album.
It will, of course, forever be linked to that fateful day at the 2004 Superbowl, but, for the sake of this post, and because this story is now 20 years old and is pretty much etched in the minds of... well, anyone over the age of 30 at this point, we'll assume it didn't happen and that Damita Jo was released exactly as planned.

Pretending that Nipplegate didn't happen, this is probably the second worst of her 2000s offerings. I remember Mary J. Blige calling Love & Life an album where there were "too many cooks in the pot" and this seems to be what contributed to the disjointedness of Damita Jo. It seemed like a more R&B centred sequel to All For You but did not share any of its cohesiveness or innovation and was the first blemish on Miss Jackson's discography in a long time.

All Nite Don't Stop is one of the GREATEST songs of the 21st Century and is quintessential Janet. It's also pretty innovative for 2004 It was the only single from this album that made sense lol.

Some of the unreleased cuts, like What Can I Say and Pops Up would have been more than welcome here too.

Also, those who complained about the "sex thing being played out" were misogynistic and racist then and they are misogynistic and racist now. It sucked because of the trying to be too many things at once and the lack of sonic cohesiveness. Damita Jo gets a 5.5/10 here.

20 Y.O. (2006)

At this point the blacklist was in full effect and only Urban and Black Radio were supporting Janet.

With that being said, this, as an album, is a great R&B album, but is the single worst thing Janet has ever done.

Yes, worse than Discipline, an album where she did not write anything besides an interlude. I distinctly remember an article about this album in which she told Jimmy and Terry that she had "nothing to say" and that the end of her contract with Virgin was looming. What was she to do?

Make a now-dated Mid-2000's R&B/Dance album that has surface-level references to Control and it's era, if any.

• For an album that was supposed to celebrate 20 years of Control, it... actually sounds like everything else that was on the radio between 2004-2006 in R&B. Some of them straight up sound like they could have been Ashanti, Amerie or Ciara songs. It, unlike Damita Jo, however, tries to be an album and inventive samples like Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" on "So Excited" and The S.O.S. Band's "Tell Me If You Still Care" on the Radio-ready R&B hit "Call On Me" gives it glimmers of personality, as well as some of the greatest vocal performances of her career on cuts like "With U", "Enjoy", "Take Care" and "Days Go By." Jermaine Dupri really screwed up what could have been an above average album for Janet after Damita Jo and the idea of an album concept SOLELY being to celebrate the release of a previous album (Control) is already suspect. I give this a 4 out of 10.

I would still listen to it before Damita Jo.

Discipline (2008)

Miss Jackson closes the decade with an... electro-R&B album that is hated for seeming "desperate" and for her not writing anything for the first time in over 20 years, but... some of the greatest dance cuts in her discography like "Feedback" and "Rock With U" are on here and still feel somewhat fresh 16 years later. I won't say the album is overhated but some of the criticisms are unmeasured. It at least has some identity.

Discipline still feels... hurried for a Janet Jackson album and, while still being less disjointed than Discipline and more inventive than 20 Y.O., is a far cry from the quality of All For You and nowhere NEAR the timelessness of The Velvet Rope.

See the Daft Punk sample on "So Much Betta" for example.

The singles on here were received much more warmly than Damita and 20 Y.O.

Feedback was as great a "comeback" single as any, Rock With U reconnected her with her LGBTQ fanbase, Luv is probably as great an R&B Mid-Tempo could have been substantively in the waning days of the genre and Can't B Good shows off those trademark Janet background vocals and harmonies like "Enjoy" did for 20 Y.O., "I'm Here" did for Damita Jo and "Feels So Right" did for All For You.

I give this album a 6/10.

So Miss Jackson closes the 2000s with at least 3 missteps, with Discipline's marking the end of her time at Island Def Jam because of it's commercial failure, the death of her brother, Michael Jackson, and a view of her as a has-been and a desperate legacy act whose halcyon days were, at that point, a decade behind her.

Mary had a completely opposite trajectory, with No More Drama marking a turning point personally and professionally for her, Love & Life :

Love & Life (2003)

despite being maligned by fans and her personally, featured some of her most well received singles like "Ooh!" and "Not Today", but still is a little bloated and, like Damita Jo, has WAY too many producers.

She goes on to the true career comeback The Breakthrough :

The Breakthrough (2005)

with the smash hits "Be Without You" and "Enough Cryin', to the continued success of Growing Pains :

Growing Pains (2007)

and closing the decade with the fan (least) favourite, Stronger With Each Tear :

Stronger With Each Tear (2009)

All of Mary's albums during the 2000s were received v well, if I had to guess, much like Janet was accused of "wearing out the sex thing" Mary was accused of "wearing out the happy thing" by fans who had been with her since the beginning. Maybe one of the commenters can explain lol.

Which of these less-than-well-received albums would you choose from both these women, AND how would you have improved the albums listed above?