Voodoo (D'Angelo album)

Voodoo
Studio album by D'Angelo
Released	January 25, 2000
Recorded	1998–1999 Electric Lady Studios (New York, New York)
Genre	Neo soul, funk, soul, fusion
Length	79:00
Label	Cheeba Sound/Virgin 7243 848499 2 4
Producer	D'Angelo (also exec.), DJ Premier, Russell Elevado, J Dilla, Questlove, Raphael Saadiq, Dominique Trenier (exec.)
D'Angelo chronology
Brown Sugar (1995) Voodoo (2000) James River (TBA)
Singles from Voodoo
"Devil's Pie" Released: October 31, 1998 "Left & Right" Released: October 19, 1999 "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" Released: January 1, 2000 "Send It On" Released: March 25, 2000 "Feel Like Makin' Love" Released: April 8, 2000

Voodoo is the second studio album by American recording artist D'Angelo, released January 25, 2000, on Virgin Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 1998 to 1999 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, featuring an extensive line-up of musicians associated with the Soulquarians musical collective. Produced primarily by D'Angelo, Voodoo contains an experimental, groove-based funk sound and serves as a departure from the more conventional structure of his debut album, Brown Sugar (1995). The album features lyrical themes regarding spirituality, love, sexuality, growth, and fatherhood.

Amid heavy promotion and an anticipated release, the album was met with a considerable amount of commercial and critical success. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 320,000 copies in its first week, with help from its hit single "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" and its controversial music video. Upon its release, Voodoo received general acclaim from music critics and earned D'Angelo several accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. It has sold over 1.7 million copies in the US and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The album is D'Angelo's last studio album prior to a sabbatical period of legal controversies and absence from the music scene, following the end of the album's international supporting tour in late 2000. While successful early on, the tour eventually became marked by concert cancellations and D'Angelo's personal frustrations. Despite not duplicating his debut album's commercial success, Voodoo has been regarded by music writers as D'Angelo's masterpiece and a creative milestone of the neo soul genre. In 2003, the album was ranked number 488 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Background

Following the success of his debut album Brown Sugar (1995), D'Angelo went into a four and a half year absence from the music scene and releasing solo work. His debut album presented a musical fusion of classicist soul and R&B with elements of hip hop, vocally and production-wise, serving as fundamental elements for the neo soul sound. With its single-oriented success, Brown Sugar earned considerable sales success and defied the contemporary, producer-driven sound of the time, while earning popularity among mature R&B audiences and the growing hip hop generation. Prior to its release, neo soul itself was undefined by a major artist or musical work, and was developing during the early 1990s through the work of artists such as Tony! Toni! Toné!, Me'Shell NdegéOcello, and Omar. The album also earned D'Angelo recognition for producing a commercial breakthrough for the genre and giving notice to other neo soul artists, including Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell. However, after spending two years on tour promoting Brown Sugar, D'Angelo found himself stuck with writer's block. On the setback, D'Angelo later stated "The thing about writer's block is that you want to write so f---king bad, [but] the songs don't come out that way. They come from life. So you've got to live to write." During his sabbatical period, he generally released cover versions and remakes, including a cover-collaboration with Erykah Badu of the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet song "Your Precious Love" for the soundtrack to High School High (1996). D'Angelo also covered Prince's "She's Always in My Hair" for the Scream 2 soundtrack (1997), as well as the Ohio Players' "Heaven Must Be Like This" for the Down in the Delta soundtrack (1998). He also appeared on a duet, "Nothing Even Matters", with Lauryn Hill for her debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998).

Despite facing issues with composing material, D'Angelo had admitted to being mostly active in three recreations at the time: lifting weights, smoking weed, and making music. Following the birth of his first child Michael with fellow R&B singer and then-girlfriend Angie Stone in 1998, D'Angelo found artistic inspiration and an end to his creative block. During this time, D'Angelo also traveled back to the South, spending time in South Carolina and in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, while reconnecting himself with the African-American musical history that had originally inspired him. Shortly after his son's birth and the release of his first live album Live at the Jazz Cafe (1998) through EMI Records, he began preparation for the recording of songs for Voodoo. In several interviews after its release, he cited his son's birth as an inspirational source and creative muse for him. A dedication to his son Michael and daughter Imani was included in the album's liner notes, which were co-written by D'Angelo and writer/musician Saul Williams. In a press video accompanying the release of Voodoo, D'Angelo suggested that he was attempting to create a new sound for him that was in transition.

In a February 1999 interview with music journalist Touré, D'Angelo discussed the album and elaborated on the events that had preceded its release, explaining how he had no initial plan for a follow-up. He also discussed his attempt to focus on his original inspiration to produce music, stating "The sound and feel of my music are going to be affected by what motivates me to do it". On his visit to South Carolina, D'Angelo stated that he "went through this runnel, through gospel, blues, and a lot of old soul, old James Brown, early, early Sly and the Family Stone, and a lot of Jimi Hendrix", and "I learned a lot about music, myself, and where I want to go musically". In the same interview, he cited the deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. as having a great effect on him during the period. In another interview with Touré, D'Angelo said that he had lost his enthusiasm after Brown Sugar's reception and "was gettin' jaded, lookin' at what go on in the business". On his purpose for returning, D'Angelo stated "I had to reiterate why I was doin' that in the first place, and the reason was the love for the music".

Conception

In the liner notes for Voodoo, music writer Saul Williams examined the album's concept and expressed his dissatisfaction with the mainstream direction of contemporary R&B/soul and hip hop, noting a lack of artistic integrity in the two music genres. D'Angelo expressed his discontent with the former genre in an interview for Ebony magazine. On contemporary R&B's state, he stated "The term R&B doesn't mean what it used to mean. R&B is pop, that's the new word for R&B." In a January 2000 interview with music journalist Errol Nazareth of Jam!, D'Angelo said that "(Contemporary R&B)'s a joke, and the funny thing about it is that the people making this shit are dead serious about the stuff they're making. It's sad—they've turned black music into a club thing." In Voodoo's liner notes, Saul Williams also addressed the stylistic change of D'Angelo's vocal technique on Voodoo, which resemble more closely to those of soul and pop musician Prince than his previous recorded work had exhibited. Williams wrote "'He just sounds like he's trying to be Prince or some shit'. And I'd say, maybe you're right ... We often study breathing techniques of our inspirations (inspire means to breathe in or to make breathe, inhale). And that's also true for most of you emcees. I mean, don't 3/4 of y'all niggas sound like Nas?" Williams also wrote that D'Angelo has allowed his influences to be set in their place among his "intuituve artistry", and that he works to find his own voice within his diverse influences. In an interview with Ebony's Kimberly Davis, D'Angelo discussed his role as a musician and his influences, stating "I consider myself very respectful of the masters who came before. In some ways, I feel a responsibility to continue and take the cue from what they were doing musically and vibe on it. That's what I want to do. But I want to do it for this time and this generation". In the album's EPK, D'Angelo said that Voodoo is "like a funk album. The natural progression of soul, the next step to soul is funk".

Producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson issued an essay regarding the album's creation and his analysis of the material. He described the project as a "vicarious fantasy" and a "new direction of soul for 2000", and further discussed the matter, writing that "[I]f I was a singer this would be the record I'd make. Hands down. But that doesn't mean this is for everybody. Music lovers come under 2 umbrellas. Number one: those who use it for growth and spiritual fulfillment and number two: those who use it for mere background music. The thing is, this record is too extreme to play the middle of the fence". He also described Voodoo as "the litmus test that will reveal the most for your personality", and wrote of its concept and inspiration, stating "It was a love for the dead state of black music, a love to show our idols how much they taught us ... I hope you enjoy it. Just have an open mind to new shit. Just give us that." On his expectations of a reaction to the its concept, Questlove expressed a similar sentiment in an interview for Entertainment Weekly, stating that "People may want D to play into their R&B love-god fantasies—wearing Armani suits, singing something sweet in your ear—but he made a conscious effort to shake people up, to take a chance. It's not a middle-ground record—you're either going to love it or hate it."

In an interview for USA Today, D'Angelo said of the album's title and its meaning, "the myriad influences found on it can be traced through the blues and back deeper in history through songs sung–in religious [voodoo] ceremonies." In an interview for Jet magazine, he stated that his intentions for recording the album were to express the power of music and artistic respect for it. The theme is illustrated in Voodoo's liner photography by Thierry LesGoudes, which depicts D'Angelo participating in a voodoo ceremony. Voodoo's press release discussed D'Angelo's concept, stating "Lyrically, D'Angelo offers that much of Voodoo is personal reflection: touching on subjects like spirituality, sexuality, growth, and in particular, becoming a father. Musically, as he puts it, Voodoo is 'definitely groove-based'". D'Angelo also said that "My inspiration was just to go farther. To get to that next level. To push it even further. To work against the floss and the grain and to get even deeper into the sound that I'm hearing ... and the thing is, I'm just looking at Voodoo as just the beginning. I'm still developing and growing and still listening to that sound I hear inside my head ... So this is the first step".

Recording

Electric Lady sessions

D'Angelo in studio with The Roots, one of several recording artists to visit the sessions.

Beginning in 1996, Voodoo evolved from nearly four years worth of sessions, and featured an extensive roster of R&B, hip hop, and jazz musicians and recording technicians. Notable from the personnel was drummer and producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of the hip hop group The Roots. During the four years of sessions, D'Angelo and his crew studied bootleg videotapes of classic R&B artists such as Marvin Gaye, James Brown, and Jimi Hendrix, along with reruns of Soul Train, at Electric Lady Studios, the Manhattan-based recording studio built by Jimi Hendrix. On several occasions, D'Angelo listened to Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On (1971), which is known for its influential production. According to a 2000 interview with D'Angelo for Rolling Stone, the crew recorded numerous hours of unreleased, original material, as well as covers of their influencers' material. Collectively referred to by D'Angelo as "yoda", these influencers included artists such as Al Green, George Clinton, and Fela Kuti. On the recording approach, journalist Touré of Rolling Stone wrote that "the crew would watch the treat of the day and eat. Then they'd turn on the recorder and begin playing an album or an entire catalog ... They'd jam and wait to see what the groove inspired. One night they played Prince's Parade until they flowed into a new groove that became 'Africa'". On the sessions' environment, Touré wrote "What started as the follow-up to D'Angelo's 1995 platinum debut, Brown Sugar, became five years of study at Soul University, complete with classes, pranks, gossip and equal amounts of discipline and laziness." Music writer Trevor Schoonmaker examined D'Angelo's and Questlove's initial recording approach, stating "In the endless sessions for the record, the two spent hours trying to conjure the elusive 'vibe' necessary to provoke the album's creation, which included listening to hours of black music that escaped strict classification. Some of that found itself played out in ghostly ways on Voodoo."

Following the birth of his son, D'Angelo composed the album's first song "Send It On" in 1998 at a recording studio in Virginia. Shortly afterwards, he felt ready to begin the recording for Voodoo. Recording began in 1998 and continued through to 1999. During the initial recording sessions, personal trainer Mark Jenkins was hired to help D'Angelo get into shape. As Questlove recounted, "Money was definitely overweight by '96, so they got him a drill sergeant physical trainer Mark Jenkins. This guy didn't take no shit. I cannot see D running in Central Park, but he did ... Push-ups, weight room, sparring every day for three hours. He wouldn't take no shit." Production for the album was conducted in a generally informal manner and took place at Electric Lady Studios simultaneously with recording for Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000) and Common's Like Water for Chocolate (2000), resulting in impromptu collaborations and a distinctive sound that is featured on the three albums. Frequent visits to the studio were made by fellow neo soul and hip hop recording artists associated with the Soulquarians collective such as Erykah Badu, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, James Poyser, and Mos Def. Members of The Roots, including Black Thought and Kamal Gray, also visited during their recording in 1997 to 1999 for Things Fall Apart (1999) at Electric Lady Studios. Q-Tip was originally intended to contribute a verse to the song "Left & Right", but was replaced by rappers Method Man & Redman during recording due to creative differences. Questlove has stated that "general opinion was that the song was cool but nobody was feeling Tip's verse". According to former A&R-man Gary Harris, D'Angelo's manager Dominique Trenier "thought that Tip’s verse was wack". Notable visitors to the studio that were not associated with the project, including record producer Rick Rubin, comedian Chris Rock, and musician Eric Clapton, were particularly impressed by the quality of Voodoo's material. Questlove served as the "musical powerhouse" behind several of the collective's projects during the late 1990s and early 2000s. In a 2002 interview, he told critic Jim DeRogatis about his role in recording for Voodoo and the Soulquarians, stating "I tried to do all in my power that I could to bring people together – to bring Common to Electric Lady, have him record here whenever so that he could record with some of these other artists. You'd just come into [the studio's] A Room, you don't even know who has a session, but you call me: 'Who's down there?' 'Common's in there today'. So you come down, you order some food, sit down and bulls—, watch a movie, and then it's, 'Let's play something'. And I say, 'Who wants this [track]?' And it would be, 'I want it!' 'No, I want it!'". Questlove has referred to the recording experience at the studio as a "left-of-center black music renaissance".

Recording process

Audio engineer Russell Elevado, who was responsible for recording and mixing Voodoo, along with Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun and Common's Like Water for Chocolate, used old school recording techniques and vintage mixing gear for the albums in order to achieve the distinct sounds found in classic recorded works. While mainstream recording techniques at the time often involved the use of hi-tech digital equipment, Elevado employed the use of analog equipment, enhancement plug-ins, and a blend of live instrumentation. Notable from the production was that most of it, with the exception of "Untitled (How Does It Feel)", was recorded live with no overdubbing of its instrumentation, in contrast to contemporary R&B production at the time. D'Angelo wrote most of Voodoo's material at Electric Lady Studios, as opposed to his method of composing outside the studio for Brown Sugar. For Voodoo's sessions, D'Angelo appropriated most of the instruments on the album's songs, contributing with drums, electric guitar, keyboards, and percussion. During its recording, he employed amplifiers, microphones, a Fender Rhodes keyboards and organ originally used by musician Stevie Wonder for Talking Book (1972), and a recording board originally used by Jimi Hendrix. On Voodoo's recording atmosphere, D'Angelo stated "I believe Jimi was there. Jimi, Marvin Gaye, all the folks we were gravitating to. I believe they blessed the project". According to Russell Elevado, D'Angelo composed all of the bass lines for Voodoo and sequenced them for bassist Pino Palladino, who he had met after being asked to do a duet with B.B. King at the time of Voodoo's earlier sessions. Palladino was asked by D'Angelo to learn and improvise the bass arrangements on his 1961 model P bass. For "The Root", "Greatdayndamornin'", and "Spanish Joint", guitarist Charlie Hunter simultaneously played guitar and bass sections with a custom eight-string guitar/bass combo, which had three lower bass and five upper guitar strings. It also had separate pickups for each set of strings, as well separate outputs for each pickup. In order to adjust production-wise to Hunter's intricate playing, Elevado had separate outputs from Hunter's guitar connected to a separate bass and guitar amplifier. He has said that there was enough separation to manage an adequate sound on both amplifiers, in spite of slight "bleeding into each other" from the pickups in close proximity to each other.

According to D'Angelo, producer and drummer Questlove acted as Voodoo's "co-pilot" during recording and helped design the sparse funk, soul and hip hop beats on the generally groove-based record. D'Angelo and his supporting personnel constructed several of the songs' grooves for the album to sit far behind time, directly on top of time, or pressing on the time, making them cluttered and loose in style. In later interviews, Questlove discussed that he and D'Angelo incorporated much of the distinctive percussive rhythms of Detroit hip hop producer, Slum Village-member and The Ummah-affiliate J Dilla, also known as Jay Dee. A part of the musical collective Soulquarians, Dilla served as a frequent collaborator of theirs. Although album tracks such as "Left & Right" and "Devil's Pie" help to bring this claim to light, J Dilla himself was not officially credited for production. However, he contributed significantly to Voodoo's overall sound, specifically the rhythm and percussion. Questlove later stated that "jay dee did the lauryn track", referring to the planned, duet track "Feel Like Makin' Love". Although tapes were sent via FedEx between the two, the collaboration between D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill was aborted and the song was instead recorded solo. According to Questlove, the duet failed to materialize due to "too many middle men.... I don't think Lauryn and D ever talked face-to-face." Mistakenly, some critics who reviewed the final track assumed that Hill's vocals are present in the recording.

One of the characteristics of the drumming style implemented in recording the album is its adherence to human timing, as the tracks were mostly programmed mechanically during recording, therefore resulting in the album's intentional sloppiness. In a later interview, Questlove discussed the intention and purpose of including imperfection in the album's sound, stating "we wanted to play as perfectly as we could, but then deliberately insert the little glitch that makes it sound messed up. The idea was to sound disciplined, but with a total human feel." Questlove also acknowledged J Dilla's influence over the recording sessions for Voodoo and discussed Dilla's unique programming method, stating "He makes programmed stuff so real, you really can’t tell it’s programmed. He might program 128 bars, with absolutely no looping or quantizing ... When Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest first played me some of his stuff, I said, 'The drums are messed up! The time is wrong!' And when we did a song for D'Angelo's record that Lenny Kravitz was supposed to play on, Lenny said, 'I can’t play with this — there’s a discrepancy in the drum pattern.' And we’re like, 'It's supposed to be this way!' During the final days of recording Voodoo, Questlove spent time recording a version of Fela Kuti's "Water No Get Enemy", a melodic protest song from the Nigerian afrobeat artist's album Expensive Shit (1975). He and D'Angelo had intended to revamp the composition into a minimalist soul ballad for Lauryn Hill to contribute vocals for. However, Hill declined and the track ended up as a place-holder for the rough mix of the album. A reconceptualized version of the song was recorded by D'Angelo and guest artists on the charity album Red Hot + Riot (2002).

Composition

Music and style

Voodoo incorporates musical elements of jazz, funk, hip hop, blues, and soul, as well as ambient music with a musical layer shaped by guitar-based funk. It features vintage influences and a looser, more improvisational structure, which contrasts the more conventional song structure of Brown Sugar. Music writer Greg Kot has considered the album a production of the Soulquarians, calling it "the most radical of the many fine records" conceived by the collective's members. In an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Shawn Rhea, D'Angelo attributed the album's experimental and jam-like atmosphere to the fact that most of Voodoo was recorded "live and it's first take". On its eclectic and conceptual style, Rhea commented "[D'Angelo] seems to have channeled the brilliance of his musical forefathers, living and dead, during the crafting of this album. It is a complex, intricate collection of songs that, like voodoo, is simultaneously secular and spiritual, sensual and sacred, earthbound and ethereal". Recording engineer Russell Elevado's analog mixing and old school production techniques contributed to the album's jazz element and vintage sound. On its jazz influence, D'Angelo stated "because a lot of the album was cut live and has free playing on it, it was hard not to go in a jazz direction".

While most musical compositions rely on tension and release, which can be produced by factors such as soft verses and loud choruses, gradual buildup, subtle tension within verses or over the course of the bridge, or harmonic tension in chords that provides space for improvisation, D'Angelo's arrangements for Voodoo subdivide the tension into each of the songs' moments. According to music critic Steve McPherson, the concept results in "no linear way to measure how far off things slide before they pull themselves back ... can't be measured in beats or fractions of beats in a meaningful way. For lack of a less cliched word, it's entirely 'feel'". This type of syncopation serves as the center for Voodoo, rather than the more conventional method of using it as flavoring or departure from the center. According to New York Daily News music journalist Jim Farber, "In order to counter the slickness of modern R&B, D'Angelo's album reconfigured – and updated – the adventurous song structures and lowdown grooves of early-'70s works like Curtis Mayfield's 'Move On Up', Isaac Hayes' 'Hot Buttered Soul' and Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On'."

Production

The album features aggressive multi-tracking of D'Angelo's voice, which is very similar to the production methods of classic soul records, including Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On (1971) and Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On (1973). Music writers have also noted the production style and sound of Voodoo as reminiscent of the sound of the P-Funk opus Mothership Connection (1975), Gaye's downtempo disco-soul record I Want You (1976), and Miles Davis's jazz fusion works In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970). This resulted in downtempo and bass-heavy sound on the album. The production significantly affected the clarity of the vocals. In Voodoo's liner notes, Saul Williams wrote of its heavy use of multi-tracking, stating "You might respond, 'Lyrics? Yo, I can't even understand half the shit that D'Angelo be saying. That nigga sounds like Bobby McFerrin on opium'. And I'd say, 'You're right. Neither can I. But I am drawn to figure out what it is that he's saying. His vocal collaging intrigues me'".

D'Angelo and the recording crew implemented a production style similar to that of hip hop, which often subordinates song structure to a stable foundation for a rapper's delivery and flow. This was familiar to D'Angelo, as his first original recordings were rap demos. Resultantly, most of the songs were performed without a definitive structure, settling into a mid-tempo groove with minimal verse-chorus-bridge progression. This also resulted in an emphasis on texture over both structure and hooks. New York writer Ethan Smith noted this occurrence, stating "most of the songs aren't really songs at all -- at least, not in the traditional sense". While not predominant on the album, some tracks incorporate sampling. Most of its production was influenced by hip hop producer J Dilla's input. On J Dilla's influence, Questlove stated "He's the zenith of hip-hop to us. Jay Dee helped to bring out the album's dirty sound and encouraged the false starts and the nonquantized sound of the record".

Content

The opening track "Playa Playa" features basketball metaphors and gospel overtones, which accompany the track's slow funk and jazz vibe. On his bass playing in the song, Pino Palladino recalled "I was thinking about Stevie Wonder in the choruses and P-Funk in the verses". Rob Evanoff of All About Jazz called the song "an uplifting soul ride", and stated that it evokes an image of "a musical train seen far off in the distance, slowly getting bigger as it gets closer". Evanoff also compared the track's style to the jam-sound of Pink Floyd, and wrote "it surrounds you with a deep thick infectious groove that, at first, shadows and then envelopes your senses in such a way that is equal bits liberating, intoxicating and hypnotic…you close your eyes and are transported into another dimension". On the song's lyrics, one critic wrote that "D'Angelo disses all neo-soul wannabes by calmly singing 'Bring the drama playa/Give me all U got'". "Devil's Pie" is a funk and hip hop diatribe with a lyrical theme concerning hip hop excess, and it is accompanied by P-Funk style harmonies and low-key singing by D'Angelo. It is a bass-driven track produced by DJ Premier, who contributes to its hip hop texture. The song's theme also incorporates religious imagery into its message of social strife. Questlove has stated that "Devil's Pie" was written to address the issues of "the money hungry jiggafied state of the world we're in". "Left & Right" is a funky party jam featuring rappers Method Man and Redman, who exchange verses as D'Angelo sings the song's verses and chorus. Entertainment Weekly's Matt Diehl calls Method Man's and Redman's lyrics "misogynistic", adding that it upsets Voodoo's "organically sensual vibe".

The introspective track "The Line" has a downtempo, spiritual sound with lyrics about dealing with some unnamed adversity. According to one critic, it "could be about his MIA status ('Will I hang or get left hangin?/Will I fall off or is it bangin?/I say it's up to God'), or about anyone facing doubters with a revolver loaded with talent and self-confidence ('I'm gonna put my finger on the trigger/I'm gonna pull it, and then we gon' see/What the deal/I'm for real')". Music critic Robert Christgau interpreted the lyrics to be "unjudgmental, unsentimental ... in which a young black man lays out the reasons he's ready to die-leaving the listener to wonder why the fuck he should have to think about it". Andy Peterson of The GW Hatchet viewed that the adversity is "the price of fame" or "lamenting a lost lover". The sparse funk song "Chicken Grease" has lyrics advising against acting "uptight", and it features D'Angelo referencing the line "I know you got soul" from Eric B. & Rakim's song of the same name (1987). It contains an ambiguous harmony and bass by Pino Palladino, who evokes the playing style of James Jamerson, with spontaneously improvised variations-on-a-theme parts that sit back "in the pocket". The track was originally intended for Common's Like Water for Chocolate, but D'Angelo offered Common the song "Geto Heaven Part Two" as a trade. "Chicken Grease" is named after a technical term that musician Prince used for his guitarist to play a 9th minor chord while playing 16th notes. The song contains background voices, which one writer described as "omnipresent party people channeled in from 'What's Going On' and 'Voodoo Chile', laughin and carryin on all over".

Co-written by D'Angelo's former girlfriend, singer Angie Stone, "Send It On" contains lyrics concerning themes of honesty and faith in love, and features jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove on flugel horn. D'Angelo's vocals for the song evoke singing styles of soul artists such as Prince, Al Green, and Otis Redding. "Feel Like Makin' Love" is a cover of Roberta Flack's 1974 hit of the same name with a quiet storm sound. Its low-key sound is similar to the early work of Al Green. Titled after a southern colloquial conflation of the terms "One More Time" and "Again", the mid-tempo ballad "One Mo'Gin" has its narrator reminiscing about a former lover. Its introductory sound consisting of soft organ work and dim percussion evokes the sound of D'Angelo's "Sh★t, Damn, Motherf★cker" (1995). "One Mo'Gin" contains strong jazz overtones and a prominent rocksteady drum rhythm played by Questlove. It incorporates Delta blues-style bass and keyboard-driven verses with a melodic hook. The song is introduced with lead-in bass licks by Pino Palladino, who adds musical texture to its sparse composition by using 10th notes and other arpeggio shapes. According to Seattle Weekly's Tricia Romano, the song's music actualizes "new skool sensibility with old school soul". According to Questlove, the songs "The Root", "Spanish Joint", and "Greatdayndamornin'" serve as the "virtuoso part of the record" and feature intricate technical arrangements. The songs cited by him contain no overdubbing of live instrumentation or vocals, and have Charlie Hunter playing both electric and bass guitar. "The Root" is a mid-tempo heartbreak song with the bass line and guitar solo played simultaneously by guitarist Charlie Hunter on an eight-string guitar. The song's lyrics deal with a vengeful woman's effect on the narrator; "In the name of love and hope she took my shield and sword ... From the pit of the bottom that knows no floor/Like the rain to the dirt, from the vine to the wine/From the alpha of creation, to the end of all time". On D'Angelo's songwriting progression and the lyrical narrative, a music critic wrote that it "can actually be digested and emotionally felt, sadly rare for Hot 97 R&B." Co-written by Roy Hargrove, "Spanish Joint" is a salsa-infused high tempo track about karma with rhythmic Brazilian guitar licks by Hunter and funky horn arrangements by Roy Hargrove. Its Latin grooves and jazz fusion instrumentation are reminiscent of Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" (1973).

The philosophical album closer "Africa" celebrates D'Angelo's heritage, while reaffirming his contemporary mission in life. The theme of "Africa" concerns the finding of a spiritual home amid geographical displacement, and of passing that sense of belonging on to one's children. "Africa" was originally written in honor of D'Angelo's son, Michael Archer, Jr., and ended up as a dedication to history, Africa, and God. Opening with a shimmery rustle of chimes, the song contains a drum interpretation of Prince's "I Wonder U" from his Parade (1986), which was also utilized for the Ursula Rucker and The Roots track "The Return to Innocence Lost" from Things Fall Apart. Questlove discussed producing the opening chime sounds for "Africa", stating "we took the cover off the rhodes and mic'd 'em". One critic described C. Edward Alford's guitar work for "Africa" as "backward guitar solos (at least they sound backward)". Another critic described the song as a "lullaby" and "a gorgeous, opalescent closer ... a prayer of sorts". Voodoo's coda, which consists of chopped-up track snippets run backwards, is featured at the song's conclusion. In an article for Okayplayer, Questlove cited it as his favorite song on Voodoo, and discussed its significance, stating:

I had to beg D to do this joint. He didn't see this at first because we had already did a song about his son. But I told him the music here fit the mood better. It's like a bunch of toy boxes playing at once ... It gives you that sad feeling that 'Higher' gave you on Brown Sugar; a dope song that you don't want to hear because you know that this is the last song you're gonna hear in some time. I know D wanted to do a song that spoke of history. Not just to his son. but to God, to Africa and the world.

—Questlove

Co-written by Raphael Saadiq, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" was intended as a tribute to one of D'Angelo's main influences, Prince, as it evokes his earlier work from his Controversy period. The similarity of D'Angelo's musical style throughout Voodoo to Prince was addressed in Saul Williams's liner notes, as he stated "I'd pay to see Prince's face as he listens to this album." As an homage to the musician, Questlove described the song as "finding the line between parody and honesty ... In an era of 'the cover song', redoing a Prince song was taboo. This is the second best thing". It follows a six eight signature and features electric guitar interplay throughout, which is reminiscent of the Jimi Hendrix guitar style and "Maggot Brain" sound. The song contains a drum pattern with a uniform dynamic that gives it the impression of a live drummer playing to the sound of a drum machine. Overdubbing of D'Angelo's vocals, a contemporary R&B recording technique that was heavily used during the album's recording, was implemented many times in order to provide the sound of a choir singing harmonies during the song's choruses, all sung by D'Angelo. The song's sexually explicit lyrics portray the narrator's plea to his lover for sex, as demonstrated in the second verse: "Love to make you wet/In between your thighs, cause/I love when it comes inside of you/I get so excited when I'm around you, baby" "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" has been cited by critics as Voodoo's best recording.

Release and promotion

The album's release was preceded by several delays, which were primarily caused by the folding of D'Angelo's former label EMI Records and legal troubles with his management. Originally scheduled for release on November 23, 1999, Voodoo was released the following year on January 25 by the Virgin-imprint label Cheeba Sound in the United States, January 18 in Canada and February 14 in the United Kingdom on EMI, awaiting eager anticipation from fans and critics. The cassette edition features a twelve-song track listing, and excludes "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". Voodoo was issued with a parental advisory label, due to profanities and sexually explicit lyrics present on the tracks "Devil's Pie" and "Left & Right", and also as a "clean" edited version with an alternate cover. A double LP release was made available in the UK through EMI. When Voodoo was originally presented to Virgin Records executives prior to its release, mixed opinions formulated on whether or not it would be favored commercially, as the project had been heavily financed by the label. In return for the production budget, Virgin executives expected a record with potential for radio-oriented success. However, Voodoo's unconventional sound proved difficult to translate into singles suited for contemporary radio success, in contrast to the more accessible Brown Sugar.

By the time of the album's release on January 25, three singles were released, "Devil's Pie", "Left & Right", and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)", with only the latter making a significant commercial impact. The limited success with singles and lukewarm opinions from label executives led to more promotional efforts and a public response made by D'Angelo's management through issuing a statement, which cited Voodoo as the R&B musical equivalent of art rock band Radiohead's acclaimed studio album OK Computer (1997). While both records feature an experimental edge, in terms of sound and lyrical themes, the English indie rock scene to which the latter had belonged was album-oriented, as opposed to the contemporary R&B scene in the United States, which was more single-oriented at the time. Prior to its release, Virgin launched an extensive, multi-layered campaign for the album, which setup several promotional performances by D'Angelo in 1999, including a guest performance on the season premiere of The Chris Rock Show on September 17, New York's Key Club, the National Black Programmers Coalition meeting in New Orleans on November 20, KMEL San Francisco's House of Soul show on December 10, and KKBT L.A.'s Holiday Cooldown on December 11. Following commitments made by the label for the album's distribution in the UK, continental Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, D'Angelo appeared at London's Music of Black Origin Awards on October 6. Other promotional events included signings and in-store appearances by D'Angelo at shopping venues such as Macy's, Virgin Megastore, and Fulton Mall in New York City, which attracted a considerable amount of D'Angelo's female fans. A remix album, Voodoo DJ Soul Essentials (2000), was also issued by Virgin.

Upon release, a press release was issued elaborating and promoting the experimental edge and anticipation of the album, while calling it "the CD that D'Angelo was put on this earth to create" and "quite literally the record that much of the universal soul nation has been feenin for." It also promoted D'Angelo's previous breakthrough success and transition, stating "So what do you do when you've set new standards? Simple enough, you raise the stakes and set them even higher. You take a chance, you reject the status quo and you forge your own aural path. You delve deep into yourself and conjure up a collection like this." A video for "Send It On" included footage from Voodoo's supporting tour. A music video for "Left & Right", created by director Malik Hassan Sayeed and producer Rich Ford, Jr., was anticipated by fans and MTV network executives that had planned special promotions and a world premiere for the clip. However, Sayeed's concept of a concert video that paid tribute to funk shows of the past expended Virgin's budget and resulted in a missed deadline for the MTV premiere. As punishment, the network refused to put the final edit of music video in rotation. It was eventually world-premiered by BET on Thanksgiving Day. Along with heavy promotion by Virgin and from D'Angelo's signing events, the release of the controversial "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" music video prior to the album's release has often been cited as having the most amount of promotional impact. Directed by Paul Hunter, the video features D'Angelo, filmed from the waist-up, lip-synching in the nude. According to writer Keith M. Harris, it portrayed D'Angelo's "discursive play with masculinity and blackness". The video gained a significant amount of airplay on the BET and MTV networks, and increased mainstream notice of D'Angelo upon Voodoo's release, while exposing him as a sex icon to a newer generation of fans. It also proved to contribute significantly to the album's commercial success. The music video for "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" was also viewed at a promotional party thrown in celebration of the album's release, which took place in January 2000 at the Centro-Fly nightclub in Chelsea, Manhattan. Douglas Century of The New York Times wrote of the club's appearance as "packed and sweaty, with decor and soul music out of a 1970's time warp: multiple video screens playing images of Curtis Mayfield and vintage Soul Train episodes, replete with dancers in Day-Glo bell-bottoms".

Reception

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 320,000 copies in its first week. It entered the Billboard 200 on February 12, 2000 and remained on the chart for 33 consecutive weeks. The album's US chart debut was notable for replacing Carlos Santana's commercially and critically acclaimed album Supernatural (1999) at the number-one spot on the chart. It had sold over 500,000 copies within its first two months of release. Voodoo also featured charting on several international album charts, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand. On February 24, 2000, it was certified gold in sales by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, following sales in excess of 50,000 copies in Canada. Two months after its US release, Voodoo was certified platinum on March 1, 2000 by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album's platinum certification had coincided with the commencement of Voodoo's supporting tour. By mid-2000, the album had reached sales of 1.3 million copies in the United States. According to the Nielsen SoundScan information system, the album has sold over 1.7 million copies in the US.

While it experienced considerable commercial success, Voodoo did not achieve his debut album's sales performance nor generate the single-oriented success D'Angelo's label had envisioned. Its first two singles, "Devil's Pie" and "Left & Right", peaked at number 69 and number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The latter was commercially aimed at R&B and hip hop-oriented radio stations due to the prominence of rappers Redman and Method Man on the track. According Rich Ford, Jr., producer of the "Left & Right" music video, both the single and the video went commercially unnoticed due to MTV's refusal to place the song's video in rotation, serving as punishment for missing the deadline for its initial premiere. The fifth single "Feel Like Makin' Love" was less successful, reaching number 109 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. "Send It On", the album's fourth single, achieved moderate chart success, peaking at number 33 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart. The third single "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" proved to be the greatest chart success of Voodoo's five singles, peaking at number 25 on the Hot 100 Singles and at number two on the R&B Singles chart. The infamous music video for "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" helped in boosting the song's appeal, as well as D'Angelo's. Billboard wrote of video, "it's pure sexuality. D'Angelo, muscularly cut and glistening, is shot from the hips up, naked, with just enough shown to prompt a slow burning desire in most any woman who sees it. The video alone could make the song one of the biggest of the coming year". It earned three nominations for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year, Best R&B Video, and Best Male Video.

Critical response

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	A−
Entertainment Weekly	A−
Melody Maker
NME	9/10
PopMatters	favorable
Rolling Stone
USA Today
Vibe	favorable
The Village Voice	favorable

Voodoo received general acclaim from music critics, who praised its vintage sound, D'Angelo's songwriting, and his transition from the contemporary structure of his debut album to Voodoo's broadened musical experimentation. It earned rave reviews from various critics and publications nationwide, and it was recognized by music writers as a "masterpiece", as well as D'Angelo's greatest work. Fred Shuster of the Los Angeles Daily News gave the album four out of four stars and called it a "neo-soul classic". Robert Christgau gave Voodoo an A- rating and called it a "deeply brave and pretentious record ... signifies like a cross between lesser Tricky and Sly's Riot Goin' On." Interviewer's Matt Diehl lauded its experimental approach and noted D'Angelo's departure from the "loverman persona" of his debut, stating "The result is perhaps even more sensual than Brown Sugar, making Voodoo an instant boudoir classic, but one that stimulates your mind as well as your...you know." NME praised its diverse sound and commented that the album "represents nothing less than African American music at a crossroads ... To simply call D'Angelo's work neo-classic soul, as per corporate diktat, would be reductive, for that would be to ignore the elements of vaudeville jazz, Memphis horns, ragtime blues, funk and bass grooves, not to mention hip-hop, that slip out of every pore of these 13 haunted songs." Christopher John Farley of Time called it a "richly imagined CD". Melody Maker gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars, and Muzik gave it five stars, writing that "Voodoo truly warms your heart".

However, some critics viewed it as inconsistent. Music journalist Peter Shapiro wrote unfavorably of the album's "loose playing and bohemian self-indulgence", stating "Voodoo drifted all over the map in a blunted haze". Rolling Stone's James Hunter disapproved of the album's experimental and loose-sounding structure, and viewed that it does not attain its potential, stating "long stretches of it are unfocused and unabsorbing ... Voodoo flatters the real at the expense of the thing. The result is superb smoke, but smoke nonetheless". Rhapsody's Sarah Bardeen criticized its loose structure and wrote that it "tends to drown in its own funk, sacrificing hooks for ambiance", but complimented its "slightly snarling, falsetto vocals, self-harmonizing, slippery keyboards and seductive grooves", citing these aspects as "all the elements that make a D'Angelo release so memorable" The Austin Chronicle's Christopher Gray gave it four out of five stars and wrote "Voodoo unlocks the brain's inner freak like an especially nimble Harry Whodini". Mark Anthony Neal of PopMatters called it "the working blueprint for 'post-Soul' black pop". Rob Evanoff of All About Jazz gave it five out of five stars and called it "a record you put on and let it seep in, soaking your essence and one that evolves over subsequent listens... an aural aphrodisiac". He found it to be in the tradition of classic jazz albums and wrote of its musical significance, stating:

As most jazz aficionados will already attest to, a truly classic record is not one you can turn on and off as if it were only a switch. It’s an important ingredient of an otherworldly experience [...] When you set the needle down on Miles' Kind of Blue or Coltrane's Giant Steps or Dexter Gordon's Go, you have an ulterior motive, you seek to escape, to enjoy, to experience, to extrapolate your inner demons. This process is a musical form of Voodoo, which Sir D'Angelo discovered while making this record, and hopes you will too.

—Rob Evanoff

Despite perceiving a "heavy-handed emphasis on groove over melody" on the album and criticizing its songs' lengths as "self-indulgent", Miles Marshall Lewis of The Village Voice viewed the album as a progression for D'Angelo and compared it to Prince's acclaimed Sign o' the Times (1987), noting that the latter album was initially perceived by most critics as "uneven". The Source commended D'Angelo's mature themes and songwriting, and Q gave the album four out of five stars and commented that the album "has what so many modern R&B records lack: soul". Vibe cited it as "the most daring song-oriented album by a mainstream R&B artist of his generation." Steve Jones of USA Today stated, "No other R&B artist today seems to have as acute an understanding of where he comes from as D'Angelo, and none seems as willing to take risks in exploring where he should be heading". In a retrospective review, David Peisner of Spin commended D'Angelo's unconventional musical approach and stated, "Voodoo itself seemed to spring up from the ether. The historical reference points–Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Miles Davis, Prince–breathe organically from the album's dark, grimy funk". In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Jon Caramanica gave it four out of five stars and stated, "D'Angelo achieves through nuance what some singers with decades of experience and training never achieve: a throbbing, vital presence, that demands attention, even as it shuns it".

Accolades

In 2001, Voodoo won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 43rd Grammy Awards, which was awarded to D'Angelo and recording engineer Russell Elevado. The song "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" won for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and was also nominated for Best R&B Song. The song was also ranked number 12 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll of 2000, as well as number 4 on Rolling Stone magazine's "End of Year Critics & Readers Poll" of the top singles of the year. Voodoo proved to be one of the most critically praised and awarded albums of the year, topping several critics' and publications' "end of year" lists, including the number 6 spot on The Village Voice's 2000 Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Rolling Stone and Spin magazine both ranked it number 4 on their "albums of the year" lists, while Time magazine named Voodoo as the number 1 album of 2000. Voodoo was named one of the top ten albums of 2000 by several New York Times staff writers, including Ben Ratliff (number 2), Neil Strauss (number 3), Ann Powers (number 2), and Jon Pareles (number 1). The album was also ranked number 488 on Rolling Stone's November 2003 publication of the 500 greatest albums of all time, which made it one of only thirteen entries released in the 2000s to be included in the magazine's list. After its inclusion as a music download in the iTunes Store, the store's columnist wrote of Voodoo in retrospective, calling it "one of those rare neo-soul albums that transcended the category". In a review of D'Angelo's The Best So Far… (2008), Allmusic's Andy Kellman cited Brown Sugar and Voodoo as "two of the most excellent and singular R&B albums of the past 15 years". In 2009, Pitchfork Media ranked Voodoo number 44 on its list of the Top 200 Albums of the 2000s decade, calling it "a triumph of hands-on, real-time, old-school soul minimalism" and citing D'Angelo's vocals as "maybe the most erotically tactile singing put to disc this decade". Rolling Stone placed the album at number 23 on its list of the 100 Best Albums of the Decade, stating "The decade's most magnificent R&B record was also its most inventive — so far ahead of its time that it still sounds radical".

The Voodoo Tour

D'Angelo performing on tour with the Soultronics group, 2000

Following Voodoo's release, D'Angelo embarked on his second international tour in support of the album, "The Voodoo Tour". The tour was sponsored by the clothing company Levi Strauss & Co., and it featured D'Angelo promoting an end to gun violence. After signing an initiative on June 7, 2000 at Hamilton High School in West Los Angeles to collect a million signatures by November 7 in support of "common-sense solutions" to end gun violence, the anti-gun violence organization PAX agreed to sponsor the tour. The tour was also set to feature a wall composed of denim by Levi's, made available for fans to sign in support of anti-gun violence. Consisting of a group assembled and directed by Questlove, the Soultronics, composed mostly of session personnel, the tour became one of the most attended shows of the year. According to a July 2000 issue of Jet magazine, the tour's first half "sold out in every city." It began on March 1, 2000 at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, while other venues included Paris Olympia, Trump Taj Mahal, Brixton Academy, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Essence Jazz Festival in New Orleans. The tour lasted nearly eight months, while performances went for up to three hours a night. "The Voodoo Tour" was taken internationally, with one of the most notable performances being the Free Jazz Festival in Brazil. Tour manager Alan Leeds, who previously headed James Brown's late 1960s and early 1970s outings, as well as Prince's Purple Rain tour in the mid-1980s, cited "The Voodoo Tour" as his most memorable gig. J Dilla's group Slum Village opened on several dates, while R&B singer Anthony Hamilton sang backup within the Soultronics on occasion.

With ticket prices ranging from $49 to $79, performances earned rave reviews from many critics and publications upon the tour's inception, receiving praise for D'Angelo's energy and "charisma as a live performer", as well as the large-scale Soultronics group, while earning comparisons to outings by the legendary funk bands Parliament and Sly & the Family Stone. Tanya Bell of The Gazette wrote that the group "displayed enormous talent as it took them two hours to play 11 songs." In contrast to D'Angelo's supporting tour for Brown Sugar, which presented him performing behind his keyboard on stage, he exhibited a different style of showmanship and energy. Rolling Stone magazine called him "confident and worldly" in his performance, while also stating "No wonder he's alive onstage now, dancing, touching the audience, slamming his microphone down, lying on the ground at the lip of the stage to sing 'One Mo' Gin' while girls grab his legs, his stomach, his crotch." D'Angelo's wardrobe during the tour included tank tops, black leather pants, and boots. On one of the live outings, Rolling Stone's Touré described the appearance of the performers, stating "The Soultronics begin each show in all black, but beyond that one requirement, each looks completely distinct. One man is in a deacon's robe, another in a long cape with a knit ski cap that says FBI. There’s a feather boa, a few badass leather coats, and Questlove's mighty Afro. There's a P-Funkish freaky flair to the Soultronics' look."

In a review of D'Angelo's tour-opening performance at the House of Blues, The Hollywood Reporter's David Wollock described it as a "three-hour old-school soul marathon that was part 'Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine', part 'Let's Get It On', part 'Move on Up' gospel exuberance ... with call-and-response and other crowd-rousing church conventions". Wollock praised D'Angelo for his energy and display of showmanship, and wrote that "like the best hip-hop emcees who can rock a crowd with two turntables and a microphone, D moved the crowd with pure voice and charisma." A staff writer for the Chicago Defender lauded his performance at the Chicago Theater, calling it "an explosive mixture of R&B, soul and funk." Kaia Shivers of the Los Angeles Sentinel wrote that D'Angelo's Los Angeles tour stop put the city "under a spell that it seems hard pressed to shake." In his review of D'Angelo's March 2000 concert performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, rock critic Robert Christgau dubbed D'Angelo as "R&B Jesus" and proclaimed himself a "believer". Christgau praised the concert and D'Angelo's delivery, while comparing it to a P-Funk outing at the Apollo Theater in 1981, stating "D'Angelo sang and danced and preached and flexed and crooned and humped the floor and covered Roberta Flack and snapped a mike stand in two and danced and sang and sang some more. Everything meshed; all stops were pulled out. It was already the greatest concert I'd seen in years when Redman and Method Man propelled the climactic 'Left and Right' through the vaulted ceiling. I flashed on P-Funk's 'Sadie', Apollo 1981. What a privilege to experience such a thing again." Christgau also presented comparison of D'Angelo to Marvin Gaye in his review, stating "I saw Marvin Gaye at this venue shortly before he was murdered, and it was no contest. Gaye was fine, but self-indulgent and riddled with blank spots. Totally committed, D'Angelo betrayed neither weakness nor ego—and gave so much Thursday that Friday he canceled with a sore throat I absolutely believe was the truth. He was R&B Jesus, and I'm a believer. Travel to another city to see him now."

Aftermath

Controversy and hiatus

While the tour proved successful commercially throughout its first half, it did not have a positive effect on D'Angelo, amid the provocative "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" music video. The video presented D'Angelo in a nude appearance and introduced him to a new generation of listeners, which led to most music audiences viewing him as a sex symbol. During the tour, female fans would yell out for D'Angelo to take his clothes off, while other fans would toss clothes onto the stage. In an interview for Spin, Soultronic trumpeter and session musician Roy Hargrove later discussed the experience and problems with performing, stating "We couldn't get through one song before women would start to scream for him to take off something ... It wasn't about the music. All they wanted him to do was take off his clothes." Incidents such as these angered and frustrated D'Angelo during the tour, leading to several of his onstage and offstage outbursts, as well as his breaking of stage equipment. In a 2008 interview with writer David Peisner of Spin, Voodoo producer and tour director Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson discussed the tour and D'Angelo's responses to onstage distractions, stating "He'd get angry and start breaking shit. The audience thinking, 'Fuck your art, I wanna see your ass!', made him angry." While some of the tour's shows were cancelled due to D'Angelo's throat infection during the tour's mid-March dates, many other concerts were cancelled due to personal and emotional problems the musician faced. Marked by insecurity and emotional issues stemming from concert crowds and image concerns, D'Angelo chose on several occasions to not perform on scheduled dates, which lead to several cancellations. According to Questlove, three weeks worth of concert dates were cancelled, including two weeks worth of shows in Japan. In a 2003 interview with music journalist Touré, Questlove further elaborated on the experience and D'Angelo's state of mind during the tour, as well as the music video's effect on him:

I mean, everyone’s insecure, but he’s insecure to the level where I felt as though I had to lose myself and play cheerleader. Some nights on tour he’d look in the mirror and say, 'I don’t look like the video' It was totally in his mind ... he’d say, 'Lemme do 200 more stomach crunches.' He’d literally hold the show up for half an hour just to do crunches ... We would hold the show for an hour and a half if he didn’t feel mentally prepared or physically prepared. Some shows got cancelled because he didn’t feel physically prepared, but it was such a delusion ... He was like, 'They don’t understand. They don’t get it. They just want me to take off my clothes' ... Had he known what the repercussions of 'Untitled' would’ve been, I don’t think he would’ve done it.

—Questlove

In the same interview, Questlove also said that he had not been fully compensated for his work on Voodoo, stating "I didn’t get the rest of my check." Several of D'Angelo's peers and affiliates have noted the commercial impact of the "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" music video and "The Voodoo Tour" as contributing factors to D'Angelo's period of absence from the music scene. His former music manager, Dominique Trenier, explained his disappointment of the music video's impact in a 2008 interview for Spin magazine. Trenier was quoted as saying that "to this day, in the general populace's memory, he's the naked dude". According to tour manager Alan Leeds, the experience "took away his confidence, because he's not convinced why any given fan is supporting him." After the end of "The Voodoo Tour" in late 2000, D'Angelo returned to his home in Richmond, Virginia. Following the suicide of his close friend, MTV-affiliate Fred Jordon, in April 2001, he began to develop a drinking problem.

Subsequent work by D'Angelo

D'Angelo's following solo work experienced extensive delay. Production for a full-length follow-up to Voodoo initially proved slow, as he was working on and off mostly by himself during 2002. D'Angelo attempted to play every instrument for the project, striving for complete creative control similar to that of his influencer Prince. Engineer Russell Elevado described the resulting material as "Parliament/Funkadelic meets the Beatles meets Prince, and the whole time there's this Jimi Hendrix energy". However, those who previewed the material for the album viewed it as unfinished. Hopes for a live album and a Soultronics studio effort, both originally set for after the tour, waned as D'Angelo's alcoholism escalated, and impatient Virgin executives cut off funding for the expected third album in 2004. By the time of his departure from manager Dominique Trenier and tour manager Alan Leeds in 2005, D'Angelo's girlfriend had left him, his legal attorney had become displeased with him, and most of his family was not in touch with him. After a car accident and an arrest on charges that included marijuana possession and driving under the influence, D'Angelo left Virgin Records in 2005 and checked into the Crossroads Centre rehabilitation clinic in Antigua.

Despite no solo output, D'Angelo collaborated with some R&B and hip hop artists during his period of absence, appearing on other works such as J Dilla's The Shining (2006), Common's Finding Forever (2007), and Q-Tip's The Renaissance (2008). In 2005, his recording contract was acquired by J Records, following rumors of D'Angelo signing to Bad Boy Records. Since 2000, D'Angelo has not done any interviews and refused repeated requests to discuss his hiatus.

Track listing

CD/cassette

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Playa Playa"	D'Angelo, Angie Stone, Ahmir Khalib Thompson	D'Angelo	7:07
2.	"Devil's Pie"	D'Angelo, Christopher Edward Martin	D'Angelo, DJ Premier	5:21
3.	"Left & Right" (feat. Method Man & Redman)	D'Angelo, Kamaal Fareed, Reggie Noble, Clifford Smith	D'Angelo	4:46
4.	"The Line"	D'Angelo	D'Angelo	5:15
5.	"Send It On"	D'Angelo, Luther Archer, Stone	D'Angelo	5:57
6.	"Chicken Grease"	D'Angelo, James Poyser, Thompson	D'Angelo	4:36
7.	"One Mo'Gin"	D'Angelo	D'Angelo	6:15
8.	"The Root"	D'Angelo, Archer, Charlie Hunter	D'Angelo	6:33
9.	"Spanish Joint"	D'Angelo, Roy Hargrove	D'Angelo	5:44
10.	"Feel Like Makin' Love"	Eugene McDaniels	D'Angelo	6:22
11.	"Greatdayindamornin' / Booty"	D'Angelo, Hunter, Stone, Thompson	D'Angelo	7:35
12.	"Untitled (How Does It Feel)"	D'Angelo, Raphael Saadiq	D'Angelo, Raphael Saadiq	7:10
13.	"Africa"	D'Angelo, Archer, Stone, Thompson	D'Angelo, Raphael Saadiq	6:13

Vinyl LP

Double album vinyl LP release.

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Playa Playa"
2.	"Devil's Pie"
3.	"Left & Right"

Side two
No.	Title	Length
4.	"The Line"
5.	"Send It On"
6.	"Chicken Grease"
7.	"One Mo'Gin"

Side three
No.	Title	Length
8.	"The Root"
9.	"Spanish Joint"
10.	"Feel Like Makin' Love"

Side four
No.	Title	Length
11.	"Greatdayndamornin' / Booty"
12.	"Untitled (How Does It Feel)"
13.	"Africa"

Personnel

Credits adapted from album booklet liner notes.

#	Title	Notes
	Voodoo	Executive producers: D'Angelo and Dominique Trenier for Cheeba Sound Recordings Recorded by Russell "The Dragon" Elevado Mixed by D'Angelo and Russell "The Dragon" Elevado, except "Devil's Pie" (Elevado) Assistant engineer: Steve Mandel All songs recorded and mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York Mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound, New York Management: Dominique Trenier and Stan Poses for Cheeba Management
1	"Playa Playa"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Guitar: Mike Campbell Bass: Pino Palladino Drums: Ahmir Thompson Horns: Roy Hargrove All other instruments: D'Angelo Contains a sample from "Players Balling" performed by the Ohio Players
2	"Devil's Pie"	Produced by D'Angelo and DJ Premier Programming by DJ Premier All other instruments: D'Angelo Contains a sample from "Success" performed by Fat Joe Contains a sample from "Interlude" performed by Raekwon Contains a sample from "Jericho Jerk" performed by Pierre Henry Contains a sample from "And If I Had" performed by Teddy Pendergrass Contains an excerpt from "Fakin' Jax" performed by INI Contains an excerpt from "Big Daddy Anthem" performed by Natruel
3	"Left & Right"	Produced by D'Angelo Rap performed by Method Man and Redman Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Vocal percussion: Q-Tip All instruments: D'Angelo
4	"The Line"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Guitar: Raphael Saadiq All other instruments: D'Angelo
5	"Send It On"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Guitar: C. Edward Alford Bass: Pino Palladino Drums: Ahmir Thompson Flugel horn and Trumpet: Roy Hargrove All other instruments: D'Angelo Contains an interpolation of "Sea of Tranquility" written by Kool & the Gang
6	"Chicken Grease"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Bass: Pino Palladino Drums: Ahmir Thompson Keyboards: James Poyser All other instruments: D'Angelo
7	"One Mo'Gin"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Bass: Pino Palladino All other instruments: D'Angelo
8	"The Root"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Bass and Guitar: Charlie Hunter All other instruments: D'Angelo
9	"Spanish Joint"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Bass and guitar: Charlie Hunter Drums: Ahmir Thompson Horns: Roy Hargrove Congas: Giovanni Midalgo All other instruments: D'Angelo
10	"Feel Like Makin' Love"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Bass: Pino Palladino Drums: Ahmir Thompson All other instruments: D'Angelo
11	"Greatdayindamornin' / Booty"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal arrangement by D'Angelo Musical arrangement: D'Angelo and Charlie Hunter Bass and guitar: Charlie Hunter Drums: Ahmir Thompson All other instruments: D'Angelo
12	"Untitled (How Does It Feel)"	Produced by D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal arrangement by D'Angelo Musical arrangement: D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq Guitar: C. Edward Alford Bass and Guitar: Raphael Saadiq All other instruments: D'Angelo
13	"Africa"	Produced by D'Angelo All vocals performed by D'Angelo Vocal and musical arrangements by D'Angelo Guitar: C. Edward Alford Drums: Ahmir Thompson All other instruments: D'Angelo Contains a drums sample from "I Wonder U" performed by Prince

Charts

Album

Chart (2000)	Peak position
Canadian Albums Chart	7
Dutch Albums Chart	28
French Albums Chart	57
New Zealand Albums Chart	10
Norwegian Albums Chart	9
Swedish Albums Chart	13
Swiss Albums Chart	42
UK Albums Chart	21
US Billboard 200	1
US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums	1
US Billboard Top Internet Albums	3

Singles

Year	Single	Peak positions
		Billboard Hot 100	Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	Hot 100 Airplay	Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay	Hot Singles Sales	Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales
1998	"Devil's Pie"	—	—	—	69	—	—
1999	"Left & Right"	70	18	—	44	20	9
2000	"Untitled (How Does It Feel)"	25	2	17	1	—	—
	"Send It On"	—	33	—	30	—	—
	"Feel Like Makin' Love"	—	109	—	—	—	—
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.

Sales and certifications

Country	Certification	Sales
Canada	Gold	50,000
United States	Platinum	1,700,000+

Chart procession and succession

Preceded by Supernatural by Santana

Billboard 200 number-one album February 12–26, 2000

Succeeded by Supernatural by Santana

Accolades

Information regarding accolades attributed to Voodoo adapted from Acclaimed Music.

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Addicted to Noise	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	*
Amazon.com	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	36
Amazon.com	United States	The Best of the Decade in Music... So Far	2006	*
Amazon.com	United States	The 100 Greatest Romantic Albums of All Time	2009	16
Barnes & Noble.com	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	12
E! Online	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	*
Elvis Costello (Vanity Fair, Issue No. 483)	United States	500 Albums You Need	2005	*
Eye Weekly Canadian Critics Poll	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	22
Ink Blot	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	6
LA Times	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	7
Michigan Daily	United States	Top 50 Albums of the New Millennium	2004	26
Pitchfork Media	United States	The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s	2009	44
The Recording Academy	United States	Grammy Award for Best R&B Album	2001	*
Rolling Stone	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	4
Rolling Stone	United States	The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time	2003	488
Rolling Stone	United States	100 Best Albums of the Decade	2009	23
Spin	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	4
Spin	United States	Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years	2005	80
Time	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	1
The Village Voice	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	6
Wall of Sound	United States	Albums of the Year	2000	10
The Face	United Kingdom	Albums of the Year	2000	11
Mojo	United Kingdom	Albums of the Year	2000	26
Muzik	United Kingdom	Albums of the Year	2000	7
The New Nation	United Kingdom	Top 100 Albums by Black Artists	2004	88
Q	United Kingdom	Albums of the Year	2000	*
Uncut	United Kingdom	150 Greatest Albums of the Decade	2009	68
The Wire	United Kingdom	Albums of the Year	2000	*
Aftenposten	Norway	Albums of the Year	2000	10
Dagsavisen	Norway	Albums of the Year	2000	4
Natt & Dag	Norway	Albums of the Year	2000	*
Aftonbladet	Sweden	Albums of the Year	2000	8
Nöjesguiden	Sweden	Albums of the Year	2000	3
OOR	Netherlands	Albums of the Year	2000	4
OOR Moordlijst	Netherlands	Albums of the Year	2000	4
Spex	Germany	Albums of the Year	2000	2
Les Inrockuptibles	France	Albums of the Year	2000	27
Libération	France	Albums of the Year	2000	6
Trax	France	Albums of the Year	2000	85
Iguana	Spain	Albums of the Year	2000	14
Rock de Lux	Spain	Albums of the Year	2000	11
Rock de Lux	Spain	100 Best Albums of the 2000s	2009	37
BigO	Singapore	Albums of the Year	2000	24
Mucchio Selvaggio	Italy	100 Best Albums by Decade	2002	25
Rockerilla	Italy	Albums of the Year	2000	20
Rumore	Italy	Albums of the Year	2000	9
Pure Pop	Mexico	The Top 25 Albums of Each Year (2000–2002)	2003	13
Babylon	Greece	Albums of the Year	2000	8
(*) designates lists that are unordered.

See also

• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• List of number-one albums of 2000 (U.S.)
• Neo soul
• Soulquarians
• The Soultronics

References

• Chris Jisi (2003). Brave New Bass: Interviews and Lessons with the Innovators, Trendsetters and Visionaries. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-87930-763-3. 
• Ashyia N. Henderson, David G. Oblender (2001). Contemporary Black Biography: Profiles Form the International Black Community. Vol. 27. Gale Group. ISBN 0-78764-618-0. 
• Clifford Thompson (2001). Current Biography Yearbook. Vol. 62, No. 5. The H.W. Wilson Company. ISBN 0-82421-016-6. 
• Trevor Schoonmaker (2003). Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway. Macmillan. ISBN 1-40396-210-3. 
• Brackett, Nathan, Hoard, Christian, ed. (November 1, 2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. 
• Peter Shapiro, Al Spicer (2006). The Rough Guide to Soul and R&B. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-84353-264-6. 
• Saul Williams, D'Angelo (2000). Voodoo. (CD liner notes). Virgin Records America, Inc., 338 N. Foothill Road, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. 
• Keith M. Harris (2001). Wide Angle: Visual Culture and Black Masculinity. Vol. 21, No. 4. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISSN 0160-6840. 

External links

• Voodoo at Discogs
• Songs in the Key of Black Life: Some Otha Shit — By Mark Anthony Neal
• Black Pop Kool-Aid: D’Angelo's 'Left & Right' — By Michael A. Gonzales