Description

Though inspired by the birth of his children and trips back to Virginia, Voodoos roots are in 1960s, 70s and 80s funk and soul; a nostalgic nod to the ideas and inventions of black music trailblazers powered by avant-garde hip-hop and jazz-influenced rhythms. DAngleos aim, he said, was to reclaim R&B. He wanted to be like Sly Stone, George Clinton and Al Green. And most of all, he wanted to be like Jimi Hendrix. Where does a potently focused young man go to remake Electric Ladyland? New Yorks Electric Lady studios, of course: in the same rooms in which Hendrix and Stevie Wonder reinvented music decades earlier, and on the same equipment too. In an era in which soul musicians were obsessing over all things synthetic, DAngelo was looking to the warm sounds of the past. Electric Ladys Studio C became DAngelos brand new creative laboratory.

The concept behind Voodoo was simple. Put together a brilliant ensemble of R&B musicians bent on grooving together. Record them live, in real-time, jamming face-to-face in an effort to capture their conviviality and chemistry. For Voodoos core rhythm trio, DAngelo recruited his friend and colleague, The Roots visionary drummer Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson, plus Welsh journeyman Pino Palladino to hold down the bass. It was a combination that gelled immediately.

Voodoo was like crack for puriststhis was Real Music, serious as a heart attack, deeply reverent and worshipful of the past. DAngelo once said about the content of Voodoo: This album is a personal testimony about my life and my emotions. My life kinda changed overnight when Brown Sugar came out. It took me a while just to get used to that the attention, the money, and everything that comes along with that At times I felt like I wanted to run away from it. I still reject a lot of shit. A lot of people say, Well youre a superstar now. If I start to look at it like that, then somethings wrong. I have to continue to remind myself why Im doing this and the things that inspired or motivated me way back before Brown Sugar ever happened and before I ever got into this business just my love for the music and wanting to reach the people.

What happened next only added to DAngelos myth. Having hit mega-stardom with the single Untitled and its intensely sexual video, a follow-up was slow to come. So slow, in fact, it still hasnt arrived. Though hes since made guest appearances and even toured in 2012, his silence both musically and in his refusal to talk to the press has only helped the cult of Voodoo grow. Even if he never releases another album, hes already given us so much.