Soundcheck: D’Angelo To Make Triumphant Return?

posted in: Features • Urban

A brutal battle with fame, addiction, and an almost fatal car crash fueled an eleven-year, self-inflicted isolation. Now, D’Angelo is preparing to release his first album in over a decade.

His debut album, Brown Sugar launched him into super-stardom in 1995 and helped the neo-soul movement gain real traction on the mainstream. His single Lady peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was a major commercial success. He appeared on Lauryn Hill‘s track Nothing Even Matters, from her groundbreaking album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and recorded his hit single Devil’s Pie for the film Belly in 1998. To top it off, he fathered a child with fellow neo-soul star Angie Stone.

D’Angelo’s sophomore album Voodoo debuted at #1 in 2000 and won two Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.  It was ranked #488 on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. The album’s second single, Untitled (How Does It Feel), was nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards and is ranked #44 on VH-1’s list of 100 Greatest Videos Of All Time.

He seemed to be on top of the world when he suddenly vanished from the public eye. Rumors of drug addiction swirled and D’Angelo all but disappeared, abandoning his place among music’s elite. In a recent interview with GQ, Michael D’Angelo’ Archer finally let the world in on the dark hole he’s been hiding in for the last twelve years.

“There’s forces that are going on that I don’t think a lot of motherfuckers that make music today are aware of,” he says. “It’s deep. I’ve felt it. I’ve felt other forces pulling at me. This is a very powerful medium that we are involved in,” he said.

It seems D’Angelo was haunted by the demons of fame. He hit his professional bottom at the height of his success, when his naked body in the Untitled video overshadowed his musical prowess. The R&B crooner was nobody’s sex object, and he sought refuge in drugs, alcohol, and isolation.

“I went in under a fake name so people wouldn’t know who I was, right?” he said of his failed rehab stints. “So, you know, Michael never got treatment. It was this other character that was in there. And the moment I left, I went straight to the fucking liquor store.”

In September of 2005 he crashed his Hummer in Richmond, Virginia, breaking all of the ribs on his left side while high on cocaine. It seemed he was at an all-time low.

“I didn’t really think I had a problem like that,” he said. “I felt like, you know, all I got to do is clean up and I’ll be fine. Just get in the studio and I’ll be fucking fine.”

Lately, he has been in the studio and he has been doing fine. His first two shows in Amsterdam in 2012 sold out in less than 24 hours. In January, he embarked on his 2012 Tour, performing 11 shows throughout Europe earlier this year. His set debuted four new songs including Sugah Daddy, The Charade, Ain’t That Easy, and In Another Life. He is scheduled to make his US comeback later this summer when he performs at the annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.