d'angelo

when i was yooung young, maybe 8 or 9, i found these two d'angelo cds in my dads car that he got way back from my ma for an anniversary or whatever. brown sugar and voodoo. they were ill, still had the writing inside of it and everything. the moment i took the disc outta brown sugar and put it into the car cd player my dad had the biggest damn smile on his face... yo the amount of scratches on them discs from how much we played them as he drove me round and picked me up, all the way from when i was in primary to highschool.....

and then, few days ago, we were on our favorite radio station cheesing cus we both hear d'angelo. dj just had nice picks right? and then the dude says "rest in peace" and my heart fell out my ass. whole day at school had me bummed out. 

all that aside. its a track off voodoo that i'd always skip to when i was little, number 9, spanish joint. id listen to his vocals on that and try to dissect why it reminded me so much of stevie, and it was only when i started producing that i noticed it wasn't only his technique but the flanger. d'angelo had an amazing ear for tone. what i always loved though, was how it would transition straight into his rendition of feel like makin love. the contrast it holds compared to the roberta flack version was just cerebral to my ears. it feels like youre holding hands with the keys, kick kick snare just makes your head move on its own, trumpet comes in so smoove u dont even notice it came in and then the rhythm just drags you into the sound. 

we are so damn lucky to have been on the same planet as this man huh. your favorite musician's favorite musician. safe travels d'angelo.

send thru any of his tracks you been revisiting, id like to hear