Magazine
D'Angelo: What the Hell Happened?
Thanks to that video, D'Angelo was poised for superstardom, and the R&B renaissance he led was about to change the world. Instead, he fell into a spiral of substance abuse and arrests -- and virtually disappeared. Eight years later, his friends and colleagues reveal where he's been and what it's going to take to bring him back.
By David Peisner 08.05.08 5:38 PM
Jenkins sensed D'Angelo's reluctance: "You've got to realize, he'd never looked like that before in his life. To be somebody who was so introverted, and then, in a matter of three or four months, to be so ripped -- everything was happening so quickly."
Nonetheless, the video was a massive hit, introducing D'Angelo as a rippling Adonis to a new audience and driving Voodoo's sales well past a million. In the process, it also came to define the album and, to a certain extent, D'Angelo himself.
"I feel really guilty, because that was never the intention," Trenier says. " 'Untitled' wasn't supposed to be his mission statement for Voodoo. I'm glad the video did what it did, but he and I were both disappointed because, to this day, in the general populace's memory, he's the naked dude."
D'Angelo hasn't offered much to replace that image in the public's mind since then. Eight and a half years after Voodoo's release, a follow-up remains little more than a rumor. He's done no interviews since 2000 and refused repeated requests to talk for this story. A just-released greatest-hits package features him shirtless on the cover. Apart from scattered cameos on tracks by Common, Raphael Saadiq, and Snoop Dogg, D'Angelo's only real public appearances have been in court to answer charges of drunken driving, drug possession, assault, and disturbing the peace, among others.
"I feel like there's a book with a bookmark in it," says Trenier. "Two albums? That can't be it for this guy. He's got so much music in him."
Read the entire piece on D'Angelo in SPIN Digital, the free, online version of SPIN >>
Awesome article.
D'Angelo will never be known as the naked guy to me instead he will always go down as one of the smoothest soul singers of our time. After all he made a song with the hook being three curse words and the shit sold 4 the movie business his voice is mesmerizing and his melodies are so sweet i love him........although i must say he was much finer 10 years ago so let him know workout a lil bit honey you was too sexy get that back BOO OK BYE 4 NOW
It doesn't matter what he looks like. Good music is good music. The man is a musical genius and I, for one, can't wait to hear what he's going to share with the world when he's ready.
****es D!
D'angelo's music has been some of the greatest, smoothest, classiest, hottest, most innovative stuff to come out in decades. We need you back. We don't care if you're cut or heavy. (Of course you were a sex god to all of us deprived women but that wouldn't have meant anything if you hadn't been a music god under God.) When God gives you such an amazing talent you need to use it even if it's only for yourself. Fame has ruined a lot of people who turned to booze and drugs, but just kick the fame and the hype in the butt and start playing and singing again. D'angelo was never just "the naked dude" to anybody I know. He and the musicians he has worked with have always been one of a kind, top notch artists.
His music made me come alive. It was the best thing I have ever heard in years, after all the trash that has been coming out that passes for music. I don't care if you're cut, or heavy just come backand serenade me with your soulful voice and transport me to anoher place. I thought he was perfect on Brown Sugar and Voodoo was just another thing altogether. Smoking! But D., please we need you like the flowers need the rain. Please don't let all tat amazing talent go to naught.
well, i went to school with mike;actually sat with him im choir. this was 7th grade. he played @ the school assemblies, and any other musical event we had. i just want him to bounce back. he is a walking pillar of talent, humbleness, skill, wisdom & a certain level of unceartinty. why? thats my question. he posses it all. he even had the drive to shape & mold his physique into a Godlike image. GEORGOUS!!!!!! however, it obviously wasn't the missing piece to his puzzle. AWWW... if i had the recipe, i would gladly take him a big bowl of it; warm ,with crackers & ginger ale. however,he should know that hewas not built to be defeated. our minds can be guilty of playing tricks on us more than we would like to admit. d'angelo,if you are listening; COME BACK DADDY,I (ecuse me) WE NEED YOU. BRING BACK THE LOVE. A.S.A.P. do we need to come to your house & get you?????
The man's music touches my soul now the same way it did 9 years ago.
D'Angelo is a musical genius, and like many artists before him, the pressures of writing music of such high caliber seem to have burnt him out.
Personally, I cannot wait to hear his work again. His music kept me sane during a very tough period in my life, in a part of the world that he probably cannot imagine his music reaching. I'm waiting patiently for the next masterpiece.
It's sad to know that he'd spiraled like that. I'm not a big R&B fan, but D'Angelo was one of the few artsts whose sound I liked. I hope he does more work, it'd be a shame for that talent of his to just not shine again.
its called life and a lot of people go thru trials and tribulations, its all a process of learning
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