Destin Conrad Is Taking Classic R&B Sounds in Fearless New Directions: ‘I’m Genre-less, Boundless’

Exploring sounds ranging from alt-jazz to reggae, the 26-year-old Destin Conrad from Tampa, Fla., confidently approaches R&B as merely a starting point — and is attracting big-name fans with his own inimitable star quality.

Destin Conrad will take the stage at Billboard R&B Hip-Hop Live, Sept.

10 at Brooklyn Steel in New York City.

Get your tickets here .

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“I like taking the things I love from R&B and applying them while exploring different genres,” he says.

“I’m genre-less, boundless.

But everything I do will always have an alternative tinge to it.” The Breakthrough After releasing four buzzy EPs beginning with 2021’s Colorway , Conrad dropped his debut album, Love on Digital , on Above Ground Entertainment/EMPIRE in April 2025.

“It’s R&B through a different lens than what we view it in,” he told Billboard upon its release.

“Loud.

Queer.” The critically acclaimed project landed on multiple year-end lists — including topping Billboard ’s staff-curated best R&B albums of 2025 — and earned the singer-songwriter his first Grammy Award nomination, for best progressive R&B album.

Chart Bona Fides No doubt fueled by the success of Love on Digital , Conrad’s next album, the alt-jazz wHIMSY , arrived just four months later last August and marked his Billboard album chart debut, starting at No.

3 on Contemporary Jazz Albums .

Gleeson Paulino The Cosigns Kehlani was an early Conrad booster, initially collaborating with him as a writer on three songs for her second studio album, 2020’s It Was Good Until It Wasn’t .