Hip-hop soul is a subgenre of contemporary R&B music, most popular during the early and mid 1990s, which had incorporated hip-hop influences into R&B music.
The genre was most popular during the mid and late 1990s Hip-hop soul shifted from new jack swing's reliance on synth-heavy production and took the hip-hop/R&B synthesis further by having R&B singers sing directly over the types of sample-heavy backing tracks typically found in contemporary hip-hop recordings like boom bap. It also increased the popularity of hip-hop music and culture with older audiences and corporations looking to market urban music.
History
thumb|right|186px|R&B singer [[Mary J. Blige is known as the "queen of hip-hop soul" due to her frequent collaborations with rappers and hip-hop producers.]]
The term "hip-hop soul" is attributed to record producer and later rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs, who came up with the term during the promotion of What's the 411?, the 1992 debut album of Uptown Records artist Mary J. Blige. his 1995 single "This Is How We Do It", built around a sample of Slick Rick's 1989 hip-hop song "Children's Story", typified the sound of the subgenre. Another key recording is "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By", a 1995 duet between Wu-Tang rapper Method Man and Mary J. Blige which interpolated Method Man's rapped verses with Blige singing a cover of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "You're All I Need to Get By". "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need to Get By" won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. and the emergence of neo soul, an R&B subgenre which blended hip-hop and contemporary R&B with heavier influences from the soul music of the 1960s and 1970s. Examples of neo soul artists include Tony! Toni! Toné!, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, and Lauryn Hill.