R.I.P D'Angelo 1974 - 2025

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Sometimes life’s breath catches in time’s throat. Those fortunate enough to float inside one of these moments, with the air still and humming, don’t soon forget it. Religious folks have words for such spasmodic departures from the everyday, like beatitude, nirvana, ecstasy. Bliss.

Using the same descriptions for carnal matters tends to irritate the pious, but it isn’t improper in the least. They encapsulate human states that are simultaneously natural and unbelievable, pressing fingers against the skin of some cosmic chamber we trust to exist but can’t fully access in this life.

So we chase them, each in our way. One way of considering the musical legacy of D’Angelo, who died Tuesday, Oct. 14, of pancreatic cancer, is that he surrendered to the pursuit of that electric state, channeling what he found and emerging when he saw fit to share the immensity it inspired.

“I just want to take you with me, to secret rooms in the mansions of my mind,” he sang on the rapturous single “Another Life.” “Shower you with all that you need . . . take my hand, I swear I’ll take my time…”

To the millions enraptured with his music and hypnotic voice, the multiple Grammy winner’s infrequent appearances added to his legend. His first full-length release, “Brown Sugar,” dropped in 1995. Five years would pass before its follow-up, “Voodoo,” catapulted him to a level of fame that made him retreat from the public until 2014, when he returned with the more politically infused funk-fest of “Black Messiah.” Read More

McFarland, M. (2025, October 19). D’Angelo took us to bed...and to church. Salon.com. https://www.salon.com/2025/10/19/dangelo-took-us-to-bed-and-to-church/

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