16.12.2024

Black Messiah

By D'Angelo and The Vanguard

Ho. Lee. Shit. I don’t know if I ever imagined I’d be in the position to actually tell someone that the D’Angelo had finally delivered on everyone’s except his own promise to redeem soul music wholly and forever with the follow-up to his turn-of-the-century masterpiece Voodoo. Well, good people of the Okay realm and abroad, it is with exultant joy and humility that I can say the day is here. And it’s every bit as sweet as I always dreamed it would be.What do you think?

It’s not like we weren’t forewarned or anything. If the last 14 years of our lives have proven anything, it’s that every 7-8 months or so someone you know (mostly Questlove) will chime in with the “Oh, I heard that new D from my boy who’s engineering the record. Shit is crazy!” whispers to set the jones in. But it wasn’t just Questo’s chirps and nudges that put the bug in us. Back in 2010, before the initial European tour, before the musical magnificence that was the Brothers In Arms tour, before Russell Elevado criminally teased us with 6-second clips from the studio, even before that spacey P-funked-out cover of Sound Garden’s “Black Hole Sun” mysteriously surfaced, OKP alum DJ Brainchild sat with the man himself and heard the words straight from the source:

“I just want them to know that I’m coming. That’s all. I’m in the kitchen and I’m cooking up something real nice.”