D'Angelo Heading To J? (Billboard article)


R&B vocalist D'Angelo is said to be on the move. According to sources close to the artist, J Records has acquired his contract from Virgin, which issued his two studio albums. A J spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

D'Angelo has largely dropped off the map since his 2000 sophomore album, "Voodoo," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.7 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That set spawned the single "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," which hit No. 2 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart and No. 25 on the Hot 100.

The artist's 1996 debut, "Brown Sugar," has also sold 1.7 million copies. Most recently, he appeared on a remix of the Common single "Go."

In April, D'Angelo, whose real name is Michael Archer, pled guilty to charges of marijuana possession and driving under the influence of alcohol in a Virginia District Court, and received a combined 100-day suspended jail sentence. The charges stemmed from a January incident in which the singer was pulled over in a Richmond suburb.

Nick715 said:

Great stuff - surely that means realising of new material will be sooner rather than later. Looking forward to hearing the 'Go' remix too.

Now my boy Maxwell has to come out of hiding!

Nick715 said:

true that.

dreamfactory313 said:

Oooh! Thanks.

Nick715 said:

Ok, this is music to our ears. Finally, we can get album from him.

Hell, since we're calling out Neo Soulsters to come out with some new shit, let's do a roll call on that ass!:

Bilal!
Maxwell!
Badu!
Cherokee!
Donell Jones!
Lauryn Hill!
Donnie!
Heather Headley!
Davina!
Javier!
Goapele!
Ledisi!
Chico DeBarge!


DROP SOME SHIT!

TheCrucialExperience said:

Okay Q

yeah, so we can hear questlove or whoever his "spokesperson" is tell us how deep and amazing it is, and we need to hear specific albums in the past to understand his view..


Yeah F'in right...


Pot smokin fool needs to get off the high horse and put something worth buyin out..


...
[Edited 7/25/05 21:38pm]

Nick715 said:

If he does, I hope he produces something to the heights of Embryo.. which is his masterpiece in my opinion.. once he gets his foot in that cheesy r&b'ish sound.. its over..


he came close with fortunate... too common sounding for my taste..

his more abstract funk work was something worth hearing

TheCrucialExperience said:

Donell Jones?

Sdldawn said:

Embrya is easily Maxwell's masterpiece but it was too esoteric and atmospheric for the masses so record company politics forced him to tone down his aspirations while compromising his vision. Now was a little too watered down and slick for my tastes. I really wish Max would go back to mindset he had when Embrya was recorded because he had so many ideas flowing and so much new territory to cover. Embrya was more than the overused fender rhodes piano and ballad heavy albums that have plauged the neo-soul genre. It's still undeniably fresh 7 years later and it showed that Maxwell was going to challenge his listeners. Too bad a large portion of his fanbase is afraid of a direction change. Maxwell could have blown us away!
[Edited 7/26/05 15:19pm]

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

aww see I didnt know that.. so basically there is no hope for an album with the same spirit as that..

maybe he'll say fuck it and do what he wants

Soulchild82 said:

Yeah, Donell was like Neo-Pimp-Soul

I hope D'Angelo does an experimental album though. That would be so cool and unique!

TheCrucialExperience said:

Do you hear that Remy Shand?

silverchild said:

from the last "update"

word round the campfire was that every song he recorded reached to about 9 or 10 minutes long.. said editing and lyrics were gonna be added shortly after, but not too much editing..


so who knows

silverchild said:

He can't afford to. VooDoo was considered to be such a disappointment consumer wise that he'd have to come out commercially to bring back his status.

PrettyMan72 said:

Remy has some new stuff? I wasn't feelin' him because his falsetto sounded so strained and fake.

TheCrucialExperience said:

more like Neo-Junk-Soul...


oops...my bad...different...oh hell no..donell?

sosgemini said:

not like d angelo is that good anyway.

dreamfactory313 said:

sosgemini said:

Donell has some cool shit. His 2nd CD was off the charts.

TheCrucialExperience said:

But hes music is still not in the vein of bilal, d'angelo, saadiq ect, he makes good r&b no doubt but not really a neo soul cat.

Soulchild82 said:

Yeah, that's why I said he's more of a Neo-Pimp-Soul.

TheCrucialExperience said:

Uhhh...Voodoo sold close to 1.7 million copies and had a single in "Untitled" that was virtually inescapable on radio and TV...Not to mention dude had a successful tour...Of course this was before he went crazy on the coke and started looking like ODB (R.I.P.)..Still, I wish I had that type of failure as an artist....

Nick715 said:

Isaiah runs to WinMX...

Then says to himself, yeah #2 on R&B Chart

That song is fire!!!

silverchild said:

VooDoo was too out there 4 me,and much much too mellow..mellow in a sense of not appealing to my ear either.

I dug a coupel trax "Feel Like Makin Love" Chicken Grease" and the one with Method or Redman and of course Untitled, but Im ready for D'Angelo to gimme sum whinin sumthin beautiful...not out there. Only Prince has that status to do that

I really think Voodoo showed his maturity and how he progressed over 7 years after the acclaim he got with Brown Sugar. I will admit it was a little too out there and a little too soft from the rawness he brought on the Brown Sugar album , but it is one of the most brilliant neo-soul albums ever released.
[Edited 7/27/05 0:16am]

Crazy on the coke? It's a appetite supressant so it wouldn't make D'Angelo look like a fat ODB