D'Angelo
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Michael D'Angelo Archer (born February 11, 1974 in Richmond, Virginia) is an African-American soul singer, professionally known as simply D'Angelo. He began performing as a young child, and recorded his debut album, Brown Sugar (album), in 1995. The album was eventually a hit, though sales were sluggish at first, and helped kickstart the burgeoning nu soul singers of the 1990s (along with Maxwell, Erykah Badu and others). The album was a critical success as well, and appeared on many critics' "best of" lists for the year. In the five year gap between Brown Sugar and the follow-up, D'Angelo appeared on several soundtracks, including Belly ("Devil's Pie"), frequently singing covers like "Girl You Need a Change of Mind" (Eddie Kendricks, Get on the Bus), "She's Always in My Hair" (Prince, Scream 2) and "Heaven Must Be Like This" (The Ohio Players, Down in the Delta), as well as appearing on Lauryn Hill's landmark The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The much-delayed follow-up to Brown Sugar, Voodoo, was finally released in 2000 and debuted at #1. The lead single was "Untitled (How Does It Feel)", a huge R&B hit, buoyed by an innovative video feature a nude D'Angelo performing the song with no accompaniment or ornamentation. He also performed "Be Here" (with Raphael Saadiq) from the Saadiq album Instant Vintage.
D'Angelo has a son with fellow neo-soul singer Angie Stone.
In 2002, Q magazine named him in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".
Samples
- Download sample of "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" from Voodoo