The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an Honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards,^[1] to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".^[2]

The award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, which recognizes R&B albums with more contemporary musical stylings, was first presented to Ashanti at the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003 for her self-titled debut album. Prior to the creation of this category, contemporary R&B albums were eligible for the more general category Best R&B Album.^[3] According to the category description guide for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the award is reserved for albums "containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded contemporary R&B vocal tracks" which may also "incorporate production elements found in rap music".^[4] Award recipients included the producers, engineers, and/or mixers associated with the nominated work in addition to the recording artists.

Beyoncé holds the record for the most wins, with three (all of her first three solo albums have earned her the award). Usher is the only other artist to receive the award more than once. The award has been presented to artists from the United States each year to date. Beyoncé and Ne-Yo share the record for the most nominations, with three each. In addition, Beyoncé earned a nomination as a member of the group Destiny's Child for the album Destiny Fulfilled. Brandy, Chris Brown, Janet Jackson and R. Kelly share the record for the most nominations without a win, with two each.

From 2012, this category was discontinued as part of a major overhaul of the Grammy Award categories. Recordings in this category were shifted back to the Best R&B Album category.^[5]

Award discontinuation In 2011, the Recording Academy dropped the number of Grammy award categories from 109 to 78. This decision was made to make the awards more significant by concentrating on fewer, more thorough categories. The Academy believed that having too many specialized awards lowered the significance of winning a Grammy. As part of these revisions, they abolished the Best Contemporary R&B Album category and combined it with others to create a single award for Best R&B Album.

One major reason for this consolidation was the growing overlap between "traditional" and "contemporary" R&B. Contemporary R&B frequently incorporates elements from various genres, such as hip-hop, pop, and electronic music, making it difficult to draw clear lines between forms. The Academy decided that combining these categories would better reflect the diversity of R&B.

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy at the time, stated that the objective was to prioritize the quality of Grammy Awards over the number of categories. Although some musicians and fans argued that modern R&B had a distinct sound that deserved its prize, the Academy believed that this change would keep the awards in sync with the evolving music environment. Sources: 1. Recording Academy Press Release - "Recording Academy Announces Changes to Grammy Awards Categories for 2012" (2011) 2. Rolling Stone Article - "Grammys Cut 31 Categories in Massive Overhaul" (2011) 3. Billboard Article - "Grammys Drop 31 Categories in Recording Academy Overhaul" (2011)

^{^[I]} Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

• List of Grammy Award categories
• List of R&B musicians
• Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums

• Official site of the Grammy Awards Archived May 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine