D'Angelo

D'Angelo was one of the founders and leading lights of the neo-soul movement of the mid- to late '90s, which aimed to bring the organic flavor of classic R&B back to the hip-hop age. Modeling himself on the likes of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Curtis Mayfield, and Al Green, D'Angelo's influences didn't just come across in his vocal style -- like most of those artists, he wrote his own material, and frequently produced it as well, helping to revive the concept of the R&B auteur. His debut album, "Brown Sugar," gradually earned him an audience so devoted that the follow-up, "Voodoo," debuted at No. 1 despite a five-year wait in between. The wait for his third album -- at one point tentatively titled "James River" -- was much longer.

Michael D'Angelo Archer was born February 11, 1974, in Richmond, Virginia, the son of a Pentecostal minister. He began teaching himself piano as a very young child, and at age 18 he won the amateur talent competition at Harlem's Apollo Theater three weeks in a row. He was briefly a member of a hip-hop group called I.D.U. and signed a publishing deal with EMI in 1991. His first major success came in 1994 as the co-writer and co-producer of the Top Five R&B single "U Will Know" on the "Jason's Lyric" soundtrack; it featured a one-time all-star R&B aggregate dubbed Black Men United. That helped lead to his debut solo album, "Brown Sugar," released in July 1995. Helped by the title track, also a Top Five R&B single, a cover of Smokey Robinson and Marv Tarplin's "Cruisin'" (No. 10 R&B), and "Lady" (No. 2 R&B), Brown Sugar caught on with R&B fans looking for an alternative to the hip-hop soul dominating the urban contemporary landscape. Along with artists like Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Maxwell, and collaborator Angie Stone, D'Angelo became part of a retro-leaning, neo-soul revivalist movement. Brown Sugar received enormously complimentary reviews and sold over two million copies, and D'Angelo supported it with extensive touring over the next two years.

On occasion, D'Angelo contributed a cover tune to a movie soundtrack, including Eddie Kendricks' "Girl You Need a Change of Mind" ("Get on the Bus"), the Ohio Players' "Heaven Must Be Like This" ("Down in the Delta"), and Prince's "She's Always in My Hair" ("Scream 2"). He also duetted with Lauryn Hill on "Nothing Even Matters," a cut from her Grammy-winning blockbuster "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." Still, fans awaiting a proper follow-up to "Brown Sugar" remained frustrated -- at first by no news at all, and then by frequent delays in the recording process and the scheduled release date. Finally, "Voodoo" was released in January 2000 and debuted at No. 1, an indication of the size and devotion of D'Angelo's fan base. An extremely collaborative album, it was recorded at the same time as Erykah Badu's "Mama's Gun" and Common's "Like Water for Chocolate" and involved much of the same personnel, some of whom -- including D'Angelo, Badu, Common, ?uestlove, J Dilla, Q-Tip, and James Poyser --were dubbed the Soulquarians. The extremely Prince-like lead single, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," was a smash on the R&B charts and won a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal; likewise, Voodoo won for Best R&B Album. Reviews of "Voodoo" were once again highly positive, although a few critics objected to the looser, more atmospheric, more jam-oriented feel of the record, preferring the tighter songcraft of "Brown Sugar."

Throughout the remainder of the 2000s, D'Angelo made only a handful of recorded guest appearances. Most notably, he took part in a version of Fela Kuti's "Water No Get Enemy," recorded for the "Red Hot + Riot" compilation. Raphael Saadiq's "Be Here" and Snoop Dogg's "Imagine" were events by virtue of the artist's mere presence, while two versions of the Dilla production "So Far to Go" -- first heard on Dilla's posthumous "The Shining," then reworked for Common's "Finding Forever" -- also reunited him with past Soulquarian partners. D'Angelo's sporadic creative activity, combined with publicized personal troubles, bordered on tragic. His third album, said to be titled "James River," was originally due in 2009 but did not materialize. In late 2014, his next full-length was finally announced, "Black Messiah."