Who is your favorite Rhythm and blues artist?  

Rhythm and blues (aka R&B or RnB) is a popular music genre combining jazz, gospel, and blues influences — first performed by African American artists.
The term was coined as a musical marketing term in the United States in 1947 by Jerry Wexler at Billboard magazine.[1] It replaced the term race music (which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the more positive postwar world,[1]), and the Billboard category Harlem Hit Parade in June 1949. The term was initially used to identify the rocking style of music that combined the 12 bar blues format and boogie-woogie with a back beat, which later became a fundamental element of rock and roll. In 1948, RCA Victor was marketing black music under the name Blues and Rhythm. The words were reversed by Wexler of Atlantic Records, the most aggressive and dominant label in the R&B field in the early years.