1. "I think he took R&B from the Freddie Jackson/ Alexander O'Neal" In response to Reply # 0
era into the Bobby Brown/Jodeci era.
There's a certain level of "cool" and contemporary flavor in the slow jams of the latter. Rodger was kinda the first the bring that to the table in the most palatable way. Of course he stems from the George Clinton school of funk where Bootsy, who made "I'd Rather Be With You" also stemmed from, but whereas George and Bootsy were hella silly with their funk, Rogder came with some shit that wouldn't cause your girl to bust out laughing in your face if you played it on Valentine's day but still had the cool and flavor of some funkier slow jams by Funkadelic offspring. I'm hard pressed to think of who may have brought that to the table before him. I mean, you can rap over "Computer Love" TODAY and it still go hard. Who else was that forward looking?
2. "He helped usher R&B in to the computerized 80s and thus into" In response to Reply # 0
its modern aesthetics.
It's a sound obviously is regional, most heavily adhered to in the West Coast and the Midwest, but the whose influence carried over to modern R&B as a whole.
3. "Word, I think that's probably what make song like "Computer Love"" In response to Reply # 2
and "I Wanna Be Your Man" kinda prophetic too. He left the sound of instruments alone way back then even though George blatantly did it first with "Computer Games"... Rodger followed and made it a lil more relatable.