Why or why not?

2 albums.....NO.

No. Not enough output and not enough prolific output.

D' is/was a cover machine as well. A lot of his stuff was a direct result of others material.

Not a genius. But I love what he does and wish he would do more of it. I enjoy the funky homespun feel of his recordings and he's fantastic in concert. But two albums over 15 years is too damn slow for me.

A musical genius? No - not in the least. However, his 1st album is very solid and IMO - Voodoo is a masterpiece. Probably in my top 10 fav albums.

No

Empress said:

I gave Voodoo a re-spin and have upgraded it. I used to call it Booboo but it's a pretty solid offering after I've listened to it a bit last month. It's still not better than his debut though.

MuthaFunka said:

There is just something about Voodoo that I've loved from the first listen years ago. I do like Brown Sugar a lot, but Voodoo just seems more sophisticated to me. I love the vibe of the entire cd. Glad you gave it another go. We can only hope he releases something at some point that is worthy.

Empress said:

I really dig Voodoo the cd, but live .....it is way better.

Graycap23 said:

I will have to check it out. In fact, I haven't listend to Voodoo in months. I must get it out this weekend.

Empress said:

I pray for that day.

No. Just two albums which were good minus his prince interpretation
on the second album. Dude would have had to have a hell of a lot
more output to be considered. Maxwell has had more output but probably
still not yet to be labeled genius.

phunkdaddy said:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment about Maxwell, but being a musical genius has nothing to do with how prolific an artist is. I like Maxwell and I think he's a very good singer, but he's far from a musical genius IMO.

Genius has nothing to do with quantity of output. As far as R&B music goes, D'Angelo is a genius at it. Voodoo is testament to that.

nd33 said:

No, quantity IS a factor. It's not the ONLY factor but it IS definitely a factor. You can't put out just ONE album and it be the greatest album ever and be considered a genius. At that point, you're just a 1-hit Wonder.

Musical Genius is a mixture of: Quality, Amount of Quality Outpout, Pioneering/Trailblazing/Revolutionizing, and Longevity.

NO and You don't need an explanation for this question because its obvious what he is and isn't.

No. Not with only two albums and a bunch of covers....he really needed to come back a while ago....

MuthaFunka said:

Enuff said.

No, his two albums were over 10 years ago. Unless he comes out full blasting and pumping, it will still take him another 10 years for me to call him a genius, and that is if he's earned that title by then.

Musical genius has nothing to do with being prolific, I agree. I mean, I could be wrong, but isn't Robert Johnson considered a musical genius and isn't his output rather paltry?

No...I like his 2 albums, but I wouldn't personally call them genius

I saw him in concert in Hamburg in 2001 ( or 2000?) and I´ve been following his career from day one. The concert was great and I love almost all of his songs and still believe in him but I wouldn´t really consider him a genius. Sure, he´s very good and talented but that does not equal genius. Being a genius means much more than that.

That being said, he is one of the most underrated musicians right now and people focus too much on his personal tragedies, mock him, make fun of him and the way his body looks these days but, and I´ve said this before, give him a couple of weeks in the gym, some quality time somewhere far away to get some inspiration, and he´ll be back and he´ll be stronger and better than ever before.
Dude is too talented to be written off yet.He just had a very long streak of bad luck.

KoolEaze said:

9 years.....and counting.

Graycap23 said:

Don´t know why he doesn´t even come out with some EP or something. That "Best of" CD is ridiculous when you´ve only released two albums.Sure,others have done the same ( two or three albums and a best of CD) but they are ridiculous, too.

He could easily release a whole album with all the material he´s gathered over the years, and his guest appearances on other people´s songs show that he can still sing. Must be more to this. Alan Leeds talked about this briefly and mentioned contractual problems.

Not really.

Besides being something of a prodigy, a musical genius needs to have developed a distinctive sound of his own. Not necessarily on all tracks they've ever done, but at least on their trademark numbers. D'Angelo is / was a talented musician, but I don't think his material was that discernible from other artists of his kind. Although, perhaps on few cuts he was rather close to achieving such a thing, he was "bordering on true originality" perhaps.

Also, in the sense of classical aesthetics, "genius" implies that the art would at least seem to flow out of the artist as if it was "his second nature". That is to say, the end product comes off as something that would have been created rather effortlessly and its reception brings to mind no qualms about the skills of the artist involved (which is not to say that the actual creative process wouldn't have had demanded laborous work, but it is at least able to sustain the illusion convincingly). I think there's something a bit awkward about D'Angelo's recorded music as far as the grooves, the songwriting and his singing as well are considered. This definition itself would be of course just a curiosity, but to me it would seem to apply at least in some cases.

I think D has his own sound. I can pick out one of his songs in a heartbeat and to me, his sound is very different from his neo soul contemporaries, Maxwell, Bilal and Musiq

scriptgirl said:

Sounds like u think is was a genius.

I think he is heads above a lot of singers these days. Maybe he and Maxwell are comparable, but I am not sure, since I have never really favored Maxwell's music. I think D could become a serious musical force, a legend if he gets his shit straight. Genius, I think compared to what is going on now, yes. Compared to P, no, because I don't think D was a child prodigy, but not all geniuses are child prodigies

scriptgirl said:

I'm confused. Right now? D has not released a cd in 9 or 10 years.
He is effectively retired.