Before I list the albums sales of some of the great soul legends as well as contemporary R&B acts, I want to re-state the point I was making...

The Soul/R&B acts of the 70s made the BEST music imo of any era of R&B artists...but, like these so-called neo-soul acts of the 90s and 00s, that didn't necessarily translate into huge album sales, particularly in comparison to many of the contemporary R&B acts that would follow in the 80s. Now, I know some will attribute that to the times those artists lived in because ppl generally weren't buying albums like that back then and while there's some truth to that, I still think it was because of the type of socially conscious music they were making

Stevie Wonder is a MUSIC GOD

but

guess what? for someone as great and naturally gifted as Stevie Wonder was/is, and for someone whose *1st* album came out in 1963, he DIDN'T have his *1st* (multi) platinum album until 'Songs In The Key Of Life' which was released in -->1976<---

That album of course is regarded by most to be his best ever and it sold A LOT OF COPIES (most of the sells have that pushed it to 10 mill came as a result of ppl buying his back catalog which still sells very, very well to this day as new generations are continuing to discover his music)

His next platinum album was 'Hotter Than July' which dropped in 1980

but

other than those two albums, he only has two other albums in his discography that went platinum, 'In squared circle' and 'characters'....and Stevie has over 20 studio albums

Marvin Gaye, the uber soulman has ONLY ONE STUDIO ALBUM TO GO PLATINUM 'Midnight Love'...he does have two compilation albums of his that went platinum but that's it.

Curtis Mayfield recorded a robust 27 studio albums in his life time but not even a 3rd of those albums sold a million copies

Al Green has only 1 platinum album in his discography and also 2 platinum greatest hits album that were certified platinum but that's it for him too.

Donny Hathaway has NONE! He did have a duet album w/Roberta Flack that went platinum but none of his solo material went platinum

Sly Stone I'm not sure how many but I do know "Stand' went platinum but I don't think he has more than 3 albums that even went platinum
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ok, now having said that, lets look at some of the more well known contemporary R&B acts of the 80s and 90s.

Joedeci while nowhere near as prolific as the soul acts I listed above but they came right out the gate w/their debut selling 3+million copies and their next two cds also went double platinum and platinum

Luther Vandross had *6 double platinum albums/cds and *6 platinum cds. Is there any artist above that sold copies when they were actively recording? (rhetorical question)

GUY another group who shelf life was short lived but their *debut* cd went 3x platinum and their 2nd cd went platinum

Keith Sweat's debut cd sold 3 million copies/2nd cd sold 2 million cds+/the 3rd cd went platinum/ one after that sold 4 million cds and then both cds he recorded w/Gerald Levert/Johnny Gill "LSG" sold over 3 million copies each...(and this is fucking Keith Sweat who's name shouldn't even be mentioned alongside such greats like Marvin and Donny but neither of them ever had albums to sell like he did even though they were sonically superior)


Gerald Levert was another artist whose 1st solo cd went platinum then the 2nd one sold nearly 2 million cds and the 3rd cd of his moved 1 million units...and as I said 'LSG' made two cds that both sold over 3 million copies.

The final point being: R Kelly has his lane and his fans just as D'angelo does. Some like Kells better and vice versa but I see no need in always trying to compare them as artists/musicians because they make totally different kinds of music. R Kelly, like the contemporary R&B acts that preceded him, makes more radio accessible music which means he will always have better cd sales than D'angelo but that shouldn't be a knock against him just as it shouldn't be held against Donny Hathaway who didn't sell nearly the records that an artist like Luther Vandross did, for instance.