About

- A TAV Essential Listening Album -

Five years after D’Angelo revitalised traditional R&B with his debut Brown Sugar, the American singer followed up with a game-changing, Grammy-winning sophomore effort that would come to define neo-soul. Originally released in 2000 on Virgin Records, Voodoo’s sensual and powerful music links the traditions of funk, soul and hip-hop into a sorcerous swirl.

Featuring collaborations from his Soulquarians collective (drummer Questlove, keyboardist James Poyser, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and producer J Dilla) alongside DJ Premier, Raphael Saadiq, Method Man and Redman (among others) - D’Angelo led an ensemble of Black magicians to conjure an album of immense emotion and beauty.

While critics proclaiming D’Angelo to be the new millennium’s incarnation of James Brown, Al Green, Jimi Hendrix or Prince may have seemed hyperbolic at first, Voodoo’s lasting legacy proves those comparisons to be true.  - The Analog Vault

When Voodoo finally arrived in 2000, it came as a stealth throwback at a moment when R&B and soul felt caught up in something new. But while many today think of it as a masterpiece, it seems we still haven't figured out how to make sense of Voodoo: what box to place it in, how to pay it the respect it deserves, all the nuance and depth of a young black artist making a previous generation's black music.

Voodoo is so many things. It is jazz, soul and funk all at once. You can hear hip-hop's footprint in some of the songs, but it never dominates. While the influence of Prince and Funkadelic and Marvin Gaye is there on every track, it draws just as much inspiration from Hendrix and The Beatles. And for the artist, it was such an important statement that he waited nearly 15 years to follow it up. If it took time to see that Voodoo didn't live in the same music world as its peers in 2000, by now it has stopped feeling vintage — and started feeling timeless. - NPR

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Label:  Virgin
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
Country:US
Reissued: 2015 / Original: 2000
Genre: Funk/Soul, Hip Hop
Style: Soul, Funk, Neo Soul, Male Vocals

File under: Hip-hop 2000 & beyond
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