![]() ![]() In 1998, D'Angelo, awed by the birth of his son, wrote the stirring "Send It On" in his honor, the new life signaling the creative explosion of what would become Voodoo. Voodoo is a gumbo of black innovation-blues, jazz, soul, funk, gospel even-peppered by a full spectrum of humanity, from despair to sheer ecstasy. D'Angelo, though, has historically felt little connection to the term, much the way no artist wants to contend with the expectations and limitations of genre when the singer first broke through, he'd pegged his sound as, simply, "black music," and there is perhaps no better descriptor for the record despite its associations. At the time, the neo-soul movement was an alternative to the steadily flashier edge of '90s hip-hop and R&B, and Voodoo was its apex. It was at once challenging and fulfilling, something new and something familiar. When D'Angelo released his masterpiece Voodoo at the turn of the century (and five years after his debut, Brown Sugar), it was immediately clear he'd avoided the dreaded sophomore slump to evolve into a musician who was as concerned with honoring the past as he was with his artistic impulses, no matter where they took him. ![]()
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