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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Gary Gerard Hamilton

Why is R&B music more explicit than ever? It’s complicated.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tank was nervous after sending his manager a preview of “When We” — he’d never released a song that explicit. “He’s like, ‘You’re crazy, but it’s jammin'!’” the R&B singer recalled. “It ended up being my biggest record ever.”

Released in 2017, the seductive chorus of “when we (expletive)” was obviously too explicit for radio, so a “clean” version used the phrase “when we touch.” Despite releasing his first album in 2001 and crafting hits like “Maybe I Deserve” and “Please Don’t Go,” it was “When We” that's been Tank's most successful, finishing No. 1 on Billboard’s 2018 year-end adult R&B airplay chart.

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