S. Samuel
R&B singer D'Angelo has returned from a 10 year hiatus and confirmed that a new album is in the works.
Sharing his thoughts on the music industry, D’Angelo said there is a strong underground movement of artists.
“I think [originality] is out there, but there’s a lot of folks, people in power, record executives or what have you, that are less willing to take chances on s**t that might be different,” he explained in an interview. “But I think there’s an underground bubbling up under. A lot of Black folks are trying to do different s**t or they wanna do different s**t. I don’t know the condition of what’s going on in the business right now, but they’re having a hard time cracking through…I’m really just focusing on getting this album together…I just want them to know that I’m coming. That’s all. I’m in the kitchen and I’m cooking up something real nice.” (The Urban Daily)
Earlier this month, celebrity personal trainer Mark Jenkins informed SOHH of D’Angelo’s interest to return to music-making and getting in shape.
“I’m rocking with Mary [J. Blige] this summer and I’m starting with D’Angelo next week,” Jenkins revealed to SOHH. “So I’m looking for a big transformation with D’Angelo. We’re back. His music is good and he’s gonna be coming back pretty strong in the next three or four months. The music is tight. That transformation was really one of the big ones that put me on the map so we’re looking to get him in better condition than the ‘Untitled’ video. That’s the target we’re shooting for.” (SOHH)
D’Angelo’s past fight with alcohol and weight gain became publicaround the mid-2000’s.
On a Sunday in April 2006, Gary Harris pulled up to D’Angelo’s large starter mansion outside Richmond, Virginia, in a limo. Harris, the A&R man who’d first signed D’Angelo in the early ’90s and who had overseen his 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, was on a mission: to escort the singer to Eric Clapton‘s Crossroads Treatment Centre in Antigua. As he walked into the spacious kitchen, Harris knew this wouldn’t be easy. Spread across the kitchen table, marble countertops, shelves — nearly every available flat surface — were empty alcohol bottles of all conceivable varieties. “There was scotch, vodka, beer,” Harris recalls. “While I was waiting for him, he emptied the contents out of the corners of three or four bottles to get a shot.” D’Angelo himself was unshaven, about 40 pounds overweight, and hadn’t packed. “He was trying to act like he didn’t know I was coming that day,” Harris says. (SPIN)
In January 2009, reports suggested D’Angelo was working on a new album.
D’Angelo is expected to collaborate with Prince on his long-awaited first new album since 2000, reportedly titled James River and due this summer from J Records. In a statement, his manager, Lindsay Guion, says D’Angelo will also team with Gnarls Barkley‘s Cee-Lo Green. Collaborations with Raphael Saadiq, Mark Ronson and Roy Hargrove are already in the bag. (Billboard)
Check out D’Angelo’s famous “Untitled” music video down below:
