Voodoo is the second studio album by American musician D'Angelo, released on January 25, 2000, through Virgin Records. D'Angelo recorded the album during 1998 and 1999 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with an extensive line-up of musicians associated with the Soulquarians musical collective. Produced primarily by the singer, Voodoo features a loose, groove-based funk sound and serves as a departure from the more conventional song structure of his debut album, Brown Sugar (1995). Its lyrics explore themes of spirituality, love, sexuality, maturation, and fatherhood.

Following heavy promotion and public anticipation, the album was met with commercial and critical success. It debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200, selling 320,000 copies in its first week, and spent thirty-three weeks on the chart. It was promoted with five singles, including the hit single "Untitled (How Does It Feel)", whose music video garnered D'Angelo mainstream attention and controversy. Critically, Voodoo was acclaimed as a masterpiece and earned D'Angelo several accolades, including the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album and top rankings in album polls for the year.

D'Angelo promoted Voodoo with an international supporting tour in late 2000. While successful early on, the tour became plagued by concert cancellations and D'Angelo's personal frustrations surrounding his sexualized public image from the album's marketing. Voodoo has since been regarded by music writers as a creative milestone of the neo soul genre during its apex and has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the United States, being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Voodoo was listed as 28th on Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Background

Following the success of his debut album Brown Sugar (1995), D'Angelo went into a four-and-a-half-year absence from the music scene and releasing solo work.PR. D'Angelo Signed to RCA Music Group (J Records) . PRWeb. Retrieved on February 27, 2019. His debut album presented a musical fusion of traditional soul and R&B influences with hip-hop vocal and production elements, serving as fundamental elements for the neo soul sound.Nero, Mark Edward. Neo-Soul: What Is Neo-Soul? . About.com. Retrieved on December 8, 2008.Baker, Soren. Old School's New Soul . Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on September 27, 2009. With its single-oriented success, Brown Sugar earned considerable sales success and defied the contemporary, producer-driven sound of the time, while earning popularity among mature R&B audiences and the growing hip-hop generation. Prior to its release, neo soul itself was undefined by a major artist or musical work, and was developing during the early 1990s through the work of artists such as Tony! Toni! Toné!, Me'Shell NdegéOcello, and Omar.Thompson (2001), pp. 104.Gonzales, Michael A. "Review: House of Music". Vibe: 168. December 1996.Coker, Cheo H. Review: Brown Sugar . Rolling Stone. Retrieved on December 8, 2008. The album also earned D'Angelo recognition for producing a commercial breakthrough for the genre and giving notice to other neo soul artists, including Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell.Peisner, David. "Body & Soul". Spin: 64–72. August 2008.

After spending two years on tour promoting Brown Sugar, D'Angelo found himself stuck with writer's block. On the setback, D'Angelo later stated "The thing about writer's block is that you want to write so fucking bad, [but] the songs don't come out that way. They come from life. So you've got to live to write." During this time, he generally released cover versions and remakes, including a cover-collaboration with Erykah Badu of the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet song "Your Precious Love" for the soundtrack to High School High (1996). D'Angelo also covered Prince's "She's Always in My Hair" for the Scream 2 soundtrack (1997), as well as the Ohio Players' "Heaven Must Be Like This" for the Down in the Delta soundtrack (1998). He also appeared on a duet, "Nothing Even Matters", with Lauryn Hill for her debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998). He also spent the time lifting weights, smoking marijuana, and making music.Farley, Christopher John. D'Angelo: Salvation Sex and Voodoo . Time. Retrieved on September 15, 2008.

Inspiration In 1998, he was inspired to write music again after the birth of his first child, Michael, with fellow R&B singer and then-girlfriend Angie Stone.PR. "Press Release: Voodoo". Virgin: January 2000. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008. He also traveled back to the South, spending time in South Carolina and in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, while reconnecting himself with the African-American musical history that had originally inspired him.Oblender (2001), pp. 35–36. Shortly after his son's birth and the release of his first live album Live at the Jazz Cafe (1998) through EMI Records, he began preparation for the recording of songs for Voodoo. In several interviews after its release, he cited his son's birth as an inspirational source and creative muse for him.Seymour, Craig. Why D'Angelo's No. 1 Album Almost Didn't Happen . Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on August 9, 2008. A dedication to his son Michael and daughter Imani was included in the album's liner notes, which were co-written by D'Angelo and writer/musician Saul Williams.Track listing and credits as per liner notes for Voodoo album In a press video accompanying the release of Voodoo, D'Angelo suggested that he was attempting to create a new sound for him that was in transition:Neal, Mark Anthony. Review: Voodoo . PopMatters. Retrieved on August 9, 2008. "My inspiration was just to go farther. To get to that next level. To push it even further. To work against the floss and the grain and to get even deeper into the sound that I'm hearing ... and the thing is, I'm just looking at Voodoo as just the beginning. I'm still developing and growing and still listening to that sound I hear inside my head ... So this is the first step".

In a February 1999 interview with music journalist Touré, D'Angelo discussed the album and elaborated on the events that had preceded its release, explaining how he had no initial plan for a follow-up. He also discussed his attempt to focus on his original inspiration to produce music, stating "The sound and feel of my music are going to be affected by what motivates me to do it". On his visit to South Carolina, D'Angelo stated that he "went through this runnel, through gospel, blues, and a lot of old soul, old James Brown, early, early Sly and the Family Stone, and a lot of Jimi Hendrix", and "I learned a lot about music, myself, and where I want to go musically". In the same interview, he cited the deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. as having a great effect on him during the period. In another interview with Touré, D'Angelo said that he had lost his enthusiasm after Brown Sugars reception and "was gettin' jaded, lookin' at what go on in the business". On his purpose for returning, D'Angelo stated "I had to reiterate why I was doin' that in the first place, and the reason was the love for the music". Dissatisfied with the direction of R&B and soul upon making the album, D'Angelo later explained to Jet that "the term R&B doesn't mean what it used to mean. R&B is pop, that's the new word for R&B."Columnist. "Hot Singer D'Angelo". Jet: 58–62. July 3, 2000. He also found contemporary R&B to be "a joke", adding that "the funny thing about it is that the people making this shit are dead serious about the stuff they're making. It's sad—they've turned black music into a club thing." In the liner notes for Voodoo, Saul Williams examined the album's concept and echoes D'Angelo's dissatisfaction with the mainstream direction of contemporary R&B/soul and hip-hop, noting a lack of artistic integrity in the two music genres.Williams (2000), pp. 3–4. In an interview for Ebony, D'Angelo said of his role and influences for Voodoo:

Recording and production

Beginning in 1996, Voodoo evolved from nearly four years of sessions and featured an extensive roster of R&B, hip-hop, and jazz musicians and recording technicians. Drummer and producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of the Roots was D'Angelo's "co-pilot" during the session. He and his crew studied bootleg videotapes of classic R&B artists such as Marvin Gaye, James Brown, and Jimi Hendrix, along with reruns of Soul Train,Touré (May 2000). Untitled Document: D'Angelo, May 2000. Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 2, 2011. at Electric Lady Studios, the Manhattan-based recording studio built by Jimi Hendrix. After watching a tape, they played a certain artist's album or catalog, jam, and recorded for inspiration. Touré of Rolling Stone observed, "One night they played Prince's Parade until they flowed into a new groove that became 'Africa'". On several occasions, D'Angelo listened to Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On (1971), which had an influential production.Hoskyns, Barney. Looking at the Devil: A Look Back at the Career of Sly Stone . The Observer. Retrieved on December 28, 2008. The crew recorded numerous hours of unreleased, original material, as well as covers of their influencers' material. Collectively referred to by D'Angelo as "yoda", these influencers included soul artist Al Green, funk artist George Clinton, and Afrobeat artist Fela Kuti.

During the initial recording sessions, D'Angelo also worked with personal trainer Mark Jenkins, who was hired to help him get into shape. As Questlove recounted, "Money was definitely overweight by '96, so they got him a drill sergeant physical trainer Mark Jenkins. This guy didn't take no shit. I cannot see D running in Central Park, but he did [...] Push-ups, weight room, sparring every day for three hours. He wouldn't take no shit."

Following the birth of his son, D'Angelo composed the album's first song "Send It On" in 1998 at a recording studio in Virginia. Shortly afterwards, he felt ready to begin the recording for Voodoo. D'Angelo wrote most of Voodoos material at Electric Lady Studios, as opposed to his method of composing outside the studio as he did for Brown Sugar. Recording sessions for what ended up on the album began in 1998 and continued through to 1999. On the sessions' environment, Touré wrote "What started as the follow-up to D'Angelo's 1995 platinum debut, Brown Sugar, became five years of study at Soul University, complete with classes, pranks, gossip and equal amounts of discipline and laziness." D'Angelo and Questlove have compared the environment to school. Music writer Trevor Schoonmaker examined D'Angelo's and Questlove's initial recording approach, stating "In the endless sessions for the record, the two spent hours trying to conjure the elusive 'vibe' necessary to provoke the album's creation, which included listening to hours of black music that escaped strict classification. Some of that found itself played out in ghostly ways on Voodoo."Schoonmaker (2003), p. 29.

Soulquarians and guests

Production for the album was conducted in a generally informal manner and took place at Electric Lady Studios simultaneously with recording for Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000) and Common's Like Water for Chocolate (2000). This led to impromptu collaborations and a distinctive sound that is featured on the three albums. Frequent visits to the studio were made by fellow neo soul and hip-hop recording artists associated with the Soulquarians collective such as Erykah Badu, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, James Poyser, and Mos Def.Kot, Greg. "A Fresh Collective Soul? ". Chicago Tribune: 1. March 19, 2000. Voodoos sessions also had visitors not associated with the project, including record producer Rick Rubin, comedian Chris Rock, and rock musician Eric Clapton. D'Angelo previewed songs for them, which they found impressive.