Born Michael Eugene Archer in South Richmond, VA, D’Angelo learned to play piano at the age 3 and playing in the church alongside his father, who was a Pentecostal minister.

Throughout his adolescence, he performed locally in groups including Three of a Kind, Michael Archer and Precise, and Intelligent, Deadly but Unique (I.D.U.).

In 1993, he signed to EMI and wrote the hit “U Will Know” for the group Black Men United (B.M.U.). D’Angelo released his debut album “Brown Sugar” in July 1995, spending 65 weeks on the Billboard 200 and spawning the hits “Lady,” “Cruisin’ and the title track. The album helped drive the “Neo-Soul” movement of the mid-1990s, and stellar albums with similar sound and spirit, which fused the R&B of the ’60s and ’70s with contemporary, hip-hop-informed styles, followed by Maxwell, Erykah Badu and others.

D’Angelo is featured on Lauryn Hill’s multi-platinum, culture-shifting 1998 debut album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” singing and playing electric piano on the song “Nothing Even Matters.”

D’Angelo found a kindred spirit in Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, drummer and leader of the Roots, with whom he would work much of the rest of his career. The two of them would spend the next years at work on the follow-up to “Brown Sugar,” “Voodoo,” which was released in January of 2000.

The album was the product of months of recording and mixing, primarily at New York’s Electric Lady Studio, with a group of musicians who came to be known as the Soulquarians — primarily D’Angelo, Thompson, horn player Roy Hargrove, keyboardist James Poyser, bassist Pino Palladino and producer J Dilla — who pushed the boundaries of R&B and also worked on albums by Badu and rapper Common at the time. “Voodoo” is considered a cornerstone of modern R&B and its influence has resonated over the decades.

Sex Symbol

However, the album’s lead single, the soulful, smouldering ballad “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” was spearheaded by a video that featured shirtless, muscular D’Angelo and turned him into a major sex symbol — a role he did not want.

While the “Voodoo” tour (featuring most of the Soulquarians) was major success and cemented his popularity, D’Angelo disappeared from view for the next decade.

An obsessive musician, he retreated to his home in Virginia and worked on his next album, with occasional reports of progress materializing, usually from Thompson (who said the new album was “99% done” — only to see another three years pass before its release).

D’Angelo began a gradual return in the early 2010s, touring Europe and playing occasional shows with Thompson, which usually turned out to be informal jam sessions heavy on classic R&B covers. During the tours he played a few new songs, all of which were featured on the “Black Messiah” album, which finally arrived late in 2014.