Scorpeze explains it all…

One of my friends asked if Voodoo was on my favorite albums of the 2000’s list. I told her no. She said I should write about why I have excluded it.
I agreed.

Let me start by saying that I really do like Voodoo. It’s a good album. But its not great. Furthermore, its not terribly interesting. Granted, this is my opinion only.

Before Voodoo was released, those who had been involved or were present at the sessions engaged in a great deal of hyperbole taumbout how D’ was the heir to the throne and how this album was so deep and complex and would set your ass on fire. Bad move.

What we got 5 years after D’s rough hewn debut, Brown Sugar, was an album that is textbook example of style over substance. Yes, there are some inspired moments, and some glimmers of brilliance, but like I told a friend some years ago, this aint knockin Innervisions off the turntable.

Lemme explain.

The first problem is that in this age of lowered expectations, people saw fit to call D’Angelo a musical genius. I have not seen nor heard proof of this genius. What have we seen or heard from him that has not been done before or better?

Singing in falsetto? Marvin Gaye, Prince, Michael Jackson, Philip Bailey, Eddie Kendricks, Russell Thompkins, Jr. of The Stylistics

Fusing hip-hop beats/sensibilities with R&B? Teddy Riley, Dallas Austin, TLC

I sincerely hope that playing keys isnt enough to get you the genius tag.

Is it his songwriting/composition? Shit, Damn, Motherfucker is based on the first 5 notes of the E minor scale. Profound lyrics? Jonz In My Bonz aint gon get it. The song Brown Sugar uses the drug as a woman metaphor that has been around since drugs and women. Untitled, lyrically, was just hollow compared to the sensuality of the music that carries the song (“love to make you wet/in between your thighs…” is just not an appealing statement). But, I will admit that there were a couple lines on Voodoo that were well written

The fact that he’s a hood dude doing R&B? 99% of R&B artists are hood dudes.

So I’m left wondering where the genius tag is coming from. Well, no I’m not. The truth is that D’Angelo is a musician and we dont have those in popular music anymore. It blows kids minds just to SEE someone Black playing an instrument these days, nevermind if theyre any good at it. Black folks have become so detached from music itself that the actual craft of playing music is almost alien to them. The reasons for this are too numerous to go into here. In Black music, people only care about the vocalist. There are NO (not ONE) commercially viable Black bands. That speaks VOLUMES. The acts in Black music rarely accompany themselves with an instrument while they sing.The actual music part of the music industry isnt a factor anymore, at least not when it comes to Black folks. We think that all music comes from machines and old records. That’s just fucking pitiful and sad.

So when folks see a Black singer who accompanies themselves on an instrument, they figure that that person MUST be some kind of wunderkind, a prodigy,…even a genius. See Alicia Keys or John Legend.

I think Im the only person in the world to notice that Brown Sugar is made up of half-songs. The intro, verses, hooks, and bridges are done by the 2 min mark. Some of the songs LITERALLY have the first 2 min of music cut and pasted on after the singing is finished. Some of the grooves were cool, but nothing that would blow your head apart. The hype comes from the fact that here’s a dude doing music somewhat in the way it used to be done. Which brings up another problem with Black people and Black music–fetishization of Classic Black music. We are content to go thru the motions of making music like they did in the days when music was really good as the rule rather than the exception. We will play the instruments but we wont put forth the effort to come up with something not only satisfying musically, but original. Plinking out vanilla whole note chords on the Rhodes and playing really rudimentary stuff on bass and drums (“boom-clack/boom, clack” (c) Badu) behind it does not a soul legend make–just as playing dress up in your parent clothes doesnt make you an adult. Im not saying that D is guilty of this, but the acts who came behind him on the neo-soul bandwagon were.

Let’s remain clear: Im not saying that D’Angelo doesnt have any talent. He does. He had tons of potential. Unfortunately, that potential has not been fully realized. It takes time, study, and practice. Prince’s debut For You only hinted at his potential. Same with Stevie’s Music Of My Mind. How could we know that the guys who made the Dancing Machine album would make an album like Triumph? Sheeeit, Im sure Prince thought he had his stage shit DOWN until MJ sonned him on stage in front of James Brown in 1983. Look at Prince on stage before and after–there was a massive game upstepping in that period. Actually, Prince did the same thing to D’ after Voodoo dropped. Prince invited him on stage at Paisley Park and then proceeded to son him somn awful. I can see P like, “oh, you a legend???…you a genius???…well, let’s see if yo ass can hang wit me…”. Instead of learning from his sonning like P did, D’s spirit was broken and he hasnt been the same since.

That fact kinda backs up my theory that they dont make Jesses like they used to. You can break a new school cat pretty damn easy. Back in the day, Black folks had to be strong and rise to challenges cuz the world granted you no breaks, you had to sink or swim. My generation were the first Black kids that our parents confused nurturing with enabling, and it hasnt stopped. As a result, we have a nation of people, of all races, that are comfortable with excuses instead of achievement.

But I digress. What I gathered from Brown Sugar is that D’ liked girls, weed, hip-hop, and old records. So when the Black boho musical intelligentsia said that this next record was the real and true deal, I couldnt wait to dive in.

Upon my initial listens to Voodoo, I was happy to see the start of what I thought would be a musical talent growing before my eyes. We had been told that Voodoo was only the first step and that the music would keep coming to reveal the genius that lay within Michael Eugene Archer (where did the name D’Angelo come from?). Voodoo is a great first step, like Music Of My Mind, For You, Cant Buy A Thrill, etc. But we soon found out that that was it–there was no more to come.

While the album is enjoyable, the work within doesn’t justify a 5 year gestation period. This album could have been cooked up in a month, honestly. You want complexity and depth? Go check out Embrya by Maxwell. THAT album is some next level shit. Voodoo is a collection of simple, but nice grooves that are fine to groove to but doesnt re-invent the wheel. And D’Angelo is no musical genius on par with Prince, Stevie, James, Al, Curtis, etc. Now here’s the kicker. There is NOTHING wrong with that.

It is okay to be an above average musician. True genius is few and far between. I love the music of Hall and Oates. Are they geniuses? Hell naw. But they are very good at what they do. Roy Ayers? Love him. Genius? No. Commodores, Slave–great bands. Geniuses? No. Part of it is nature and part of it is nurture. It takes time to get to that master level. D was not given the time. His peers dropped a heavy crown on his head and left him to his own devices trying to wear it.

D has hinted that he feels a scary spiritual connection to Marvin Gaye. There are some obvious parallels, but one thing sticks out. Marvin Gaye thought of himself as a fraud. He didnt think that he was as good as everyone said he was (he was wrong). D has that same problem. All of his people are telling him that he is a musical genius of the highest order and that he is the Savior of Black music. The only part about that is that theyre the ones who are wrong, and deep in his heart he knows it and it tears him apart to try to live up to that expectation knowing that he’s not from that stock of musician. He fears being exposed, thus the lack of released work. What’s worse is that his peers point to his struggles as proof that he is a special breed, because all great soul men and artists are tortured, arent they?

Well, sorta. Alot of artists, great and not, are tortured. Some people are just tortured without the special gift part. Some greats are not tortured at all (see Stevie, Curtis).

The grooves on Voodoo are pleasant enough. Some of them touch the hem of funky. Some of them have a nice soulful feel. Some of them are just there. For an audience of lowered expectations, the fact that he fits the Johnny Bravo suit is enough to hoist D on their shoulders and call him the soul messiah.

As an artistic statement, what is Voodoo saying? What sentiment stays on our minds after the album has concluded. Well, we already know that D likes girls, weed, hip-hop, and old records. What does Voodoo tell us? It tells us that D likes girls, old records, and that he feels pressure to live up to expectations. Voodoo doesnt really have much of a perspective, whether inwardly or outwardly. Marvin let us know how he felt about the state of the world on What’s Going On. Stevie wanted to take us on a journey through life itself on SITKOL. MJ showed us how to make a perfect pop album with Thriller. It is my opinion that all truly great albums have some kind of statement, whether intentional or not-either overt or underlying.

Voodoo is the aural equivalent of a good ass sandwich. It does its job, doesnt offend, and gets you by. A great meal satisfies deeply, urges you to savor each bite, and stays with you for quite some time. We need both in our lives.

I say that if he chooses, let D continue to make good ass sandwiches. Without all the external pressure, maybe one day he’ll learn to be a great chef.