D'Angelo | Artist

Michael Eugene Archer aka D'Angelo was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer born 1974 in Richmond, Virginia. d'Angelo's debut album Brown Sugar is widely credited as the album that launched neo-soul, a style which blends R&B with elements from hip-hop, jazz and other forms of music. Pitchfork defined D'Angelo as "the groundbreaking R&B artist who helped define the neo-soul movement across decades". Archer grew up in a Pentecostal family and played piano at the church where his father was a preacher. His musical talents were discovered very early when he began playing piano at the age of three. In his teens he was a member of the group Precise, who found success in the Amateur Night competitions at New York's Apollo Theater in Harlem. as an 18-year-old he dropped out of school and moved to New York City to develop his music career. At 17, D'Angelo met Afropunk Festival partner Jocelyn Cooper, who signed him to her publishing company after hearing a demo of the hip hop group I.D.U, which D'Angelo produced and rapped in. Cooper introduced D'Angelo to musicians Raphael Saadiq, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Angie Stone to collaborate as songwriters. She also introduced him to the head of EMI Music and after an impressive audition, D'Angelo was signed to a recording contract. His debut album, Brown Sugar, was released in July 1995. Although sales were slow at first, the album was eventually a hit, ultimately peaking at #4 and spent more than a year on the chart. It sold 300,000 copies within two months and by January 1996, it had sold 400,000 copies. After his initial success, D'Angelo became less active in the music scene and released limited solo work. After touring for two years to promote the album, he suffered from writer's block, and fell back to releasing cover versions. He also appeared on a duet, "Nothing Even Matters", with Lauryn Hill for her debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998). The much-delayed follow-up album, Voodoo, was released in 2000 on Virgin Records. It received rave reviews from music critics, who dubbed it a "masterpiece". The album debuted at #1 on the US Billboard chart, selling 320,000 copies in its first week. Near the end of his world tour in support of the album, D'Angelo's personal issues emerged, affecting performances. He became more conscious of and uncomfortable with his status as a sex symbol, and after the tour returned to his home in Richmond, Virginia, disappearing from the public eye. After the suicide of his close friend, Fred Jordan, in April 2001, d'Angelo started to develop a drinking problem. In January 2005 he was arrested and sentenced on drug charges. D'Angelo eventually re-emerged on the scene in December 2014, with the release of his third studio album, Black Messiah. The album was met with universal acclaim from critics; as of 2015, it had a 95/100 mean score on review aggregator Metacritic. In its first week of release, it debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 and sold 117,000 copies in the US alone. That was to be d'Angelo's final studio album, and perhaps his greatest. Of his recordings, all three studio albums are highly recommended, as are the 1996 release Live at the Jazz Cafe, London, the archival set North Sea Jazz (2000), and Spotify Sessions (2015). d'Angelo died on October 14 2025 of pancreatic cancer, during the production of his fourth album. The artist derived his stage name as a play on his first name, Michael, becoming a nickname of Michelangelo. The name also reflects his Italian heritage, with "D'Angelo" literally meaning "of the angels".

Artist Website: rcarecords.com/dangelo

Featured Albums: D'Angelo

Related Artists: The Vanguard