Vocal Ability: The artist’s ability to sing. (pretty self explanatory)
Albums: The artist catalogue strength. How many albums and how good are they?
Collaboration: The artist collaboration ability on other artist’s songs; can be a fellow RnB artist or Rapper’s song.
Versatility: The artist’s ability to make different kinds of songs. That might be ballads, club bangers, or average tempo songs.
Impact: The artist’s landmark they leave on the Rhythm and Blues nation. Their music’s ability to last.
Commercial Success: How many albums did they sell during their careers.
Bracket A
1)Beyonce’ vs. 16)Keri Hilson: The Queen B Beyonce goes up against Miss Keri baby. An upset is not expected here. There’s some hostility in this matchup as well should be lit.
Vocal Ability- So I honestly feel this is closer than you think. But I gotta give Beyonce’ the edge here. 6-4
Albums- This is where its unfortunately for Keri, not close at all. Keri has 2 albums….one was great, and the other was just good. Beyonce has about 3 classic albums under her belt at this point so….`10-0
Collaboration-This is where things get interesting. While Beyonce has been on a good amount of collaborations…Im gonna say Keri had more poignant features….3-7
Versatility- Well both these ladies are really versatile. Both can make about any kind of song pretty effectively and both can rap actually. Issa tie 5-5.
Impact-Queen B is more impactful but Keri has written a lot of songs in the industry. I’m gonna say Beyonce has the edge here but not a clean sweep. 7-3
Commercial Success-Well this is a slaughter. Keri never went platinum….but hey Beyonce is the favorite to win this tournament so yeah. Beyonce has sold over 118 million records! 10-0
Beyonce wins 41-19! Looks like a strong start for Beyonce’ as she moves on to round 2.
8)Ciara vs. Janelle Monae: Princess of Crunk and R&B goes up against a very unique artist in Janelle. Should be interesting.
Vocal Ability-Hmm these 2 artists are really different vocally. I think its close…but imma give Janelle a slight edge. 4-6
Albums-Ciara has good albums but Janelle has 3 classics. Its kinda of Quantity vs. Quality. 2-8
Collaboration-Both artists bring a lot of flavor to guest features….but ima give the edge to Ciara here. She’s done more collaborations that’s for sure. 7-3
Versatility-This is really difficult. Ciara seems to excel with most types of songs while Janelle is also very versatile. Janelle is much more unique so I’m going to give her the category win. 2-8
Impact-Both artists are impactful so its kind of hard to pic a favorite here. Tie. 5-5
Comm. Success- Ciara has sold 23 million records to date which is a whoppingly good number. Janelle as a great an artist as she is. Hasn’t sold much. 9-1
Janelle Monae final score 31, Ciara final score 29 It was a very close battle but Janelle Monae gets the win. I honestly thought it would be more one sided in favor of the winner.
Bracket B
4) Alicia Keys vs. 13)K. Michelle: This time it’s a long lasting veteran versus a really good artist in K Michelle. I think this will be close.
Vocal Ability- Both arists are great here. Very distinctive voices. 5-5
Albums-This is where it gets tough. Both artists have some great albums. The best Alicia Keys album so far isn’t as great as a couple of K. Michelle albums. So ima have to give the edge to KM here.4-6
Collaboration-Both artists don’t seem to have a lot of features but I’m going to give this to Alicia….she’s had some truly great collabos like with Jay-Z on Empire State of Mind. KM does well when she does collab but its so rare. 8-2
Versatility-This is tough. I think both artists excel with different kinds of songs. I prefer K. Michelle on more even to faster tempo songs while Alicia on more slow to even tempo…5-5
Impact-This is where Alicia dominates….but honestly Kimberly makes great music too and I’m sure her music will hold up well in time. 6-4
Comm. Success-Well Mrs. Keys has sold 42 Million world wide…good grief. That’s a category win folks. 10-0
Alicia wins 38-22. It wasn’t quite the close contest I expected but KM did get some points here. Alicia is gonna be tough to beat in this tournament.
5)Aaliyah vs. 12) Jazmine Sullivan: The legendary baby girl (R.I.P.) will go up against the talented Miss Sullivan. I predict a close battle.
Vocal Ability-These 2 artists have very different singing styles. Aaliyah was more smooth while Jazmine is a little more powerful. 5-5
Albums-Both these ladies have 3 albums and they are excellent. Its another tie. 5-5
Collaboration-Things get pretty interesting here…both artists are good with the collabos. It’s shockingly another tie. 5-5
Versatility-Another tough category but I’m going to give Aaliyah a slight edge here. Her songs seem a little more versartile to me. 6-4
Impact-It’s easy to say that Aaliyah’s music has stood the test of time. Jazmines music is really good too but I cant deny the baby girl here. 7-3.
Comm. Success-Jazmine Sullivan hasn’t sold much only going Gold really with her first album which is a shame I think. Aaliyah sold about 32 million which is very impressive. 9-1
Aaliyah wins 37 to 23. The battle started out close but the winner pulled away after the first 3 categorires.