D\'angelo\'s Voodoo: A Contemporary Cocktail

Quinn Wilson
Corrine Wohlford
Writing About the Past
3 May 2016
D'Angelo's Voodoo: A Contemporary Cocktail
In 1996, various genres of African American music were in what Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson referred to as their renaissance period (Thompson). These genres included hip-hop, rhythm and blues, soul music and funk. In this period of time a predominant part of the music was dominated by hyper masculinity and materialistic excess. A lot of the lyrical content included a misogynistic emphasis on the objectification of women who were often referred to as "bitches," "hoes" and "sluts." In addition, there was a lot of glitter and glamor that covered African American musicians during this time period. Hip-Hop stars were starting to become the new 'rock stars' of the decades before and it seemed that these artists were more interested in cultivating their bank accounts than their talent and craft (Kajikawa). The music had become almost completely programmed in this period. There was seemingly a bit of magic missing from the music that existed previously in generations before. Guitarist/Bassist Charlie Hunter explains it, "It's one thing to sit at a computer and make a record, but the magic comes from the intercourse between the musicians and that's a very jazz mentality. Everything about popular music is in the opposite direction for the last generation or two" (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-release Liner Notes). Popular music was seeming to become more of a science than an art during this period. Few popular artists during this time period dedicated their time and energy into bringing more unpredictability and natural musical forms into their sound which seemed to be leading to the downfall of African American genres of Hip-Hop and R&B.
By February 1996, singer and musician Michael Eugene Archer, better known as D'Angelo, had been nominated for 4 Grammy's and sold over a million copies of his debut album Brown Sugar. D'Angelo reached these accolades only 6 months after releasing the album and was only 21 years old pushing 22. D'Angelo was a rising force in the African American music industry because his music typically paid homage to "Soul" artists from the 1960's and 70's by taking their old techniques and aesthetics and making them contemporary. However, D'Angelo was not a fan of the genres of music he was boxed into. If asked, D'Angelo would not categorize his music as "R&B" or the new coined phrase "Neo-Soul" but simply "Black Music" (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-release Liner Notes).
After 2 years of touring for Brown Sugar D'Angelo was hit with a serious case of "writer's block." During this creative paralysis D'Angelo explained how badly he wanted to write during this period but songs would only come out by him living life and during this period he lived so he could write (Seymour). According to D'Angelo, from 1996 to 1998 he only did 3 things; lift weights, smoke weed and make music (Farley). However, that all changed in 1998 when his first son was born and that brought him immense inspiration to begin writing again. D'Angelo wanted to bring musicianship back into hip-hop and soul as well as his own music. He was dissatisfied with the lack of musicianship in his first record Brown Sugar because of how much the record relied on programming, drum machines and synthetic sounds He set out to channel the soul artists whom he admired had that did it before him. In an interview with Ebony Magazine in 2000 D'Angelo considers himself very respectful of the "masters" and felt a responsibility to take cue of what they were doing musically and continue it on into contemporary music (Davis). In 1998 D'Angelo began his second record Voodoo in order to channel the engineering and production styles of soul and rock artists from the 60's and 70's and turn them contemporary while also confronting the rushed, materialistic, hyper-masculine and misogynistic aspects of the genres of Hip-Hop and R&B through his lyrics and image.
To get Voodoo started off, D'Angelo assembled his team of "kick-ass" musicians and engineers who were bent on simply 'grooving' with one another. While Brown Sugar was comprised of pre-written and arranged songs, Voodoo was to be an improvisational and organic affair (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-release Liner Notes). It began with D'Angelo and music engineer Russell Elevado. The two had worked together a little on Brown Sugar but the two became even closer later on after Russell successfully put D'Angelo onto Jimi Hendrix's music. D'Angelo became obsessed with Jimi's artistry and when Russell and D'Angelo visited Jimi's "Electric Lady Studios" the pair instantly knew that this was where Voodoo needed to be recorded (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-release Liner Notes). With the studio having the same Rhodes that Stevie Wonder played on in the 1970's D'Angelo could feel the energy of those whom he considered "the masters" that had come before in the studio. D'Angelo said himself that he could sense the spirit of Jimi Hendrix in the studio with them during the process. To further get a more organic and natural sound like the music of 60's and 70's D'Angelo relied on Elevado's unique engineering method. The entire Voodoo record was recorded to 2-inch tape which was how all music was recorded in the past before the modern computer technology arose. However, the only difference was that now with modern technology they were able to automate and enhance the sounds from the tape to give it an even grander, yet still live sound (Elevado). This was an old technique recreated and enhanced to obtain the new sound that they were attempting to obtain so badly.
Another key member of the Voodoo crew was drummer Ahmir Thompson, also known as "Questlove." Questlove was deemed the "co-pilot" of the entire Voodoo process by D'Angelo. In this period of Hip-Hop and R&B the drums in the music was often either done by a drum machine that would emulate a continuous perfect beat free from human error or drummers would teach themselves to drum perfectly like a drum machine. In the mid-90's Questlove had learned a style of drumming from Hip-Hop Producer J Dilla, who also played a minor role in Voodoo's creation, known as "drunken drumming" which resembled the swing and freestyle drumming feel from older jazz music. This drumming style was intended to be intentionally off-beat, imperfect and incredibly human. This style perfectly fit D'Angelo's purpose of taking old techniques and bringing them back into mainstream music as something new and different. Another cultivator of the record was the phenomenal Welsh bassist Pino Palladino. Like, D'Angelo, Palladino loved to channel those who came before him when playing bass such as bassists like Larry Graham and James Jamerson because of how free their grooves were. Pino emulates these free, unpredictable grooves all throughout Voodoo as it gives the album an older feel. Others guests on D'Angelo's team included legendary blues guitarist Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, guitarist/bassist Raphael Saadiq, guitarist/bassist Charlie Hunter, keyboardist James Poyser and jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove.
D'Angelo would be in the studio from 6PM until 11AM every night (Thompson). Electric Lady Studio C was known as a "college" by the musicians as a majority of each musician on D'Angelo's team's time was spent studying the works of past artists. Questlove unearthed about 4000 video episodes of the television show Soul Train while in Japan and used these videos for class material (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-release Liner Notes). Various artists that the musicians studied included Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Prince, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Miles Davis, George Clinton and Jimi Hendrix. Questlove referred to the videos the group would study as "treats" and would explain how excited the members used to be for their "treats" when in the studio. D'Angelo used a number of Star Wars references throughout this process and he often called the "masters" whom he respected so much as "Yodas." The group would study these "Yoda's" for hours and garner inspiration from them to inspire impromptu jam-sessions in the studio. Out of these jam-sessions would come a majority of the songs for the record. The song closing song "Africa" came from the group playing through Prince's entire album Parade. What they were creating was a celebration of African-American music even though three of the album's three key contributors were not of African descent. However, just as many did in the 60's and 70's they were a multicultural ensemble that was able to cultivate "black music" naturally (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-Release Liner Notes). D'Angelo explained "black music" as holding historical significance to African American's roots in slavery and would bring pieces of different "chants" and other pieces of slaves working the fields. D'Angelo hand selected the artists who had past ties to "Black Music" before whether they were African American or not (Burford).
After collective would study the "treats" of various different artists it would become evident in their jam-sessions of all of the various different influences going on. The influences of these "Yoda" figures would be so mixed and mashed together in their jam-sessions that it became something new. Keyboardist James Poyser referred to the energy on Voodoo as taking old influences in a forward-thinking direction. He compared the "retro-futuristic" grooves of Voodoo to the movie Mad Max in the sense that they were moving onto the future but were doing so dressed in the ways of the past. D'Angelo and his band members were not studying artists they admired from the past to simply just emulate them but to mix as many possible influences together in attempt to make it something never done before.
In the era of "gangsta rap" and "hardcore hip-hop" D'Angelo was aiming to challenge musical orthodoxy by putting an "old sound" in new, contemporary light. He wanted to fill in what he felt "what's missing now" in contemporary rhythm and blues and commercial rap (Rabaka). Elements D'Angelo felt were missing included edifying message-oriented music, gospel-influenced vocalizations, acoustic instrumentation, sonic experimentation and unbridled improvisation (Rabaka). D'Angelo has never denied his influences of Voodoo and proudly boasts where he garnered the inspiration from. Such as the album name he was inspired both by the African/Caribbean practices of the voodoo religion as well as Jimi Hendrix's song "Voodoo Chile." According to Questlove the beginning of the album is a very mixed and manipulated vocal sample of Jimi Hendrix saying, "forget everything that happened yesterday, or today...we are just making our own little place just give us that" (?uest-diggidey). The most successful song off of Voodoo commercially was "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" and according to Questlove this song was a direct tribute to the 'controversy era' Prince (?uest-diggidey). Voodoo also features a cover of Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love." Instead of just directly reciprocating the vocalic and production elements of the song D'Angelo took his own unique take on it. He discards the original "daydreamy" production of the track and gives it an off-kilter, marauding groove and adds a dark undertone to the song's lyrical delivery (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-Release Liner Notes).
In the past, D'Angelo's lyrics had never been anything that had raised any eyebrows in terms of their substance. Brown Sugar featured rudimentary R&B lyrics that focused on lust, love, sex and a shallow heartbreak anthem. However, on Voodoo his lyrics took a very different turn in terms of substance. Sonically, D'Angelo's lyrics are much more difficult to decipher on Voodoo than in the past. This is one way that D'Angelo learned how to cultivate "Black Music" that it was more effective to record his "spirit" through the microphone which didn't always en up being comprehensible word (Burford). Saul Williams commented on complaints that listeners cannot understand what D'Angelo was saying on the original liner notes of the 2000 release of Voodoo by saying, "Neither can I [understand what he is saying]. But I am drawn to figure out what it is that he is saying. His vocal collaging intrigues me." On the song "Greatdayndamornin'" he gives a more personal insight to how he views himself as an artist with lyrics such as, "I search for answers often, I paid the price for many. Still long for happiness not promised to the plenty. I've got to go on" (Voodoo Liner Notes). For the first time in D'Angelo's commercial music career he is adding tension to his lyrics. He speaks about how even as a successful artist he is still searching for answers and happiness in his personal life. This sheds light into D'Angelo's personal life and his struggles as a celebrity figure which he had never opened up about beforehand. D'Angelo was a very quiet, shy and insecure individual during this time period. Unlike many other successful artists at the time, D'Angelo wasn't rushing around running a fashion line, making TV appearances, appearing in movies or having his own sitcom just in a desperate effort to maintain relevancy. According to Jason King, D'Angelo took his own sweet time, rarely did interviews and kept himself out of media spotlight as much as he could because he was simply a musician to his core. D'Angelo even responded and addressed the media perception that shrouded over him in lyrics to the song "The Line" on Voodoo.
I know you been hearin'.
Hearin' a lot of things about me.
Oh I know, I know
I've heard it all too clear
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I know everybody watching me, the pressure is on
From every angle political to personal
Will I hang or be left hanging, will I fall off
Or will it be bangin'
I say it's up to the man upstairs (Voodoo Liner Notes).
This track is abrupt and straight to the point as it presents a darker look at an artist's response to the claustrophobic pressure of fame. Even in his attempts at making this retro-futuristic record D'Angelo can't shake off the buzz he garnered from his first album 4 years prior. D'Angelo also addressed the materialistic excess of the music industry and the African American community through lyrics on the track entitled "Devil's Pie." According to Questlove, the track is about the "money-hungry jiggafied state of the world we're in" (?uest-diggidey). Some lyrics that evoke to this message include:
Drugs and thugs women wine
Three or Four at a time
Watch them all stand in line
For a slice of the devil's pie
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Main ingredients to this dish
Goes like this
Here's a list
Materialistic, greed and lust, jealousy, envious
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Everybody's ho'ing out all the loot all the clout
Right or wrong
Do or die
. . . . . . . (Voodoo Liner Notes).
However, when on the topic of Voodoo's lyrics, the track "The Root" is the one that lyrically transcends D'Angelo to a new level of personality and vulnerability than he had ever endured in his career before. This melancholy epic, nearly 7 minutes in length, is where D'Angelo opens up about a serious, genuine and painful heartbreak he had endured in the past. So painful that according to him he needed to see a doctor because the pain had effected his entire body physically and emotionally.
She done worked a root
Done worked a root that will not be reversed
Then I'll go on, go on my role in her play with no rehearsal
Left my mojo in my favorite suit
She left a stain, left a dirty stain in my heart I can't refute
No I can't
No I can't

She done worked a root
In the name of love and war
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
'Til the end of all time
'Til the end of all time

Said I went to the doctor
The man told me there ain't nothing wrong
Said, "but I beg to differ"
I've been feeling this pain much too long
Feel my soul is empty
My blood is cold and I can't feel my legs
I need someone to hold me
(Hold me) (Hold me)
Bring me back to life before I'm dead

She done worked a root
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Voodoo Liner Notes).
From the first line of the song D'Angelo explains how much of a difficult place he is in. "She done worked a root," is an expression taken African American folk and hoodoo magic that means a spell has been cast over him using herbal roots and he was under this unnamed woman's control (Kajikawa 149). In the time period in which the hyper-masculinity in the African American music community was seemingly at an all-time high this was incredibly revealing and possibly damaging to release and make himself appear to be so vulnerable. The muscular 'Adonis' "R&B sex symbol" that D'Angelo was branded as was being challenged by this song's lyrics such as, "I need someone to hold me." This line is repeated in the background two additional times to help let the polarity of the statement settle in. D'Angelo, the "R&B superstar", was just as vulnerable as anybody else and went through the same heart breaks that are so familiar to many people. His masculinity is seemingly taken away during this song with the lyrics, "took my shield and sword." In the misogynistic music culture of the time where male artists often placed themselves above women and degraded them D'Angelo is placing himself below this woman and surrendering his weapons that appear to represent manhood to her. "The Root" was D'Angelo's personal favorite song on the entire album (Kajikawa 146). In the album's electronic press kit D'Angelo admits that the lyrics were based off of a personal experience and that the song was "therapeutic" and helped him get over the situation because he is "so pathetic" throughout the song (Shocker). D'Angelo explained how he was "fucked up" in regards to being emotionally unstable when making this song and found extremely difficult to even record the song because he had to put himself into that state of mind (Shocker). D'Angelo could have easily disregarded the woman who had broken his heart or could have degraded her on the song lyrically but he chose to take the honest route which was not always present in that age's contemporary forms of African American music. As the song continues on both the vocals and instrumentation intensify. The track ends with its climax which involved D'Angelo repeating the chorus numerous consecutive times with a chorus of over 40 different takes of D'Angelo's vocals happening at once which was a studio trick courtesy of engineer Russell Elevado (Elevado). D'Angelo's pain as a human being is more evident than ever on both the lyrical and vocalic compositions of the track.
After Voodoo was released D'Angelo's image and stardom had risen higher than previously before after the release of his sexy new music video for his song "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" which featured a seemingly naked D'Angelo throughout the entire video. D'Angelo was now an international 'sex symbol' for women and that was something he was extremely uncomfortable with. He has had a history with being uncomfortable with himself and his body. According to D'Angelo he was just the "chubby kid" in middle school and then he lost 35 pounds in 9th grade ("D'Angelo is Holding Your Hand). He then gained weight again after Brown Sugar and in the build-up to Voodoo he got a personal trainer who got him into the best shape of his entire life (Voodoo 2012 Vinyl Re-Release Liner Notes). Now as a star musician in incredible shape, D'Angelo was not sure how to handle this new image he had built for himself. "Take it off" was #1 thing D'Angelo heard coming from the crowd during every single song during his Voodoo tour. This angered D'Angelo because of the thought that his art was taking a backseat to his body to the point where he would start breaking stage equipment on and off stage. D'Angelo would often give into the shouts and screams from the crowd and take his shirt off to be met with a roaring wall of sopranos. This led to D'Angelo cancelling numerous tour dates on their international Voodoo tour. Questlove said that during this time D'Angelo learned what it was like how women are treated like pieces of meat every single day ("D'Angelo is Holding Your Hand"). The misogynistic culture of Hip-Hop and R&B had finally been fully unveiled to him and it came in the unexpected fashion of it being portrayed onto him. "In the world of karma, it was sweet poetic justice for any woman that's ever been sexually harassed, that's ever had to work twice as hard just to prove she could work like a man," Questlove explained in a 2003 interview with Touré. Everyone on D'Angelo's team saw what he went through and how it took a toll on his mentality immensely. D'Angelo could often be found backstage, holding up his own show, looking in the mirror telling himself, "I don't look like the video" ("Ahmir Thompson").
In 1998 D'Angelo began his second record Voodoo in order to channel the engineering and production styles of soul and rock artists from the 60's and 70's and turn them contemporary while also confronting the rushed, materialistic, hyper-masculine and misogynistic aspects of the genres of Hip-Hop and R&B through his lyrics and image. D'Angelo assembled a team of musicians and engineers who shared the same desire as him to take elements from past musicians and portray them in a new way in contemporary music. D'Angelo showed his various influences throughout Voodoo from Jimi Hendrix, to Roberta Flack to Prince. With the song "The Line," D'Angelo lyrically confronts the rushed pace of the music industry and how many artists will take their focuses elsewhere outside of their music. In the song "Devil's Pie," D'Angelo confronts the materialistic excess of the music industry as well as the African American community at the time with his lyrics. In the track "The Root," D'Angelo confronts the standard of the hyper-masculine music industry by making himself extremely vulnerable in his lyrics. Once D'Angelo's fame increased after the release of Voodoo, he became an international 'sex-symbol' which he was uncomfortable with. Through that he learned first-hand the misogyny and harassment that women endure everyday when he was beginning to be treated as a "piece of meat" rather than an artist. D'Angelo successfully took elements from artists whom he admired from the 60's and 70's and interplayed them into contemporary music with a collective of other artists with a similar mindset. In addition to taking on contemporary music with his production and engineering, D'Angelo was able to use his lyrics to confront the present music scene which he felt was rushed, materialistic, hyper-masculine and misogynistic.



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