To me, it's a lot like G-Funk - when it's done well it's amazing, but it's too easy to be done horribly wrong.

The beats, the rhythms, and the grooves are all too herky-jerky and boom-bapish.

Edit - And the melodies don't work. They don't flow, or show much flow with the cadence with the rhythms. I think getting melodies back in line will be a major first step.

Actually, I think it's the Kirk Franklin problem. Writers who are not Hip-Hop to their core, trying to do music with a hip-hop flavor and largely getting it wrong.

And now there's a whole young generation of writers who cam up with the Hip-Hop flavored R&B (NJS doesn't count in that, to me).