West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => Outbound Connection => Topic started by: TraceOneInfinite on October 14, 2025, 10:16:05 AM
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RIP TO ONE OF THE ALL-TIME SOUL GREATS OF OUR GENERATION
I have a lot of fond memories associated with DeAngelo debut, just want to share in honor of his passing...
I was a huge fan of his debut album and have a lot of memories attached to those days. One of the best nights of my life and first big experiences with girls as a 13 year old happened while bumping his music like “Brown Sugar” and also “Lady” was a banger. But “Brown Sugar” was a huge breakthru, and one of the best nights of my life sneaking out to meet girls in the neighborhood fall of 95’ and that track “Brown Sugar” had just broken thru.
And I had about 5 big incidents of fights at school—and one big one was in 8th grade in front of the entire gym class I got my ass beat by this black guy in the locker room. All because I beat him in a game of one on one (I was in my basketball 🏀 and popularity prime of my life at the time) and he lost the bet so he had to give me a Bone CD but he welched on the bet (and later ended up giving me a clean version of Deangelo’s debut and 5 bucks and we called it even)
But before we’d called it even I said I couldn’t just let him Welch on his bet and get away with it so I told my best friend from 7th grade I’d start a fight with this black in the locker room and then once it started my friend was supposed to jump in and break it up — well I started the fight and my friend never broke it up and I ended up on the ground in front of everyone in a submission hold — and had to punk out with dudes fist 👊 cocked ready to fire on me if I didn’t punk out and say I’d had enough…
Everyone left and I was trying to like fix up my face alone in the locker room and my new homie hung back to check on me and my 7th grade homie and I never were friends again after that and this dude became my ride or die homie and we had all those great nights out in the neighborhood meeting girls over at his house.
It was the prime of my life so even when something bad happened it turned out good—people respected me that I even stepped to this dude and we made amends and became friends and he gave me the Deangelo cd…
And then the story has a crazy ending years later at age 19 I’d converted to Islam right before I went out to hang with Siavash (Doggystylin of the forum) and Muslim cats out in Cali my life was on the outs and I was working night shift at target and guess who was working side by side with me?? This black kid that beat my ass in 8th grade gym class! But here’s the crazy part… I had converted to Islam but was doing it incognito at that point I didn’t really come out fully in public till I moved to LA. Well this cats last name was Nichols so just a regular name.
Well one day we are rolling around bumping Kurupts Space Boogie and Nate Dogg “Friends.. how many of us have them…” cause we shared a mutual love for west coast rap and he’s saying he’s always wanted a ride or die homie and I break the news that I’m moving to Cali and going to Hajj in Mecca and that I’ve been wanting to change my life and be a Muslim. I thought he laugh in my face—well he pulls out his wallet and shows me his drivers liscense and it turns out his middle name is Muhammad!! His parents were divorced but his biological dad in LA is a Muslim convert who gave him the middle name Muhammad!
Crazy story and all goes back to Deangelo — RIP
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Damn, rip
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D'Angelo
R.i.P
(1974-2025)
D’Angelo, Grammy-winning neo-soul pioneer, dies aged 51
Singer known for tracks such as Brown Sugar and Untitled (How Does It Feel) died at home from pancreatic cancer
(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/10/15/multimedia/14DAngelo-bltz-print1/13DAngelo-bltz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)
D’Angelo, the Grammy-winning R&B singer who helped pioneer the sound of neo-soul, has died. He was 51.
The singer, born Michael Eugene Archer, died on Tuesday morning at his home in New York after privately suffering from pancreatic cancer, his family confirmed to Variety.
“The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life … After a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer, we are heartbroken to announce that Michael D’Angelo Archer, known to his fans around the world as D’Angelo, has been called home, departing this life today, October 14th, 2025,” his family said in a statement. “We are saddened that he can only leave dear memories with his family, but we are eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind. We ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time but invite you all join us in mourning his passing while also celebrating the gift of song that he has left for the world.”
D’Angelo burst on to the scene in 1995 with his debut album Brown Sugar, which married classic R&B melodies with the sounds of hip-hop and notched his first Top 10 single with Lady. His follow-up album, the 2000 classic Voodoo, solidified his status at one of the fathers of the stripped-down, hearty sounds of neo-soul. He was as influential as he was elusive, not releasing a follow-up to Voodoo until late 2014, with his third and final album Black Messiah.
D’Angelo won four Grammys over the course of his career, including best R&B album for Voodoo in 2001 and for Black Messiah in 2016. He also won for best R&B song in 2016 for Really Love and best R&B vocal performance for Untitled (How Does It Feel), whose music video – in which the singer appeared seemingly unclothed against a stark black background – turned D’Angelo into an international sex symbol in the early 2000s.
Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, D’Angelo gravitated toward music at an early age. He began playing piano at the age of three, playing in the church alongside his father, who was a Pentecostal minister. He continued to perform locally in a variety of groups, including Three of a Kind, Michael Archer and Precise, and Intelligent, Deadly but Unique (IDU).
He signed with the record label EMI in 1993, at the age of 19. The following year, he scored his breakout hit when he co-wrote and co-produced the 1994 song U Will Know for the R&B supergroup Black Men United, featuring Usher, Brian McKnight, R Kelly, Boyz II Men, Raphael Saadiq and Gerald Levert. Following the slow-burn success of Brown Sugar, D’Angelo struggled with writer’s block and the pressures of fame, often taking long breaks from the spotlight.
D’Angelo is survived by three children. The mother of his eldest son, soul singer Angie Stone, died earlier this year in a car crash at the age of 63.
Shortly after news of his death, former collaborators and artists influenced by his music paid tribute on social media.
“Say it ain’t so, but we just lost a friend, a creator & legend, D’Angelo,” wrote Bootsy Collins on X.
Writing on X, singer Doja Cat praised D’Angelo as “a true voice of soul and inspiration to many brilliant artists of our generation and generations to come”.
Singer-songwriter Jill Scott also paid tribute to the king of neo-soul: “I never met D’Angelo but I love him, respect him, admire his gift,” she wrote on X. “This loss HURTS!! Love to my family that are family to him. I’m so sorry. R.I.P. GENIUS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yruoism8BM&list=RD7yruoism8BM&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOkf6ts2tm0&list=RDdOkf6ts2tm0&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iPFn8d7M3Q&list=RD0iPFn8d7M3Q&start_radio=1&pp=ygU2IkJyZWFrIFVwcyAyIE1ha2UgVXBzIiAoTWV0aG9kIE1hbiBmZWF0dXJpbmcgRCdBbmdlbG8poAcB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT75hdcOOkU&list=RDeT75hdcOOkU&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJwYGPf-pF4&list=RDHJwYGPf-pF4&start_radio=1&pp=ygUSZCAnYW5nZWxvIGxhZHkgbmFzoAcB
Heaven must be like this: D’Angelo’s greatest songs – ranked!
As his debut album Brown Sugar turns 30 this week, we look back on the relatively slim but astoundingly rich catalogue of the architect of neosoul
20. I Found My Smile Again (1996)
For an artist no one could describe as prolific, D’Angelo has contributed a surprising number of exclusive songs to films. Good songs too, as evidenced by this, from the Space Jam soundtrack: a fine, funky, faintly Stevie Wonder-ish, mid-tempo example of his initial retro-yet-somehow-modern approach to soul.
19. Another Life (2014)
Questlove compared D’Angelo’s third album Black Messiah to the Beach Boys’ Smile. More people heard Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On in its murky, moody sound, but Another Life was a relatively bright closer, a lovely hybrid of vintage Chicago and Philadelphia soul, decorated with sitar.
18. Heaven Must Be Like This (1998)
D’Angelo is better known as a songwriter than an interpreter of others’ material, but – quite aside from demonstrating his exquisite taste in vintage soul – his version of the Ohio Players’ 1974 slow jam is magnificent: live-sounding, respectful, but not too cowed by the original to prevent the singer injecting his own identity.
17. Alright (1995)
D’Angelo’s debut was the album for which the term neosoul was literally invented (as a marketing tool), but it offered more than merely harking back to a golden era. Alright is resolutely a product of the mid-90s – the harmonies are lush, but they’re set against a crackly sampled rhythm and subjected to dub-like echo.
16. The Charade (2014)
D’Angelo made his love for Prince explicit early on – covering She’s Always in My Hair – and his spirit hangs over The Charade, both melodically and in its hybrid rock-influenced style. But the sound is too smeared, distorted and strange to count as homage; its lyrics about the “systematic maze” of racism are glowering and powerful.
15. The Line (2000)
D’Angelo’s second album Voodoo took four years to make. Collaborator Questlove described the sessions as a “left of centre Black music renaissance”, but there’s a potent note-to-self quality about The Line’s lyrics, as if D’Angelo is urging himself to get the album done: “I’m gonna stick to my guns, I’m gonna put my finger on the trigger, I’m gonna pull it”.
14. Unshaken (2018)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0AykH20X3Q
The most recent D’Angelo track – released seven years ago! – was brooding, atmospheric and produced by U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois. It’s understated but fabulous, carrying a hint of swampy New Orleans soul in its rhythm. If he can come up with something this good for a video game soundtrack, what might a fourth album sound like?
13. Africa (2000)
Inspired by the birth of D’Angelo’s son – and co-written with his then-partner, the late Angie Stone – Africa meditates on fatherhood and Black consciousness. It’s resolute lyrically but low-key, introspective and somehow fragile musically, its electric piano sounding fractured over the rumbling funk of Questlove’s drums. The overall effect is really moving.
12. Till It’s Done (Tutu) (2014)
The perfect example of what one critic called the “controlled chaos” of Black Messiah with funk so slippery the constituent elements feel as if they’re on the verge of sliding out of sync entirely. D’Angelo laments the state of the world in falsetto: “Tragedy flows unbound and there’s no place to run.”
11. One Mo’Gin (2000)
The loverman side of Voodoo later gave D’Angelo pause – he was deeply uncomfortable with his sex-symbol status – but it’s pretty irresistible on this cliche-free slow jam. The vocals are reverb-free and mixed forward, as if he’s singing very close to you, the music moves drowsily along, the whole thing sounds like it’s dripping with sweat.
10. Smooth (1995)
From the opening torrent of dextrous jazz guitar to the bumping hip-hop beat (from Chubb Rock’s 1992 track The Big Man) via the meandering keyboard lines that suggest a band jamming live and the fine, but unshowy vocal, Smooth defines the new route for R&B laid out on D’Angelo’s debut. It’s also just a great song.
9. Sugah Daddy (2014)
If Black Messiah is the 21st-century There’s a Riot Goin’ On, maybe Sugah Daddy is its goofy Spaced Cowboy moment, its Princely lubriciousness undercut by its quirky tap-dancing rhythm, sudden key changes and warped swing-era evoking horns and backing vocals. The main piano and bass groove, meanwhile, is utterly, joyfully contagious.
8. Devil’s Pie (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq4Ps5IIMfc
A collaboration with producer DJ Premier (who originally intended its beat to go to fleetingly famous rapper Canibus), Devil’s Pie is also liberally sprinkled with magic by an uncredited J Dilla. Its attack on hip-hop materialism is stripped-back, bass-heavy and strafed with vintage electronics (sampled from Pierre Henry). Idiosyncratic and marvellous.
7. Cruisin’ (1995)
The great D’Angelo cover. Smokey Robinson’s original 1979 quiet-storm-classic is an incredible track but this version might be even better: a touch faster, a little more raw, the lush orchestration set over echoey funk. And D’Angelo’s unruffled falsetto may be the best vocal he’s ever recorded.
6. Send It On (2000)
Around Voodoo’s release, D’Angelo described modern R&B as “a joke”. The ensuing album was his alternative, “the natural progression of soul”, a description that fits Send It On perfectly: over the sample loops and elastic bass, the lovely song at its centre could easily have been sung by Otis Redding or Sam Cooke.
5. Lady (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1WkZtA6QVk
When it comes to D’Angelo’s biggest hit, take your pick from the original – a slow jam with a killer bassline courtesy of Raphael Saadiq – or the DJ Premier mix which is more hip-hop facing, with a guest verse from Nas-affiliated rapper AZ. Both are superb, carrying a faint undercurrent of darkness alongside declarations of love.
4. Spanish Joint (2000)
At the heart of Voodoo’s sound is incredible, virtuosic live-in-the-studio playing by D’Angelo and his fellow Soulquarians. It never sounds more incredible than the intricate, writhing groove of Spanish Joint: constantly shifting, always funky, the perfect backdrop for D’Angelo’s vocals (and the Afrobeat-influenced horns) to glide around.
3. Really Love (2014)
A slow-burning dream of a song, its gorgeous, cyclical melody stunningly orchestrated and decorated with flamenco guitar: an arrangement so imaginative it makes you realise how unimaginative most pop arrangements are. The mush-mouthed vocal adds an odd sense of intimacy, as if you’re hearing D’Angelo singing to himself.
2. Untitled (How Does It Feel?) (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxVNOnPyvIU
Untitled’s video was simple – a naked D’Angelo singing direct to camera – and perhaps too effective. Subsequent attention from female fans disconcerted the singer into derailing his own career. But the song itself is amazing, a rule-breaking Prince-inspired bedroom ballad that slowly builds to an astonishing psychedelic climax.
1. Brown Sugar (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_WzjiTzZBA
D’Angelo’s catalogue might be slender, but it’s rich, so much so that it feels almost unfair to pick his debut single as his best song. Doing so doesn’t imply that it was all downhill from there – all of his albums are equally good – but there’s no getting around the fact that Brown Sugar is a spectacularly great track. An ode to marijuana disguised as a love song, you could work out the real meaning just from its heady sound – like mid-70s Roy Ayers in a fog of smoke, plus snapping beats, ultra-cool organ, disorientating murmuring voices and a vocal with the rhythm of a rapper’s flow.
D’Angelo: 12 Essential Songs
The R&B visionary, who has died at age 51, leaves behind a catalog that’s rich in melody and meaning
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRS82Y_ePdXl_bnT6gquYiqDfAo58ozYD75nQ&s)
D’Angelo only released three albums in his lifetime, but each one was a classic that defined its moment in music. How many artists can say that? The incomparably soulful singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose death at age 51 has shocked the world, kicked off the neo-soul revolution early with 1995’s Brown Sugar, took that movement to arguably its greatest artistic heights with 2000’s Voodoo, and returned to blow everyone’s minds in a whole new way with 2014’s Black Messiah. Any of these albums, on its own, would be the crowning jewel of another artist’s career. D’Angelo made all three, and never released anything beneath that sky-high standard. He’s left us with a catalog that’s rich in melody and meaning. Here are 12 of his greatest songs, from hit singles to deep cuts, covers, and collaborations.
‘Brown Sugar’
1995
D’Angelo’s sensuality was central to his work, even when the subject of his songs wasn’t technically a person. It was easy for casual listeners to miss that he’s actually romancing his weed on “Brown Sugar,” the title track from his equally authoritative debut LP. And he wanted it that way. “A lot of people are real busy tryin’ to get their point across,” he told Vibe in 1995. “Not letting the listener use their imagination. You should be able to lay back and close your eyes and come up with your own vision.” Afrobeats star Tiwa Savage recently told Rolling Stone she was a student of D’Angelo’s coy approach on “Brown Sugar”: “You just think it’s a sexy song about a girl or whatever, then you go back and it just makes you even love it even more and think of how genius that song is.” —Mankaprr Conteh
‘Lady’
1995
Raphael Saadiq had a chorus for “Lady” kicking around as early as the late Eighties, but his managers thought it was a dud. And that was where it stopped, until he crossed paths with D’Angelo a few years later. “When I met D I said, ‘I got this idea,’ and I started playing it and he just looked at me and said, ‘I like it,'” Saadiq told Essence’s Yes, Girl! podcast in 2019. “So we started writing the lyrics together.” The two R&B visionaries worked together to develop “Lady” into one of the centerpieces of D’s debut, a celebration of a special someone that unfolds at a leisurely pace. It turned out to be a Top 10 hit, the biggest of D’Angelo’s career. —Simon Vozick-Levinson
‘Cruisin’’
1995
In the late Seventies, Smokey Robinson’s “Cruisin’” was one of the songs that summed up the quiet storm sound; in 2000, it became an adult-contemporary chart-topper when Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis covered it for the soundtrack of a long-forgotten comedy. In between, D’Angelo took it somewhere much finer. His falsetto was a divine instrument, elevating the song to a whole new level of smoothed-out pleasure over a luxurious arrangement of strings and sleigh bells. When he sings “Music was made for love,” you believe it. And by the end of the six-and-a-half-minute recording (the longest on his debut), this song was his for all time. —S.V.L.
‘She’s Always in My Hair’
1997
Many people would be terrified to take on their idols, but for the soundtrack to 1997’s Scream 2, D’Angelo decided to have some fun with his favorite deep cut from the artist who seemed to inspire him most. He turned out a hard-edged, rock-inflected version of Prince’s “She’s Always in My Hair,” the bouncing single that originally appeared as a B side for both “Paisley Park” and “Raspberry Beret.” He swaggers up and down each verse, adding an extra dose of grit to the pebble-smooth edges of his voice, griming up the track with just the right amount of pluck and sleaze. It’s a cool confidence that came from having Prince’s blessing, to a degree: In an interview with Ananda Lewis, he shared that he had told Prince the cover was coming when they jammed together for the first time at Tramps in New York. —Julyssa Lopez
Lauryn Hill feat. D’Angelo, ‘Nothing Even Matters’
1998
“Nothing Even Matters” is the softest place to land on Lauryn Hill’s legendary debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The iconic meeting of the voices that would go on to help define the 1990s’ earthy soul revival seems to have happened just as smoothly as the song sounds. “Collaborating with Lauryn was very cool,” D’Angelo told Rolling Stone in 2008. “She was warm and sweet. Originally, we were going to swap tunes for each other’s projects because I was working on Voodoo at the same time and my keyboardist James Poyser was also working with her. I went to her house in New Jersey, she played a lot of songs for me and gave me a rough copy to listen to. When Lauryn and I went into the studio together, I laid down my vocals in the course of an hour.” —M.C.
‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’
2000
D’Angelo may have ended up with mixed feelings about the pelvis-teasing video for this single, but there’s no denying that the super-slinky “Untitled” is rivaled only by “Let’s Get It On” for the title of greatest bedroom jam ever. As with most of Voodoo, the formidable rhythm section of Pino Palladino and Questlove are so far behind the beat that the track practically time travels, while D’Angelo’s ever-cresting lead vocals and harmony stacks offer — in classic soul tradition — a libidinal take on gospel. The song casts such a distinct spell that it seems downright wrong to listen to it with the lights on. —Brian Hiatt
‘Devil’s Pie’
2000
The most resonant social commentary doesn’t have to beat listeners over the head. Enter “Devil’s Pie,” a Voodoo single where D’Angelo portrays what Questlove has described as ”the money-hungry, jiggafied state of the world we’re in,” brilliantly using euphemisms for money (cream, cheese, dough) as metaphorical devices for the sinister side of life. D’Angelo starts the song as one of the bakery’s conflicted patrons, softly crooning, “Who am I to justify, all the evil in our eye/When I myself feel the high, from all that I despise?” He spends the rest of the track exploring humanity’s inherent hypocrisy and gluttony over one of the smoothest bass lines you’ll ever hear. DJ Premier initially hooked the beat up for rapper Canibus, but he passed on it, leading to one of the most poignant, funky snapshots of Western excess we’ve ever seen. If it’s not the serpent’s apple, it’s the devil’s pie. —Andre Gee
‘Send It On’
When D’Angelo made Voodoo, he packed it with tons of soul, in a very real sense: The album overflows with bone-deep, intensely felt reflections on love, spirituality, and fatherhood. Perhaps no moment is as tenderhearted as “Send It On,” the first song written for the album, dedicated to his first son. He worked on it alongside Angie Stone, the child’s mother, dialing up an interpolation of Kool & the Gang’s “Sea of Tranquility” to its most emotive and adding layers on layers of air-light vocals that get more poignant by the second. The final result is as sweet as a lullaby, but with the clarity and foresight that makes it stand as everlasting words of wisdom from a dad. —J.L.
Snoop Dogg feat. Dr. Dre and D’Angelo, ‘Imagine’
2006
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are revered for unflinching depictions of violence and hedonism, but every so often, like on 2006’s “Imagine,” they slowed things down to second-guess the madness around them, with D’Angelo offering a silky chorus that fit the song’s pensive tone. It’s one of D’Angelo’s few rap features, and the gangsta-rap icons knew they had to come correct and go deeper with him on the track. Similar to Jadakiss’ “Why,” the two took a stream-of-consciousness approach, with Dre examining the power of hip-hop (“Imagine Russell still struggling/No Def Jam, just another nigga hustlin’”) and Snoop pondering, “Imagine if these niggas never saw a color/Would it be peaceful in them streets, would niggas kill each other?” Perhaps one day, we’ll have the answer to some of the guys’ queries, but regardless, we’re thankful to have “Imagine.” —A.G.
‘The Charade’
2014
When D’Angelo reemerged from his decade-plus studio hiatus with Black Messiah, he came with a new sound — heavier on rock guitars (many played by D himself) — and a renewed sense of purpose. He told Rolling Stone that he and co-writer Kendra Foster had been reading a lot of James Baldwin before penning this subtly insistent plea for justice and understanding: “All we wanted was a chance to talk/’Stead we only got outlined in chalk.” And while it resonated with listeners in the 2010s as a Black Lives Matter anthem, he said the song was rooted even further back. “It just shows how ongoing this shit is, because I wrote that even before the Trayvon Martin thing happened,” he said. “It’s crazy that we’re still in the streets protesting the same shit.” —S.V.L.
‘1000 Deaths’
2014
On “1000 Deaths,” D’Angelo ushers in a great rumble, trembling beneath a sample of Dr. Khalid Muhammad delivering a treatise on Black revolution. Black Messiah arrived in the wake of the death of Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson police, and on this song, the ever-elusive artist is compelled from his own exile by a larger necessity. A flip on the old saying that a coward dies a thousand deaths, the song offers a thesis for his own return. After the public’s reaction to the music video for “Untitled (How Does It Feel?),” D’Angelo vanished from the public eye, only to return with a robust and unapologetic expression of creative and cultural resilience. —Jeff Ihaza
‘Really Love’
2014
The sweet and gentle “Really Love” was one of the first songs D’Angelo wrote for Black Messiah, and eventually it became its first single. Above a lush string arrangement, guest Gina Figueroa speaks in Spanish, chastising a possessive lover. But as the slow-burner opens up, D’Angelo tells a different tale: He’s mesmerized by how deep his love is for his partner, intoxicated by their connection on every level. His soft falsetto declares “I’m in really love with you” on the chorus. D’Angelo wrote the song as early as 2007, when Questlove leaked some demo snippets to Australian radio. The single would go on to be nominated for Record of the Year at the 2016 Grammy Awards, and it took home Best R&B Song. —Brittany Spanos
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RIP
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Voodoo album is one of my favorite albums of all time. His output was limited but still a true legend. R.I.P. & fuck cancer
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R&B legend, no doubt
that's a pretty funny story 😂
its D'Angelo tho
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPzzwZgkZ9X/?igsh=MXJ0cmtiMHhjcGh0NQ==
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Man, this news is so sad to see.
I just had Voodoo playing last week after a long day at work and it really hit the spot. The closing track 'Africa' is simply stunning and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Such a beautiful song.
The whole album is just phenomenal, Brown Sugar likewise. I have Black Messiah but never gave it too much time when it came out, but I'll relisten to it again now for sure.
Keen to hear the stuff he was working on with Raphael Saadiq for his 4th album.
RIP D'Angelo :'(