I said I wasn’t going to do any more tributes for a while, because they’re a bit triggering for me. However, when I heard the news that we lost none other than D’Angelo (just a few short months after losing Angie Stone), not only did I know that I had to do something in his honor, but it also managed to break me out of the creative slump that I’m sure you’ve all noticed at this point.
Back in the day, before TRL and 106 and Park, one of the most popular music video shows around was Video Soul on BET. I used to watch Video Soul constantly, from the time I was a little girl, until the time the show was cancelled in 1996. I remember during a warm spring night, circa 1995, Donnie Simpson introduced a video from a new artist that had just hit the scene. His name was D’Angelo, and he was debuting his new album as well as his eponymous new single, Brown Sugar.
I was mesmerized by this gorgeous mocha-skinned man with cornrows. Not only was he fine, but his voice was so smooth and silky. I loved him immediately, and I had to get his new album. When D’Angelo came out with his next single, “Lady,” I was even more hooked, and so was my mother. “Lady” remains one of my favorite D’Angelo songs. When I visited my sister in Syracuse later that summer, all we did was listen to her D’Angelo CD. Not only did my sister love “Lady” (namely because of that banging bass line), but one of her favorite songs was “Shit, Damn, Motherfucker” (I have to admit, I love that one, too). I also adored the track “Me and Those Dreamin’ Eyes of Mine.” Little did I realize I was watching the Neo-Soul music scene start to take off in real time.
Time went by, and I was introduced to other greats in Neo-Soul such as Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Jill Scott, and The Roots, and D’Angelo went quiet for a while. By late 1999, I was a freshman in college at Clemson University, and although I was going through one of the hardest moments of my life personally, the music that came out around that time was impeccable. One of the bright spots of that particularly dim time was that D’Angelo was back with a new album, and a hot new single to go with it, “Left & Right.”
It had been three years since I heard from D’Angelo, but he hadn’t lost a thing at all. Plus…he had gotten even sexier! His body was more cut and streamline, and his whole vibe had a Prince-like edge to it. I loved it. But then…2000 rolled around and D’Angelo released a song that had every woman salivating and every man wishing he could be him.
“Untitled (How Does It Feel).”
When I tell you that this video made us drop everything and stare at it every time it came on TV, I mean that crap! Every girl in my dorm loved this video: black, white, Puerto Rican, everybody just a freakin’. Even my mom and her friends couldn’t get enough of it. And once again, he had that Prince vibe in the video and song (that screaming is classic Prince). So, it’s no surprise that once again, I begged my mom for D’Angelo’s sophomore Voodoo album for my 19th birthday that year.
When my mom gifted me the Voodoo album, I had it on heavy rotation for the rest of the summer, if not the remainder of 2000. I listen to a lot of those songs to this very day such as “Chicken Grease,” “Send It On,” “Devil’s Pie,” and one of my all time favorite D’Angelo songs, “Africa.” Y’all, whenever I listen to “Africa,” it takes me away to a beautiful place. A lot of times I like to listen to it without any interruptions and really take in the music. As a matter of a fact, when I first heard that D’Angelo passed on, the first song that came to my mind wasn’t “Lady,” or “Untitled…” It was “Africa.”
After 2000, D’Angelo became quiet again…and this time it was a lot longer than 3 years. By the time I finished college, a lot of the news I heard about D’Angelo wasn’t good. Even though all my friends and I adored his newfound sex symbol status, it turns out D’Angelo hated it. He felt like people were focusing more on his bangin’ body than his bangin’ music. So, he dropped his strict diet and exercise regimen and gained a ton of weight. Not only that, but the stress of trying to be a sex symbol really got to him, so he turned to drugs. What’s worse is that by 2005, D’Angelo was involved in a serious car accident. Thankfully, he survived. But at the same time, it was looking more and more like we weren’t about to get any more great music from him again.
Fast forward to 2014. By this time, I was in my early 30s, and learning more and more about what real life was really like. It had been nearly 20 years since I first heard of D’Angelo, and 14 years since the last time I heard any new music from him. Then, out of nowhere, it seemed, he was back. He had a new song entitled “Really Love,” which was the first single for his Black Messiah album.
It was like he hadn’t lost a thing. D’Angelo had that same smooth voice and swag, and I fell in love with the song the moment I heard it. This was back in the days when my IPod Touch was my best friend, and I downloaded “Really Love” the minute I heard it, and it stayed on heavy rotation for the remainder of the year. As usual, I’ll be a 100% transparent with y’all…I have yet to listen to the Black Messiah album in its entirety. Maybe one day I will. I heard it was one of D’Angelo’s best projects, if not his very best. I know if “Really Love” is any indication, it has to be true.
Not long after D’Angelo made his big comeback, we lost our dear Prince. Of course, Prince was a big influence on D’Angelo, so he and Maya Rudolph made a very touching tribute to His Royal Badnesss during The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon by singing a cover of “Sometimes It Snows in April.” That’s always been one of my favorite Prince songs, and D’Angelo performed it perfectly. I’ll never forget how he teared up during the performance.
Earlier this year, we lost Ms. Angie Stone, who was the mother to D’Angelo’s oldest child. I remembered wondering how D’Angelo was doing, hearing that a woman that he loved at one point in time was now gone. Little did I realize that poor D’Angelo himself was living on borrowed time. Less than a year after Angie passed on, we lost D’Angelo to pancreatic cancer on Oct. 14, 2025. He was only 51. Now I can’t help but think how his son is doing, losing both his parents in such a short amount of time.
We lost a real one this year. There’ll never be another. Rest in power, D’Angelo.
Michael Eugene Archer aka D’Angelo: February 11, 1974 – October 14, 2025
—Written by Nadiya
Insights from a Southern Girl 