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biography
With the release of his 1995
solo debut Brown Sugar, Michael "D'Angelo"
Archer did more than just make yet another R&B record; he
ushered in a new era of music. Brown Sugar
became a template for what male fueled rhythm and blues and
soul should, could and had to sound and feel like. Blessed
with slinky, slurred, sinewy grooves and a deft musical touch
that can only come from a deeper place, Brown Sugar
would go on to sell over 2 million copies, yield the hit
singles "Lady" and the title track, and make a then
20-year old D'Angelo a star and a soul standard bearer.
So what do you do once you've
set new standards? Simple enough, you raise the stakes and set
them even higher. You take a chance, you reject the status quo
and you forge your own aural path. You delve deep into
yourself and conjure up a collection like this. The name of
D'Angelo's second album is Voodoo, and like some
dark, longing, out of body hallucination, Voodoo
burrows its way into your subconscious, weaves a web and casts
a serious spell. Infused with the revolutionary, funkdafied
mojo of early Ohio Players, James Brown, the Meters, Sly and
the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Kool and the Gang and any
pioneering band that dared to take a risk, Voodoo
is the album D'Angelo was put on this earth to create. It is
the music that has been playing in his head.
To call Voodoo
the most eagerly anticipated sophomore release in recent
musical history is an understatement. It is quite literally
the record much of the universal soul nation has been feenin'
for. Yet if you ask D'Angelo, who produced and wrote Voodoo,
what took so long, his answer speaks volumes to his artistic
integrity and his mission. "The main thing is that I
really just wanted to make the best album that I could make. I
basically wanted to be able to sit down and write some nice
songs and it takes time to do something like that. You just
can't throw stuff together. I know it has been a while but I
need the time to get it together as to what I was going to do
and how I was going to do it. I felt some of the pressure to
follow up Brown Sugar and I tried not to think
about that. I wanted to concentrate on what I was doing, and
to get it back on the love of music and writing that I had
even before I signed a contract. So if there's one reason why
I took such a long time in between records is because I wanted
to keep that purity, to keep my motivation for why I make
music pure."
The spiritual and sonic birth
of Voodoo coincides with the birth of D'Angelo's
almost three-year-old son. It was shortly after the child's
arrival into the world that D'Angelo entered a studio in
Virginia and laid down "Send it On," a sly slow jam
laced with a bluesey afterglow. With "Send It On"
fresh in his mind, D'Angelo felt ready to start the recording
process for real and set up camp at the famed Electric Lady
Studios, built by the late Jimi Hendrix. It was at that studio
D'Angelo says, "we all made a spiritual and mental
musical journey."
Joining D'Angelo on this
journey were a group of players that he dubs the best
musicians he could find. "I love to play," D'Angelo
states (he played drums, keyboards, guitar and bass on Voodoo)
"and I wanted to work with people who love to play,
too." Among the guests on Voodoo are
Charlie Hunter (whose guitar forms the crux of the winding
grooves of "The Root"), jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove,
Ahmir (?uestlove) Thompson (drummer for The Roots), bassist
Pino Pallidino, Raphael Saadiq (who goes for his on the
sensuous stroll "Untitled"), Method Man & Redman
(who can be heard on the off kilter bounce "Left &
Right") and Grammy Award winning artist Lauryn Hill.
"Lauryn is a beautiful spirit," D'Angelo says.
"Very warm. When we did 'Nothing Even Matters' (which
appears on Hill's Miseducation Of ...), it was just a natural
thing. And this new song is just as natural."
Asked how he assembled such a
diverse and dynamic crew and D'Angelo answers, "A lot of
these people are folks I've been fans of for a long time. Like
with Ahmir. The first time I saw him was when he was opening
up for the Fugees, back when I was touring. As soon as I met
and heard him it was like I'd found my long lost brother. I
knew right then and there this guy was going to play with me
and Ahmir's kind of my co-pilot on Voodoo."
Voodoo was recorded live with
no overdubs, and often what is on the finished project is how
it unfolded in the studio. Lyrically, D'Angelo offers that
much of Voodoo is personal reflection: touching on subjects
like spirituality, sexuality, growth and in particular
becoming a father. Musically, as he puts it, Voodoo is
"definitely groove based. Sometimes we'd be in the studio
and Ahmir would come up with a beat and we'd just jam and
things would just happen very spontaneously. Lots of times
we'd just go in there and just play and we'd have the tape
rolling. It was a different experience than Brown Sugar
'cause (back then) I had written all the songs at my house and
then came into the studio. This time I wrote in the studio and
worked a lot more with other musicians."
Although there was a long
period of time in between Brown Sugar and Voodoo,
D'Angelo was far from inactive, or uncreative. D'Angelo
recorded "Devil's Pie" (a collaboration with DJ
Premier that appeared on the Belly Soundtrack), "Heaven
Must Be Like This" (Down In The Delta Soundtrack) and a
cover of Prince's "She's Always In My Hair" (Scream
2 Soundtrack). In addition, D'Angelo worked with Method Man on
"Break Ups 2 Make Ups" (Judgement Day 2000), the
aforementioned duet with Lauryn Hill, and recorded
"Nobody's Home" with the legendary B.B. King, a duet
which appeared on King's latest album. D'Angelo also sat in
with saxophonist David Sanborn and Eric Clapton (performing a
cover of Cream's classic tune, "Sunshine of Your
Love," on Sanborn's 1999 televised New Year's Eve
special), recently took the stage at the R&R Hall of Fame
to perform a tribute to Curtis Mayfield at Eric Clapton's
request, and sang the National Anthem prior to the Evander
Holyfield - Lennox Lewis fight (which incidentally was the
largest televised sporting event ever), proving that
D'Angelo's skills as a player are recognized across all genres
and generations. Further cementing his place in the national
spotlight, he was chosen to appear on the cover of Rizzolli's
"Body & Soul: The First Black Book," a pictorial
highlighting prominent African American men in the
entertainment realm.
It was clear from the jump
that there was something special about D'Angelo. Born in
Richmond, Virginia, the son and grandson of preachers,
D'Angelo showed precocious musical talent as a small child and
began playing piano at the age of five.
By the time he hit 18,
D'Angelo was a three-time Amateur Night at the Apollo Winner
and a member of a rap act called I.D.U. It was through a demo
tape of that now forgotten act that D'Angelo first caught the
ears of the industry. A record exec was impressed with I.D.U's
tracks and asked to meet the man behind them.
In 1991 D'Angelo was signed
to a publishing deal, which would eventually lead to his
recording deal with the now defunct EMI Records. In 1994
D'Angelo co-wrote and co-produced the stirring anthem "U
Will Know," which was the lead off single from the
Jason's Lyric Soundtrack. Quickly the buzz grew to deafening
levels and in 1995, Brown Sugar hit the streets.
Now four years later this
preternaturally wise and seasoned man-child of R&B and
soul returns. "My inspiration was to just go
farther," D'Angelo says, speaking of Voodoo's
mission statement. "To get to that next level. To push it
even further. To work against the floss and the grain and to
get even deeper into the sound that I'm hearing … and the
thing is, I'm just looking at Voodoo as just the
beginning. I'm still developing and growing and still
listening to that sound I hear inside my head. To take that
sound and put it on tape. So this is the first step. It took a
while but I'm on my way now."
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