American R&B veterans hoping to reach a mainstream audience face a brutal slog. Rap dominates the market, reducing any singer's chance of landing a hit. And within R&B, the landscape is harshly segmented by age – any singers above 30 not named Beyonce are automatically shunted to Urban Adult Contemporary radio, curtailing their audience.
This puts an artist like Ne-Yo, 36 and now
This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: Review: Ne-Yo Can’t Solve the Mid-Career R&B Riddle On ‘Good Man’