D’Angelo released his debut album Brown Sugar on this day in 1995. The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist was heavily inspired by Prince and the level of involvement he had in the creation of his music; he was inspired enough to make it a point to handle almost all of the writing, producing, and instrumentation of the album. His near-obsession with creative control proved to be valuable choice, as Brown Sugar has gone on to be seminal work in the Neo-Soul sub-genre.
This clip finds D'Angelo promoting his debut album on an airing of Later... with Jools Holland with a performance of the title track. He would only release one more full-length studio album (Voodoo in 2000) before taking an indefinite hiatus that ended with the release of his critically-acclaimed 2014 album Black Messiah.
