American culture has always loved an underdog. Whether it’s Rocky Balboa walking through scorched earth to beat Soviet juggernaut Ivan Drago or LeBron’s 2016 Cavs delivering an emphatic 3-1 comeback against the once-unflappable Warriors, the unexpected late rally gets us talking. Same in music.
In between hip-hop icons Juvenile and T.I. scoring major Hot 100 hits this year and in R&B, the 2010s wunderkinds who we placed big bets on are making our gambles look genius. But calling these moments comebacks is kind of lazy. This is what happens when preparation finally meets opportunity, with golden results that remind us why playing the long game will always be the way to go. These artists weren’t short on talent; if anything, they were early with it. Now the numbers, the acclaim and the staying power are catching up to what many of us saw years ago.
Tinashe is the latest star to see her moment up close. On Sunday (Oct. 4), she landed her first top 10 entry on the Billboard 200 with her September album, Popstar. Debuting at No. 6, Popstar thrives on punchy bangers like “Crash Out” and “Melatonin,” while showcasing both the sharp ear and musical versatility that have allowed Tinashe to maneuver between worlds throughout her career. The album’s sequencing, rule-breaking mentality and deliberate callouts to the everyday “f–k boy” are what make Popstar the crown jewel of her catalog.
Tinashe has always dazzled as a polymath. A lethal triple threat who can stun you with her singing, dancing and songwriting, she proved her capabilities when she released “2 On” with ScHoolboy Q in 2014. The song became a top 25 hit on the Hot 100 and served as her entryway into stardom. But because she was at the mercy of her then-label RCA — and often creatively hogtied by expectations of what she should be — her acclaimed debut album, Aquarius, never became the commercial launchpad many imagined it could be.
Debuting at No. 17 on the Billboard 200, Aquarius showed that Tinashe wasn’t the problem. As fans and critics embraced her ability to snake in and out of R&B with her pop sensibilities, many pondered whether the label knew what to do with such a talent.
‘Nashe eventually left RCA and went independent. During that journey, she spent years recultivating and expanding her fanbase, with 2024’s “Nasty” serving as her reintroduction to the mainstream and peaking at No. 61 on the Hot 100. Then came another jolt: Her 2024 Quantum Baby standout “No Broke Boys” exploded the following year, after getting a remix from dance outfit Disco Lines, eventually earning Tinashe her first top 40 Hot 100 hit since “2 On.”
Now, Popstar is Nashe’s new apex. More than a decade after Aquarius introduced her as one of R&B’s most promising young shapeshifters, she has the biggest and most acclaimed album of her career. The talent was always there. It was just a matter of the industry catching up.
It’s a similar story to what we’d already have seen this past year with Kehlani. The Oakland singer-songwriter entered the R&B fray in 2015 as a raw, gutsy artist who bravely wore her heart on her sleeve. Her debut mixtape, You Should Be Here, was niche but highly heralded, a project that remained on repeat for R&B purists and hip-hop fans alike..
Throughout her career, the fan trust, touring equity and longevity were unquestionable. She doled out high-profile features for Eminem (“Nowhere Fast”) and Cardi B (“Ring” and “Safe”), while creating indelible projects of her own, including arguably her strongest release, 2020’s It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. As with Tinashe, talent was never the question for Kehlani but whether she could create an undeniable hit of her own. Enter 2025, and “Folded” answered the call.
What made Kehlani’s hit special was that it was an R&B-coded smash. No uptempo shenanigans. No phone call to Kendrick or Drake. Her DNA from when she first delivered You Should Be Here never left. The fingerprints of ’90s vocalists breathing love and pain into every note on the track resonated with listeners both inside and outside of the genre.
“Folded” became an enduring hit, peaking at No. 6 on the Hot 100 and later earning Kehlani two Grammy Awards for best R&B performance and best R&B song. Everything came together at the right time for Kehlani. And the best part? She never had to abandon the signature artistry that got her here.
Then we have Jhené Aiko — the West Coast R&B fixture who has Sade’s airy touch and Pac’s gangsta rolled into one. Before becoming a force of her own, she made cameos on B2K songs in the aughts. In 2011, her Sailing Soul(s) mixtape served as a launching pad. Aiko’s soothing vocals and unapologetic swings at love became her calling cards, as she played chameleon alongside rap stars like Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West.
Like Kehlani and Tinashe, Jhené’s honesty transcended her commercial appeal. The slow burn and endurance of Aiko’s rise is probably the most telling of all three: Her biggest solo hit for years was 2013’s “The Worst,” which peaked at No. 43 on the Hot 100. Imbued with feelings of love and hate, Aiko didn’t run from her pain, she embraced it with trigger-happy precision. Her features became moments, too, most notably Omarion’s 2015 smash “Post to Be,” where she layered her verse with humor and the infamous “eat the booty like groceries” line.
When her third album, Chilombo, arrived at the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020, she enjoyed her biggest commercial success yet. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 152,000 album-equivalent units and earned three Grammy nominations, including for album of the year. Still, what makes Aiko’s presence so strong is what happened after.
Four years removed from Chilombo, she launched The Magic Hour Tour in 2024 and proved that absence had done little to weaken the bond between her and her fans. Then, last month, after a six-year layoff between albums, Aiko earned the first No. 1 album of her career with Westside Whimsy, making her the first female R&B artist to top the Billboard 200 this year.
With Jhené, fan loyalty is the engine. Even when she steps away for multiple years at a time, the music never really leaves the conversation. Her songs thrive on human connection in a way that makes absence feel temporary rather than final. That’s why a tour four years after Chilombo could still command attention, and why a new album six years later could become the biggest of her career. She never really disappeared. Her audience just kept growing while she was gone.
So in an era where we’re desperately trying to identify stars and expecting them to blow up tomorrow, what if they’ve always been right in front of us? What if we’re the ones who need to be patient, allow time to do its thing and simply let these artists cook?
As proven by these three stars, they were never really late-bloomers. They weren’t really underdogs, either. They were artists who weren’t always afforded the trust, patience and time for the industry to fully recognize what they had already become. Tinashe, Kehlani and Jhené Aiko didn’t suddenly become great a decade into their careers. The greatness was already there. What changed was the opportunity, the audience and, perhaps most importantly, the time to prove it.
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