How Leon Thomas Rose To The Top of R&B
Leon Thomas has captured the cool kids and the helpless romantics. Winner!
Women have been running things in R&B for a while. SZA, Summer Walker, Victoria Monét, Chloe x Halle, Tems, Coco Jones, Kehlani, and Muni Long are all thriving currently. An entire generation of superstars has emerged when it comes to women in R&B. But for the men, it’s been a little more complicated. The modern R&B male superstar (think: Brent Faiyaz, Frank Ocean, PARTYNEXTDOOR) is media-averse. Their aesthetics are driven by mystery. Outside of Lucky Daye, it’s been somewhat quiet for the current crop of mainstream men, who want to perform for the masses, build in public, etc.
In the past couple of years, Leon Thomas has gone from a potential star to a leader in his class. And R&B fans everywhere are thankful for this soulful addition to our music libraries.
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Leon grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and has been about this entertainment life from jump. Most of us were introduced to Leon Thomas on Nickelodeon, but at age 10 in 2003, Leon was starring on Broadway as Young Simba in The Lion King. He also starred in Broadway runs of The Color Purple and Caroline, or Change.
After Broadway, he made his jump to TV and movie screens. Leon starred in the film August Rush, voiced Tyrone on the animated series The Backyardigans, and appeared on the hit show iCarly. His big break came as Andre Harris on the Nickelodeon show Victorious (which also starred a certain Ariana Grande).
The 2010s saw Leon Thomas releasing music, but nothing caught on (like it has now). He found major success behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer; however. Ariana Grande’s first album? That’s Leon. Three songs on Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’…six songs on Giveon’s ‘Give Or Take' album. SZA’s Grammy Award-winning song “Snooze.” And so on. Leon has had his hand in a lot of our favorite songs. Now, it’s his turn.
In 2023, he released his debut album, Electric Dusk. I remember Coco Jones’ “ICU” being a huge success at that time. Muni Long’s “Hrs and Hrs” was super viral. So when Leon Thomas released the equally brilliant ballad “Breaking Point”, I knew we had a winner. I knew the men had a new heir to the throne. Here we had a guy who’s a songwriting genius, a producer, a guitar player, a great singer, etc. And he finally had music that people could attach to his face (a face they recognized). The stars were finally aligning for Leon.
But “Breaking Point” wasn’t the chart hit I thought it’d become. The real ones knew, and the crowds at Leons’ shows knew. But it wasn’t the “aha” moment for the masses that it should have been. Still, Electric Dusk was an uber-impressive body of work. Leon brought a rock and alternative edge to R&B in a cool, yet soulful way. A cult following began to form.
Leon Thomas’s music is as confident and toxic as it is churchy (get into those chords on “YES IT IS”) and vulnerable. In an era where a lot of today’s male R&B acts lean closer to hip-hop than gospel, Leon somehow finds a way to do both at once.
His album sophomore album MUTT is inspired by Leon getting a dog in real life and having to teach his dog discipline and control. He draws parallels to a girl in a relationship with a guy who is focused on his career, and her trying to get him to settle down and be more disciplined. That theme is the throughline of this album.
I hear a lot of women say that they miss the era when men sang to them. A lot of women feel like today’s R&B guys are making music to impress their guy friends, as opposed to impressing them. You see these braggadocious bars a lot in rap and R&B – songs about the club, jewelry, meaningless sex, purposefully being bad at relationships. With songs like “ANSWER YOUR PHONE” and “I DO”, Leon is bringing yearning back to the forefront. Yearning is that deep desire for love that used to define R&B’s golden eras. This style of R&B feels transparent and confessional, and it allows the listener to attach their personal experiences to these songs in ways that resonate beyond just “a vibe.”
It’s also no secret that Leon Thomas is a true musician (having been in studios with the music elite since he was a child), and the MUTT album is a true testament to that. Album opener “HOW FAST” interpolates Lou Rawls' “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” The next track “SAFE PLACE” samples Donny Hathaway’s “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know.” The title track “MUTT” samples popular 1970s soul group Enchantment and their “Silly Love Song.”
There’s a song for every generation of R&B fan on Leon’s MUTT, and we can’t wait to see Leon’s star continue to shine brighter and brighter as more people discover this generational talent.
"Yearning is that deep desire for love that used to define R&B’s golden eras. This style of R&B feels transparent and confessional, and it allows the listener to attach their personal experiences to these songs in ways that resonate beyond just “a vibe."
That part.