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Michael Eugene Archer, AKA D’Angelo, has passed away today from pancreatic cancer. And as friends and fans pour in with tributes, an unlikely collaborator has also come in to pay their respects.
Rockstar Games shared this statement on their Twitter account:
Rest In Peace D’Angelo, a true titan of soul. We are eternally grateful for his track “Unshaken” which will forever be an enduring part of the legacy of Red Dead Redemption 2.
D’Angelo is credited as one of the progenitors of neo-soul. In the 1990s, this described soul coming from a new generation of musicians, that was blending in influences from funk, hip hop, and jazz fusion.
But D’Angelo’s career also took one that was most unlikely for any musician in any genre.
Brown Sugar And The Start Of Neo-Soul
D’Angelo’s first solo album, 1995’s Brown Sugar, is often credited as the start of neo-soul. Going against the grain of commercially driven R&B, D’Angelo did most of the production of the album himself.
This meant more than writing the lyrics and singing them. D’Angelo performed all the musical instruments, did all the recording and mixing.
This style also contrasted with how most R&B singers were crooning to digital recordings. But overall, D’Angelo’s creative achievement was updating the sound of black musicians from the ‘60s and ‘70s for a new generation of listeners.
The Messy Period Before And After Voodoo
The 2000 album Voodoo is arguably D’Angelo’s most memorable work, but also came at a huge personal cost to the person. It’s best known for the single Untitled (How Does It Feel).
For its MTV music video, D’Angelo is shot shirtless and muscularly cut. The camera is centered on his body as he croons and poses to the delight of a new female audience.
Unfortunately for him, the success of this video would create new anxieties, as he struggled to live up to his new sex symbol status.
D’Angelo would hide from the public eye, and later fall to alcoholism and numerous car accidents and misdemeanors.
He would struggle to get his life together in the succeeding years, but something surprising happened next.
Black Messiah And Working With Rockstar
After over a decade, D’Angelo managed to come out with a third solo album, Black Messiah, in 2014. Even more surprising, it emerged to be politically relevant in the face of the Ferguson and Eric Garner cases earlier in the year.
And perhaps even more unexpected was that he had stealth launched his entry in video games as performer for the Red Dead Redemption 2 song Unshaken.
There’s no doubt his fans, friends, and even the video game industry, had hoped to see more work from him, and even work with him. But his recent passing does not take away from his impact on music, on video games, and the world at large.
