D'Angelo

D'Angelo emerged without intending to as a key originator and central figure in the neo-soul movement of the late 1990s, an effort to restore the natural essence of traditional R&B amid the dominance of hip-hop. Drawing from predecessors such as Marvin Gaye, Prince, Curtis Mayfield, and Al Green, he channeled those influences through a vocal approach marked by his singular stoned yet deeply expressive delivery, while also composing his own songs and handling much of the production himself, thereby restoring the model of a self-contained R&B creator. His debut release, Brown Sugar (1995), steadily built a fiercely loyal following, allowing the more relaxed and groove-heavy successor, Voodoo (2000), to enter the charts at number one after nearly five years away and claim that year's Grammy for Best R&B Album. Almost three times as long a hiatus followed before the arrival of the more jagged Black Messiah (2014), which reached the Top Five and earned D'Angelo his second Grammy in the Best R&B Album category. Since then the artist has issued "Unshaken," a track created for the soundtrack of the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018).

Born Michael D'Angelo Archer on February 11, 1974, in Richmond, Virginia, as the child of a Pentecostal minister, he began learning piano on his own at an early age and at 18 claimed first place in the amateur talent showcase at Harlem's Apollo Theater on three straight occasions. For a short time he belonged to the hip-hop collective I.D.U., then secured a publishing agreement with EMI in 1991. Breakthrough recognition arrived in 1994 when he co-wrote and co-produced the Jason's Lyric soundtrack single "U Will Know," a Top Five R&B hit credited to the one-off supergroup B.M.U. (Black Men United). This success paved the way for the July 1995 launch of Brown Sugar, D'Angelo's first full-length album. Over the ensuing months three of its singles entered the upper reaches of the R&B chart: the title track, crafted with A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad; his own rendition of Smokey Robinson and Marvin Tarplin's "Cruisin'"; and "Lady," realized alongside Tony! Toni! Toné!'s Raphael Saadiq. Brown Sugar resonated with listeners seeking an alternative to the polished, machine-driven sounds then prevalent in urban radio and eventually achieved platinum status. In October 1996 a recording of most of a September 1995 London concert, which featured frequent studio partner Angie Stone on backing vocals, appeared in Japan under the title Live at the Jazz Cafe, London.

In the interval between studio albums D'Angelo stepped away from the spotlight and parted ways with his management team amid tensions. At the same time the term neo-soul, introduced by label executive Kedar Massenburg, gained traction as a recognized style thanks to parallel artists including Maxwell and Erykah Badu. D'Angelo contributed to several film soundtracks during this period, chiefly through updated interpretations of earlier material such as Eddie Kendricks' "Girl You Need a Change of Mind" (Get on the Bus), Prince's "She's Always in My Hair" (Scream 2), Ohio Players' "Heaven Must Be Like This" (Down in the Delta), and a duet with Badu on Ashford & Simpson's "Your Precious Love" (High School High). He also placed the DJ Premier-produced original "Devil's Pie" on the Belly soundtrack and appeared with Lauryn Hill on "Nothing Even Matters" from her Grammy-winning The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Following this scattered output and multiple postponements, D'Angelo returned fully in January 2000 with the freer, jam-driven Voodoo. The project confirmed the depth of his audience by debuting at number one. A loose, ensemble-driven effort recorded concurrently with Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun and Common's Like Water for Chocolate, it drew on many of the same musicians; several of them, among them Badu, Common, ?uestlove, J Dilla, Q-Tip, James Poyser, and D'Angelo, became known collectively as the Soulquarians. The atmospheric falsetto ballad "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" climbed just short of the R&B summit and captured a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal, while Voodoo itself took Best R&B Album. For the rest of the decade D'Angelo limited himself to occasional guest spots, most prominently joining a rendition of Fela Kuti's "Water No Get Enemy" for the Red Hot + Riot collection. His mere participation turned Raphael Saadiq's "Be Here" and Snoop Dogg's "Imagine" into notable events, and two iterations of the J Dilla production "So Far to Go," first featured on Dilla's posthumous The Shining and later reworked for Common's Finding Forever, once again linked him with members of the Soulquarians.

D'Angelo's long-anticipated third album, initially announced under the working title James River, was slated for 2009 yet failed to appear. In January 2013 ?uestlove informed Billboard that "99% of it is done." Around the same period D'Angelo began performing more regularly, including club shows across Europe and occasional festival sets. March 2014 brought an expanded international reissue of Live at the Jazz Cafe, London through Virgin, which again functioned as interim material. Early in the second week of December, enigmatic social-media messages teased the imminent arrival of Black Messiah. One of the first signals came from journalist, author, and filmmaker Nelson George, who had included D'Angelo in his Finding the Funk documentary and conducted a public discussion with him for Red Bull Music Academy. On the 14th George organized a private playback of Black Messiah, credited to D'Angelo and his supporting ensemble the Vanguard, a blend of longtime and newer collaborators. The album reached stores the next day via RCA. More exploratory and outward-facing than its predecessors, Black Messiah entered the Billboard 200 at number five, secured the subsequent year's Grammy for Best R&B Album, and saw lead single "Really Love" honored as Best R&B Song. After a brief tour D'Angelo remained quiet until October 2018, when the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 appeared; alongside Daniel Lanois and Rocco DeLuca he contributed "Unshaken" to its soundtrack, which became available as a standalone single the following January.