Beyoncé, Solange, A-Trak, and More Reflect on D'Angelo's "Voodoo"

Last week marked the 15th anniversary of the album.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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To help celebrate the 15-year anniversary of D'Angelo's classic album, Voodoo, Saint Heron decided to gather up some of music's biggest names to reflect on the industry-shifting project. Among those artists, Beyoncé spoke about the album's importance in R&B today, and how it is "The DNA of black music."

Voodoo is as relevant today as it was when it first came out. D’Angelo’s harmonies, instrumentation and arrangements are iconic and timeless. His song structure of mixing classic R&B with the true roots of gospel jam session still resonates today. It is an album you can listen to from start to finish. This is the DNA of black music; all the love, pain, social statements and rawness punctuated by his effortless vocal progression from his funky low register to his sexy falsetto. My favorite song on the album is “Africa” and “Untitled” definitely inspired my song “Rocket.”

A-Trak, Solange, and more also talked about the importance of the album in their lives, and how it is universally respected as a game-changer in R&B. "D’Angelo brought back horns on this album, in a way we hadn’t heard since MJ. But again, he made them dirty. There was so much magic," A-Trak said in the piece. The rest of the piece can be read here, while D'Angelo's first album since VoodooBlack Messiahis currently available for purchase on iTunes.

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