Neo soul artists tend to offer the more sophisticated and write more powerful sides of r&b than is often seen in the mainstream. Erykah Badu for instance touched on subjects no one else in the genre was even close to hinting at as she exposes layers patriarchy in very self reflective music. Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, D'Angelo, Raphael Saadiq, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, these artists are legends. I'm not sure what neo soul you're thinking of, probably the 2000's era, but neosoul has been a thing going as far as the late 80's-early 90's after Sade showed you could make pop sophisticated and rap groups like A Tribe Called Quest showed you could make rap have a jazz flavor. Neosoul is almost 30 years old. This isn't some new phenomenon and neo soul artists have dropped plenty of great listens, the latest of which being D'Angelo's Black Messiah.
< weak song structure
< lack of memorable songs
< lack of ideas
