D'Angelo: Voodoo LP

In 1995, D’Angelo - born Michael Eugene Archer and Virginia-raised to a Pentecostal preacher father - made an undeniable impact on the music world with the release of his 4x Grammy Award nominated debut album Brown Sugar, ushering in a new and inescapable neo-soul sound with classic hits like the title track, “Lady,” “Cruisin.” 

 

D’Angelo made his welcome return 5 years later with his platinum-plus 2000 sophomore album Voodoo. The album's roots are in 1960s, ‘70s and ’80s funk and soul; a nostalgic nod to the ideas and inventions of black music trailblazers powered by avant-garde hip-hop and jazz-influenced rhythms. D’Angleo’s aim was to reclaim R&B. He wanted to be like Sly Stone, George Clinton and Al Green. And most of all, he wanted to be like Jimi Hendrix. One way he accomplished this was to record in the studio Hendrix built, New York’s Electric Lady studios.

 

Once again handling the lion's share of production, arrangements, songwriting and vocals, alongside instrumentation from the Soulquarians musical collective, the critically acclaimed album won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album while its hit single, “Untitled (How Does It Feel)" took home hardware for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. In celebration of the 15 year anniversary of this classic album UMe will be reissuing it on deluxe colored vinyl.

 

"This album is a personal testimony about my life and my emotions. My life kinda changed overnight when Brown Sugar came out. It took me a while just to get used to that – the attention, the money, and everything that comes along with that...At times I felt like I wanted to run away from it. I still reject a lot of shit. A lot of people say, “Well you’re a superstar now.” If I start to look at it like that, then something’s wrong. I have to continue to remind myself why I’m doing this and the things that inspired or motivated me way back before Brown Sugar ever happened and before I ever got into this business – just my love for the music and wanting to reach the people.” - D'Angelo