Episode one traces D'Angelo's journey from Pentecostal church pianist at age three to neo-soul pioneer at twenty-one. Born Michael Eugene Archer in South Richmond, Virginia, to a minister father, D'Angelo absorbed gospel music's emotional vocabulary while secretly studying Prince, Marvin Gaye, and Parliament-Funkadelic. At sixteen, he won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theatre, validating his decision to pursue secular music despite family expectations. Moving to New York at eighteen, he struggled through years of couch-surfing and demo-hustling before co-writing and producing "U Will Know" for Black Men United in 1994, establishing his credibility as a songwriter. The episode climaxes with the July 1995 release of Brown Sugar—an album that blended jazz, soul, hip-hop, and vintage Fender Rhodes piano into something entirely new, going platinum and spawning the hit "Lady." The final act explores the formation of The Soulquarians collective at Electric Lady Studios, where D'Angelo, Questlove, Erykah Badu, Common, and others created a movement, while setting up the five-year journey toward his masterpiece, Voodoo.

Click here to browse handpicked Amazon finds inspired by this p https://amzn.to/4iH8F6yodcast series!

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI