D'Angelo DEAD

[Sardonicus]

R&B/soul legend, best known for "Brown Sugar" & "Untitled", several months after ex Angie Stone passed. Their poor son

D’Angelo Dead At 51 After Battle With Pancreatic Cancer

Neo-soul legend D’Angelo has died after a private battle with pancreatic cancer. Read Baller Alert’s exclusive report celebrating his life, music, and impact.

balleralert.com

 

[Jark]

another shocker! he was quite gorgeous in the 90s

 

[GNL]

He's with D'Angels now

 

[Agneeta]

Familiar with the name, vaguely recall Brown Sugar.

Thinking of @funky

 

[funky]

Fuck! I’ve been listening to “Brown Sugar” a lot lately.

Time has been very kind to D’Angelo - aside from a couple of hit singles his sales were never massive but he’s now recognised as one of the cornerstones of neo soul and moreso his albums - including the more recent Vanguard album - are now considered classics. They feature in tonnes of best of lists from all the usual outlets.

51 is really no age at all! RIP

 

[rhythmbandit]

Brown Sugar and Voodoo are two fantastic albums, a shame he didn't release much more afterwards.

 

[Halli]

I do remember the Untitled video back in the day

Very sad and so young, what with Angie passing aswell

 

[K.C.]

Aww very sad. Such a core part of 90s r&b.

 

[cwej]

For me this man is the actual King of Neo Soul, and fittingly pretty much Angie Stone was the Queen so to lose both of them in the same year is pretty horrible. 51 really is no age to go. Gutting.

 

[Joseph]

Now this is SAD SAD

 

[VV]

Sad RIP

 

[old spice]

Shit. Damn. Motherfucker.

Dude was an authentic, unapologetic trailblazer who had a 100% strike rate. He could have cashed in massively on the r&b heartthrob status he had after the 'Untitled' hoopla. I love that he didn't, and I love that he hated it - though I wish he hadn't suffered from the pressure of maintaining that body. It sucks that he retreated from public life for so long afterwards, but I remember how thrilled I was when he dropped Black Messiah out of what felt like nowhere at the end of 2014, and I remember being even more thrilled when the rapturous reception that greeted it turned out to be entirely justified. A vibrant, incisive masterpiece two decades after single-handedly birthing an entire subgenre in Brown Sugar and expanding its scope with Voodoo? What. An. Artist. I was always cautiously optimistic that we'd get a fourth record - his musings on Trump's America married to his distinctive sound (the layering, the textures, the grooves, god damn) would've surely given us the modern-day There's a Riot Goin' On that we deserved. He gave us enough already, yes, but after losing one enigmatic soul KING in Sly this year, it's grossly unfair that we're robbed of another who had plenty of time to find inspiration once more. They won't make 'em like this again during my lifetime. RIP.