Urban Contemporary
Urban contemporary is a radio format that plays current R&B, hip hop and related Black popular music, and the name is often used for that music itself.
The term is credited to New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker, who used it in the mid-1970s for the mix of R&B and disco he programmed at the station WBLS. As a label it is a grouping, not a sound: playlists run from smooth R&B ballads to hard rap. Since 2020 several record labels and the Grammy Awards have dropped the word 'urban', seeing it as a vague stand-in for Black music.
- Family
- R&B & Soul
- On Spotify
- No longer returned by Spotify’s API
- What it is
- A use, not a style
- From
- New York City, 1970s
- Also called
- urban, urban music, urban radio
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 26%
About 22,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have urban contemporary among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Urban Contemporary artists
Rihanna
PARTYNEXTDOOR
Jhené Aiko
Tinashe
Mariah Carey
USHER
Alicia Keys
Ne-Yo
Lloyd
Ms. Lauryn HillThe urban contemporary artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.