D'Angelo

Essential Albums

  • Black Messiah
    Black Messiah

    Black Messiah ends one of R&B's most mysterious disappearing acts, arriving almost 15 years after D'Angelo's sophomore full-length, Voodoo. Filled with fluid musicianship, political dissent, and bewitching production, Black Messiah is a mosaic of funky, rule-breaking neo-soul that's alternatively rebellious, sensual, and deeply spiritual. The serpentine melodies of D'Angelo's ‘90s work are here, but they’re pushed to an experimental edge by his aptly named band, The Vanguard ((which includes Roots drummer Questlove and jazz luminary Roy Hargrove). Soulful keyboards and richly layered vocal harmonies are at the core of the psych-funk of “Ain’t That Easy” and the piano-driven saunter of “Sugah Daddy,” which stand in contrast to guitar-spiked protest songs like “1000 Deaths” and “The Charade.”

  • Voodoo
    Voodoo

    When D'Angelo released his masterpiece Voodoo at the turn of the century (and five years after his debut, Brown Sugar), it was immediately clear he'd avoided the dreaded sophomore slump to evolve into a musician who was as concerned with honoring the past as he was with his artistic impulses, no matter where they took him. It was at once challenging and fulfilling, something new and something familiar. At the time, the neo-soul movement was an alternative to the steadily flashier edge of '90s hip-hop and R&B, and Voodoo was its apex. D'Angelo, though, has historically felt little connection to the term, much the way no artist wants to contend with the expectations and limitations of genre; when the singer first broke through, he'd pegged his sound as, simply, "black music," and there is perhaps no better descriptor for the record despite its associations. Voodoo is a gumbo of black innovation—blues, jazz, soul, funk, gospel even—peppered by a full spectrum of humanity, from despair to sheer ecstasy. In 1998, D'Angelo, awed by the birth of his son, wrote the stirring "Send It On" in his honor, the new life signaling the creative explosion of what would become Voodoo. The grooves contained within the album are deep enough to swallow you, even and especially when they head past the six-minute mark. Take the most recognizable single, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," and how its slow, deliberate pace is akin to seduction, or the opening track "Playa Playa," or "Feel Like Makin' Love," a cover of Roberta Flack's song of the same name—each one feels communal, as the instruments do as much heavy lifting as D'Angelo's electrifying falsetto. Everything feels perfectly in its place and yet unexpected and exciting. If Brown Sugar was a controlled burn, then Voodoo is a wildfire of ideas and experimentation, a balance between the improvised looseness of a jam session and the razor-sharp precision of a well-rehearsed genius.

  • Brown Sugar
    Brown Sugar

    1995

Albums

Artist Playlists

Singles & EPs

Live Albums

Compilations

Appears On

More To Hear

About D'Angelo

With an unmistakable voice and an apparently innate ability to modernize the rich Black musical traditions that preceded him, D'Angelo birthed the neo-soul movement and became one of the definitive musicians of the '90s and 2000s. Michael Eugene Archer (born in 1974) grew up in Richmond, Virginia as the son of a Pentecostal minister, sprouting musical roots from playing piano as a child and winning three consecutive talent shows at Harlem's Apollo Theater as a teen. His demo tape and an impromptu piano recital for an exec earned him a deal at EMI, under which he released his 1995 debut, Brown Sugar. The album—a mesh of earthy, vinyl-crackling soul evoking Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson and the edgy swagger of golden-era hip-hop—was the foundation for neo-soul, a subgenre that would continue to blossom with acts like Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell. Writer's block crippled D'Angelo's musical output in the following years, so he sparsely released cover songs until finding inspiration in his first child's birth. The result was 2000's Voodoo, a vulnerable meditation on love, fatherhood, sexuality, and spirituality, co-produced by the Soulquarians crew of musicians, known for crafting Black diasporic grooves that eschewed structure without sacrificing focus. The album heightened D’Angelo’s stardom, but at a cost: Fan reception of the steamy video for “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” and the album’s accompanying tour made him feel oversexualized, and alcoholism and depression led to a hiatus of nearly 15 years. He returned in 2014 with Black Messiah, a stirring collection of soulful analog grooves and sociopolitical lyrics that reflected the then-budding Black Lives Matter movement. D'Angelo doesn't create on the usual industry timeline, but working on his own schedule has been more than enough to make history.

HOMETOWN
Richmond, VA, United States
BORN
February 11, 1974

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada