Voodoo (D'Angelo album)
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Voodoo is a soul album by D'Angelo, released on January 11, 2000 (see 2000 in music). After many delays caused by D'Angelo's record label folding and legal trouble with his management, Voodoo was finally released in January 2000. The album - both in its response, impact and sales - ended up outdoing its predecessor, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200, and going platinum two months later. It included the song "Untitled (How Does It Feel)", which became a hit video on MTV; the infamous video consisted entirely of a naked D'Angelo singing. Voodoo won "Best R&B Album of the year" and "Best R&B vocal male performance" in the 2001 Grammy's.
Overview
Content
The song "Untitled (How Does It Feel)", written with Raphael Saadiq, is intended as a tribute to Prince, and evokes that artist's earlier work. The DJ Premier produced "Devil's Pie", is a funk and hip hop diatribe on money worship, which originally appeared on the soundtrack to the film Belly, in what seemed to be a slightly truncated version.
?uestlove, drummer for hip-hop band The Roots, was the album's "co-pilot" according to D'Angelo, and helped design the sparse funky soul and hip hop beats on Voodoo.
On some tracks, such as "Left & Right", D'Angelo appropriates all instruments, and in others sits in on the drums, guitar, keyboards, or percussion.
Production
A notable aspect of this album are the heavily experimental grooves. D'Angelo and Co. constructed many of the grooves on the album to sit far behind time, directly on top of time, or even pressing on the time. Each effect was done with great consideration, and has been a source of some controversy from breaking conventions of more traditional approaches to groove. One example would be the groove on "One Mo' Gin" which is placed so far back against the meter that it almost feels off-time.
?uestlove has admitted in interviews since the album's release that he and D'Angelo incorporated much of the distinctive percussive rhythms of the late Detroit producer Jay Dee, who as part of the Soulquarians, was also a frequent collaborator of theirs. Although tracks such as "Left & Right" help to bring this claim to light, Jay Dee himself was not directly involved in the making of the album.
One of the characteristics of this style of drumming is its adherence to human timing, i.e. its intentional sloppiness. In an interview with Soulmind Online, ?uestlove had this to say:
In actuality, one of the biggest influences on my drumming is a producer and drum programmer named Jay Dee, from the group Slum Village. 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!’[1]
Voodoo's recording engineer, Russell Elevado, on Jay Dee's input:
A lot of the stuff we recorded were beats that Dilla came in with and we just recreated it and rearranged them with live instruments. He had amazing skills on the MPC and would just come up with crazy things. He could make like 3 crazy beats in like one hour. [2]
Voodoo has also been widely acclaimed for the quality of its recording. Engineer Russell Elevado's penchant in using mostly vintage analog equipment and old school production techniques made for a unique and unmistakable sounding album. Together there was an undeniable chemistry with D'Angelo and his music.
The "Voodoo Tour"
After Voodoo's release, D'Angelo embarked on what would become one of the most fabled series of live soul shows in history, "The Voodoo Tour". Consisting of a live group entitled the "Soultronics", (assumedly assembled by Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of The Roots) which engulfed arena-size stages with various dancers and instrument players, it was one of the most attended shows of the year. The tour was taken all around the world, one of the most notable performances being the Free Jazz Festival in Brazil. The live show was a thinly-disguised homage to Prince's late 80's shows, in its grandeur and conceptual stage set up/setlist. Slum Village (then in its original line-up of Jay Dee, Baatin & T3) opened for D'Angelo on several dates, and soul-tinged R&B singer Anthony Hamilton sang backup within the band.
Track listing
- "Playa Playa" (Archer/Thompson/Stone) - 7:06
- "Devil's Pie" (Archer/Martin) - 5:21
- "Left & Right" (Archer/Smith/Noble/Fareed) - 4:46
- "The Line" (Archer) - 5:16
- "Send It On" (Archer/et al.) - 5:56
- "Chicken Grease" (Archer/Poyser/Thompson) - 4:38
- "One Mo'Gin" (Archer) - 6:13
- "The Root" (Archer/Hunter) - 6:33
- "Spanish Joint" (Archer/Hargrove) - 5:44
- "Feel Like Makin' Love" (McDaniels) (cover of Roberta Flack) - 6:22
- "Greatdayindamornin'/Booty" (Archer/Hunter/Stone/Thompson) - 7:35
- "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" (Archer/Saadiq) - 7:10
- "Africa" (Archer/Thompson/Stone) - 6:13
Produced by D'Angelo
Engineered and mixed by Russell "The Dragon" Elevado
Chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
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| 2000 | The Billboard 200 | 1 |
Album singles
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| Single cover | Single information |
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"Devil's Pie"
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"Left & Right"
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| "Untitled (How Does It Feel?)" | |
"Send It On"
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Personnel
- Roy Hargrove - Trumpet, Flugelhorn ("Send It On"), Horn
- Mike Campbell - Guitar (Baritone)
- Eddie Alford - Guitar (Baritone)
- D'Angelo - Arranger, Vocals, Producer, Executive Producer, Mixing
- Angie Stone - Co-writer, Performer
- DJ Premier - Programming, Producer
- Russell Elevado - Engineer, Mixing
- Charlie Hunter - Guitar (Bass) ("The Root"), Guitar (Baritone)
- Pino Palladino - Bass
- James Poyser - Keyboards
- ?uestlove - Percussion
- Method Man & Redman - Performers
- Raphael Saadiq - Arranger, Producer, Guitar (Baritone)
- Fat Joe - Sampled performer ("Devil's Pie")
- Tom Coyne - Mastering
- Dominique Trenier - Executive Producer
- Steve Mandel - Assistant Engineer
References
External links