"Brown Sugar" – D'Angelo
3/16/20261 hr 36 min
D'Angelo's Brown Sugar sounded like nothing else in 1995. R&B was slick, polished, and built for clubs. D'Angelo later said the "deeper consciousness" had gone out of contemporary music. Questlove later wrote that contemporary R&B had become "trite" and "soulless" ... and then there was Brown Sugar, D'Angelo's debut album. It sounded more like the '70s than the '90s. More like church than the club.
On this episode of You'll Hear It, jazz pianists Adam Maness and Peter Martin go track by track through D'Angelo's debut, pulling apart the vocal stems, naming the jazz chords u...
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First 90 secondsPeter Martin· Host0:00
[gentle music] 1995, R&B is all drum machines and digital production. Slick, polished, safe. Hip-hop and soul are living in two different houses. All of a sudden, a 21-year-old from Richmond, Virginia, walks into a New York studio with a Fender Rhodes, a Hammond organ, and a head full of Marvin, Prince, and Tribe. He plays almost everything himself, writes it, produces it, arranges it. Nobody asked for this record, but it would build a bridge between those two worlds. His manager anointed it the birth of neo-soul, but D'Angelo never claimed that term. He just said, "I make Black music." This is Brown Sugar, and he's got someone he wants you to meet.
D'Angelo· Soundbite0:35
[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. The way that we kiss is unlike any other way that I be kissing. When I'm kissing what I'm missing, won't you listen? Brown sugar babe. I get high off your love, I don't know how to behave.
Adam Maness· Host1:00
I'm Adam Maness.
Peter Martin· Host1:01
And I'm Peter Martin.
Adam Maness· Host1:02
And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast.
Peter Martin· Host1:04
Music, explored.
Adam Maness· Host1:05
Explored, brought to you by Open Studio. Go to openstudiojazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs. Peter, big day.
Peter Martin· Host1:12
Big day. This is gonna be fun.
Adam Maness· Host1:13
Yeah, it is.
Peter Martin· Host1:14
We're going back in time. In fact, we're going so far back in time that I got a little confused what decade it was. I did say 1995, right?
Adam Maness· Host1:21
You did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Peter Martin· Host1:21
Right.
Adam Maness· Host1:22
Yeah, yeah. Well- But then I realized, I mean, this, this is 1995 right here.
Peter Martin· Host1:25
This is screaming the middle of the '90s.
Adam Maness· Host1:27
[laughs] You know how many, you know how many Toyota Celicas I got in the passenger