Welcome to the final installment of our D’Angelo miniseries. And this is the one that ties everything together.

#1: Voodoo

With the release of his debut album, Brown Sugar, D’Angelo became a star in the music world. But it would take him 5 years to release another album due to writer’s block. It wasn’t until the birth of his first son with his romantic partner at the time, Angie Stone, his travels in his hometown of Richmond and the South where he finally got inspiration for the album.

Along with D’Angelo, Voodoo is also co-produced by Questlove, the drummer for the Hip Hop band The Roots, and who D’Angelo would call his “co-pilot” for the album. Unlike Brown Sugar, Voodoo is more experimental and ambitious. D’Angelo would cite Jimi Hendrix and his personal hero Prince as major influence for this album, with the former being the major reason why D’Angelo and Questlove chose to record the album in Electric Lady Studios in New York.

The recording for this album is legendary that it would deserve its own OT thread. Along with D’Angelo, he and Questlove would invite other famous friends to Electric Lady Studios to not only play a part for the album, but to record their own albums as well. The major albums recorded at the same time and place being Voodoo, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun, Common’s Like Water for Chocolate, and The Roots’ Things Fall Apart. This group of musicians in this sessions were dubbed the “Soulquarians”.

Out of all those albums, Voodoo is the best of all not just for the Soulqarians, but out of all of D’Angelo’s discography. A lot of the elevated the art of music. Especially “Untitled (How Does it Feel)”, a song that starts out as a slow jam, but comes soaring when D’Angelo takes it to the next level as he sings his heart out mixed with the electric guitars helps reach it’s climax.

Like its predecessor, Voodoo became a critical and commercial success, peaking at #1 at the Billboard 200, but not on the same level as Brown Sugar. The music video for “Untitled (How Does it Feel)” was also a success and made D’Angelo a sex symbol…

…something that D’Angelo is uncomfortable with. If you haven’t watched or know about the video, the music video is basically just D’Angelo singing the song behind a black background, entirely naked (but not too explicit). The video was also a hit and it worked well… a little too well. Thanks to success of the music video, D’Angelo’s confidence was shot when he went on tour for the album because he wasn’t sure if people are just there to watch what’s basically a Chippendale show instead of his music when audiences demanded to take off his shirt. The pressure of the video is one of the reasons why D’Angelo took a long hiatus between 2000 and 2014.

(Sidenote: For American Dad fans, the music video was parodied by Steve in the rubbernecking episode)

Despite all that, Voodoo is not just a great album, but a top 25 best album of all time tier great.

Best songs: All of them, personal favorites include “Untitled (How Does it Feel)”, “Devil’s Pie”, “Playa Playa”, “Chicken Grease”.