D’Angelo,Pioneering Soul Artist,Dies at 55
Richmond,VA – D’Angelo,the critically acclaimed and profoundly influential singer,songwriter,and multi-instrumentalist,has died,tributes began appearing on social media today. He was 55 years old. while details surrounding his death are still emerging, his passing marks the end of an era for contemporary R&B and a significant loss for the Black artistic community.
D’Angelo rose to prominence in the mid-1990s with a sound that seamlessly blended classic soul, funk, hip-hop, and jazz. His debut album, Brown Sugar (1995), established him as a force, but it was Voodoo (2000) that cemented his status as a visionary. The album, notoriously delayed and shrouded in mystique, became a touchstone for a generation, lauded for its innovative production, sensual vocals, and deeply rooted musicality.
The artist himself spoke of the burdens of celebrity, telling Questlove in a documentary, “They’re depending on you and they’re counting on you… It’s enough just navigating and coping through the change in your life that happens when you become a celebrity. Just that within itself is a huge paradigm shift.” He also reflected on the differing fates often afforded Black artists versus their white counterparts, stating, “I hate to say it but these White rock-and-rollers… go out in style, they go out paid. … They die in their tomato garden with their grandson, laughing … That’s what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Following a period of public struggles in the 2000s, D’Angelo made a triumphant return in 2014 with Black Messiah. Released amidst the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement and following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the album was a powerful statement of Black joy and resistance. As he explained to Rolling Stone in 2015, ”Aretha Franklin was as significant to the civil-rights movement as Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. Artists can choose to take on the tremendous amount of responsibility we have, or choose to ignore it.”
Black messiah included the song “Charade,” a stark protest song depicting Black bodies “outlined in chalk,” yet offered a message of hope in its bridge: ”and we’ll march on / And it really won’t take too long / It really won’t take us very long.”
D’Angelo’s influence extends to a new generation of artists, including Janelle monáe, Tyler the Creator, and Donald Glover, who honored him in an episode of Atlanta. He is survived by a son with Angie Stone, who tragically died in a car crash in March.His music and artistic legacy will continue to inspire and resonate for years to come.
