Beloved R&B singer D’Angelo has died at the age of 51 after battling prostate cancer, according to multiple reports. The musician, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, had backed out of a June performance at the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia “due to a longer-than-expected surgical recovery” without revealing specifics.
“Such a sad loss to the passing of D’Angelo,” DJ Premier wrote on X. “We [had] so many great times. Gonna miss you so much. Sleep peacefully.”
The son of a Pentecostal preacher, D’Angelo struggled to reconcile his sexed-up musical persona with deeply embedded religious convictions. His 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, was an ode to weed and women, whose organic, throwback grooves owed more to the progressive mindset of late-’80s/early ’90s Native Tongues hip-hop than to the slick, digitized R&B of the day made by Boyz II Men and Keith Sweat.
Led by the provocative, nearly nude video for “Untitled,” 2000’s Voodoo was a very different story. It evolved from more than three years’ worth of sessions, mainly at New York’s Electric Lady Studios, and featured an impressive roster of soul, funk, and jazz players such as Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who became D’Angelo’s musical copilot, keyboardist James Poyser, guitarist Charlie Hunter and trumpeter Roy Hargrove.
“What was cool about it,” Thompson told SPIN in 2008, “was D had the A room [of the studio] on lockdown, and Common had the B room. Then Common brought [producer] Jay Dee inside, and next thing you know, both camps are working in each other’s studio.” Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli and Mos Def visited frequently, creating a ground zero for what Thompson called “a left-of-center” black music renaissance.”
The Roots Picnic set was to have been only D’Angelo’s second full concert since 2016. “Due to an unforeseen medical delay regarding surgery I had earlier this year, I’ve been advised by my team of specialist[s] that the performance this weekend could further complicate matters,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “It is nearly impossible to express how disappointed I am not to be able to play with my brothers the Roots. And even more disappointed not to see all of you.”
“I’m so thankful to my beautiful fans for continuing to rock with me and I thank you for your continued support,” he added. “I’m currently in the lab and I can’t wait to serve up what’s in the pot.”
Thompson was instrumental in coaxing D’Angelo to release the 2014 album Black Messiah after a nearly 15-year hiatus. The path to that project, and the aftermath of the success of Voodoo, were chronicled in the 2019 documentary Devil’s Pie: D’Angelo, directed by Dutch filmmaker Carine Bijlsma. It also addressed the artist’s struggles with substance abuse, the loss of family members, fame and his recovery from a major car accident.
“Black Messiah is both ancient and fresh — a surging mass of old blues and new soul built from classic thought and rebel spirit, unending angst and beautiful struggle, sunshine and moonlight and cynicism and sex and fighting and loving and losing and praying and cussing and hating and hoping,” SPIN wrote in its contemporary review of the album.
D’Angelo’s only on-stage appearances since concluding promo work behind Black Messiah were at a 2021 Verzuz show at New York’s Apollo Theater and at that year’s Tribeca Film Festival, plus an April 2022 cameo with Questlove and Raphael Saadiq while covering Sly & the Family Stone’s “Babies Makin’ Babies” during the Netflix Is a Joke festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Saadiq previously told Rolling Stone that D’Angelo was actively working on new music, but nothing has come to light beyond “I Want You Forever,” his Jay-Z-assisted contribution to last year’s The Book of Clarence soundtrack.
D’Angelo is survived by three children. The mother of his first son, fellow R&B singer Angie Stone, died in a car accident in March.
