D-Angelo & Christian Vila

D'Angelo was one of the leading lights of the neo-soul movement, which aimed to bring the organic flavor of classic R&B to the hip-hop age. Modeling himself on the likes of Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and Al Green, D'Angelo's influences didn't just come across in his vocal style. Like most of those artists, he wrote his own material, and frequently produced it as well, helping to revive the concept of the R&B auteur. His debut album, Brown Sugar (1995), gradually earned him an audience so devoted that the follow-up, Voodoo (2000), debuted at number one despite a five-year ga...