D’Angelo is one of the top founders of the neo soul movement of the
mid-90s. He manages to bring the organic taste of classic R&B with a
strong blend of hip-hop. He aims to represent the legends like Al
Greene, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Prince and Curtis Mayfield, but
with his own vocal style. He writes and often produces his own
material; with his debut ‘Brown Sugar’ he had help from talent Raphael
Saadiq. This album showed his devotion for quality music, the next
album we would have to wait five-years, but it was worth it, the album
was entitled ‘Voodoo’. Michale D’Angelo Archer was born in February,
11th, 1974, in Richmond, VA. He was son of a Pentecostal minister, and
began teaching himself piano at the age of 18. He one the amateur
talent competition at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre, and managed to pick up
the award three times in a row. He was briefly a member of hip-hop
group I.D.U, which signed a publishing deal with EMI in 1991. His
first important success came in 1994 as a writer/producer for a
Jason’s Lyric movie soundtrack. Here he wrote the single ‘U Will
Know’, which featured the group Black Men United. This helped him gain
exposure before his release of his debut solo album in 1995. He came
at the right time because his followers were names like Erykah Badu,
Lauryn Hill and Maxwell and they all became apart of the movement.
|
