D'Angelo

An instrumental figure in the 90s movement known as neo-soul, enigmatic singer-songwriter and producer D'Angelo gradually attained legendary status with a sporadic yet visionary body of work which combined the classic with the contemporary to super-sensual effect. A highly gifted musician from a young age, D'Angelo first achieved success as a co-writer of Black Men United's 1994 single before entering the spotlight a year later with debut Brown Sugar, a masterful blend of R&B, soul, gospel, hip-hop and funk which enamored both critics and audiences looking for an alternative to the producer-driven urban music dominant at the time. Alongside the likes of Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and the future mother of his child, Angie Stone, D'Angelo continued to pioneer the sub-genre on 2000's looser long-awaited sophomore, Voodoo, and became an MTV favorite thanks to a striking video for its third single, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," in which he posed almost entirely naked. A publicized string of personal problems kept D'Angelo out of action for most of the following decade, but 2014 comeback Black Messiah, a highly experimental and socially-conscious affair which drew comparisons with Sly & The Family Stone, proved he'd lost none of his natural charisma and creative spark.