--- title: D'Angelo's New Album, 'Black Messiah,' Is Finally Here description: The long-awaited follow-up to 2000's 'Voodoo' is finally here and coming out at midnight canonical: https://time.com/3633069/dangelo-black-messiah/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-15T05:59:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:50:44.840Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: D'Angelo's First Album in 14 Years is Surprisingly Timely og:description: 'Black Messiah,' the long-awaited 'Voodoo' followup, comes out at midnight. og:url: https://time.com/3633069/dangelo-black-messiah/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec7732d9c37509e/69876ea3f887dcd67be89011/dangelo.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: D'Angelo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: D'Angelo's First Album in 14 Years is Surprisingly Timely twitter:description: 'Black Messiah,' the long-awaited 'Voodoo' followup, comes out at midnight. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec7732d9c37509e/69876ea3f887dcd67be89011/dangelo.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # D'Angelo's First Album in 14 Years Is Finally Here, and It's Surprisingly Timely  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Dec 15, 2014 5:59 AM UTC  D'Angelo performing in 2012 D'Angelo performing in 2012Charles Sykes—Invision/AP  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Dec 15, 2014 5:59 AM UTC “All we wanted was a chance to talk / ’stead we only got outlined in chalk,” D’Angelo sings on his first album in 14 years, which was unveiled at a New York City listening session one day after [an estimated 25,000 people](http://time.com/3632999/millions-march-new-york-police-brutality/) in the same city protested police brutality against unarmed black citizens. That song, “The Charade,” is one of 12 that appear on _Black Messiah_, the R&B icon’s first album since 2000’s _Voodoo,_ which arrived at midnight on Monday. “There are a lot of narratives about D’Angelo’s career,” author Nelson George, the host of the event, said while introducing the album. “The man is speaking to the times we live in.” Rumors about D’Angelo’s third album, which now arrives almost 20 years after his debut, _Brown Sugar_, have been stirring since at least 2005, [with many false promises along the way](http://www.vulture.com/2014/06/all-the-times-we-were-promised-a-dangelo-album.html). The Roots’ drummer Questlove, who deejayed the event (sponsored by Red Bull Music Academy and Afropunk) and worked on three of the album’s songs, called _Black Messiah_ the “_Apocalypse Now_ of black music.” D’Angelo’s manager, Kevin Liles, promised in June that an album was imminent. “There’ll be an album this year,” [he told _Billboard_](http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6121659/dangelo-album-release-2014-touring-october-manager) back then. “There’s 14 records so far, we might have a couple of bonus records, but all the recording is basically done and we’re mixing and mastering now. Definitely, he’ll be back.” A [2012 _GQ_ feature](http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/201206/dangelo-gq-june-2012-interview) chronicled the singer’s struggles with addiction, his stalled career and his slow return to the spotlight. Only one of the new songs, “Back in the Future (Part 1),” appears to address his absence in any significant detail. Its lyrics reference “friends who turn their backs on you / reminiscing over what you’ve been missing” as well as his famous “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” music video, in which the singer appeared naked, filmed from the waist up: “I been wondering if I can ever again / So if you’re wondering about the shape I’m in / I hope it ain’t my abdomen that you’re referring to.” As D’Angelo’s figure started to outshine his music, the song, “sent him spinning out of control,” former EMI executive Gary Harris told _GQ_. Though the first taste of the new album, “[Sugah Daddy](https://soundcloud.com/dangelomusicofficial/sugah-daddy),” premiered this weekend, _Black Messiah_‘s official first single, “Really Love,” will hit radio tomorrow. Meandering and sonically dense — half of the record’s songs run more than five minutes — the album is recognizably D’Angelo even when his voice, rarely alone without layers and harmonies, experiments with different voices and twists itself into an almost cartoonish falsetto. Its rich sound, featuring notable guitar work from D’Angelo, can be attributed to its old-school analog origins — Grammy Award–winning engineer Russell Elevado, who worked on both _Black Messiah_ and _Voodoo_, says the album was recorded on two-inch tape and is digital-free. In a lyric booklet passed out at the event, D’Angelo explains the title of the record: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3633069/dangelo-black-messiah/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3633069/dangelo-black-messiah/"},"headline":"D'Angelo's First Album in 14 Years Is Finally Here, and It's Surprisingly Timely","datePublished":"2014-12-15T05:59:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:50:44.840Z","description":"Black Messiah by D'Angelo and the Vanguard came out at midnight","url":"https://time.com/3633069/dangelo-black-messiah/","keywords":["Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec7732d9c37509e/69876ea3f887dcd67be89011/dangelo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec7732d9c37509e/69876ea3f887dcd67be89011/dangelo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"D'Angelo","caption":"D'Angelo","creditText":"Charles Sykes—Invision/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3633069/dangelo-black-messiah/","name":"D'Angelo's First Album in 14 Years Is Finally Here, and It's Surprisingly Timely"}}]}] ```