For modern R&B’s peppier end of the spectrum, artists like Cincinnati native Arin Ray and internationally-acclaimed vocalist, Kehlani set the curve. Still blessed with the vocal prowess and emotional evocativeness necessary to blossom in the genre, both artists also bear a talent at crafting ambiguously relatable explorations of love and lust attractive to a mainstream audience in comparison to hard-edged experimentalists like K. Forest or more instrumentally-driven neo-soul artists like McClenney. In result, Arin Ray and Kehlani in particular are two of the world’s most popular R&B forces.

 

Coincidentally but unsurprisingly, a new collaborative single, Change features both in balance and is quickly sweeping the R&B charts. It’s a silky, pop-driven delivery that has the kind of repeatable, relatable chorus necessary to ensure its status as a hit. And a hit it is.