LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Even though he only released three albums in his lifetime, D'Angelo changed the sound of R&B music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNTITLED (HOW DOES IT FEEL)")
D'ANGELO: (Singing) I just want to be your man. How does it feel? Yeah.
FADEL: D'Angelo died Tuesday after fighting pancreatic cancer. Filmmaker and author Faith Pennick wrote a book about D'Angelo's album "Voodoo," where she delved into music, race and masculinity. She joined us to talk about his legacy.
FAITH PENNICK: I feel that he's a musical - or was a musical genius. I think he should be talked about in the same way people talk about Stevie Wonder or Prince or Brian Wilson. He challenged the expectations of what R&B could sound like.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BROWN SUGAR")
D'ANGELO: (Singing) Let me tell you about this girl - maybe I shouldn't. I met her in Philly, and her name was Brown Sugar. See, we be making love constantly. That's why my eyes are a shade blood burgundy.
PENNICK: When Brown Sugar came out in 1995, his first album, people were - they felt like, oh, he's the next Marvin Gaye. He's the next Curtis Mayfield. But it was really "Voodoo," the second album, that really, in my opinion, he turned everything upside down.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SPANISH JOINT")
D'ANGELO: (Singing) Something stirring inside of me's. Gotta be. Oh, yeah. Sole controller in control of me. Sole controller...
PENNICK: He really leaned into different influences like jazz. He came from a gospel background, and I think you can really hear that more in that album. You know, Latin music. I mean, it was really this sort of hodgepodge of things. And I think that "Voodoo" album set the bar.
FADEL: For better or worse, D'Angelo might be best remembered for his shirtless video, for the song "Untitled (How Does It Feel?)" And he really bristled at how much attention that video got. He wasn't comfortable with the sex symbol tag, was he?
PENNICK: No, he was not. He wanted the music to speak for itself. Unfortunately, so many people - and I will put myself in that - were so focused on the video that sometimes when they saw him in concert, they just wanted him, you know, to, quote-unquote, "take it off." And yeah, that did upset him because he considered himself first and foremost, a singer and a songwriter.
FADEL: Is that what contributed to that 14 years that passed before the third album, "Black Messiah"?
PENNICK: It definitely took him out of the public spotlight. Unfortunately, I think it led to other things 'cause he, you know, he did have a reported, you know, a drug problem. He had an alcohol abuse problem. He had a horrible car accident in 2005 that almost killed him. Like a Phoenix rising from the flame, I think he found a way to come out of that, go to rehab, rebuild and, you know, start making music again that ended up being "Black Messiah."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANOTHER LIFE")
D'ANGELO: (Singing) Even though it might be hard to believe...
FADEL: He was very young when he died, and he only got to release three albums. Do you think about the music that you would have had, or will that affect his legacy just having these three albums?
PENNICK: Oh, yes. That's all I've been thinking about. He left us with too little, you know, what if, what could have been, as far as the music he was going to create.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANOTHER LIFE")
D'ANGELO: (Singing) In another life.
FADEL: That's Faith Pennick, author of a book about D'Angelo's "Voodoo" album. D'Angelo died yesterday at the age of 51. Faith, thank you for helping us remember him.
PENNICK: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANOTHER LIFE")
D'ANGELO: (Singing) In another life, I bet you were my girl. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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