D'Angelo
D'Angelo helped kick off neo-soul with Brown Sugar in 1995, a slow, smoky record that brought the warmth of Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Prince back into 90s R&B, with his own layered vocals and keyboards at the centre.
Voodoo went deeper. Recorded at Electric Lady with Questlove and the Soulquarians, and steeped in J Dilla's off-kilter drum feel, it is built on loose, behind-the-beat grooves that sound both lazy and impossibly tight. After a wait of almost 15 years, Black Messiah arrived in 2014, rawer and more political, with his band The Vanguard.
He died in 2025.
If you like D'Angelo you should check out: Erykah Badu, Prince, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Sly & the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes, Bill Withers, Sade
