Untitled (How The Passing of D’Angelo Made Me Feel)

When I heard the news of D’Angelo’s death on 14th October, 2025, I realised my image of him was frozen in time. He died at 51? He was in his twenties and in good health the last time I checked. Excellent health, if the “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” video were any indication. But time has passed, and so has the neo-soul pioneer. All that’s left are memories and a wealth of artistic excellence across (just) three albums.

Artist – D’ANGELO

Song – “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”

Album – Voodoo (2000)

This post is not an obituary. If you’re interested in learning about D’Angelo’s life and career in detail, go through the many interesting articles from outlets such as The Guardian, Variety or Rolling Stone. But only after reading this one, of course! What I offer you is a personal experience with D’Angelo’s music, which each fan cherishes in their own way.

Voodoo

It’s been 25 years, and some memories are a bit fuzzy. I don’t remember, for example, how I got a copy of D’Angelo’s widely anticipated second album. Was it a gift, or did I go to the record shop myself? Did I have the money for it? Did I save it? CDs were expensive in those days!

Millennials were the last generation to have this experience: saving to buy music or hoping that someone — or your friends — would get together to buy you a CD that they would also listen to when you finally lent it to them. We had a system.

What I do remember, though, is the enthusiasm surrounding Voodoo and the unanimous rave reviews. Why was this album so anticipated? Why were critics losing their minds with D’Angelo’s sophomore work? Who was D’Angelo? I didn’t have the answers to any of these questions. But what I ended up having was the album in my hands.

D’Angelo: a neo-soul pioneer

The term ‘neo soul’ only made part of my lexicon years after meeting D’Angelo. Obviously, I didn’t meet him in person — that would have been such a revelation! But Voodoo gave me the immediate impression of being introduced to something completely new. Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu are two other names associated with the genre, and they were already on my radar.

However, D’Angelo was somewhat different: there was a musical ingenuity in him that awed me. It wasn’t an instant process, though. When I first played Voodoo on the CD player, I didn’t really know what I was listening to. Superstitious as I am, the title alone made me uneasy: “What kind of voodoo am I inviting into my house?” — the thought, alone, was ill-informed, I admit it.

A spiritual connection between the past and the present

Soon, I realised the title was related to a profound love and respect for music as art, and for the people who established canons and traditions. Music has a powerful, spiritual nature, well represented in African traditions and wandering spirits. D’Angelo, himself, found music in the church and revealed his talent for the piano at the age of three.

And talking about being superstitious, the number three is deeply symbolic in D’Angelo’s life and career: playing the piano at three; Three of a Kind was one of the groups he performed with in his teens; three solo albums; and last but not least, the singer had three children: Michael, Imani and Morocco.

Voodoo intersects the new with the classic in a balanced blend of savoury flavours. Every element works in harmony without being overpowering. My favourite tracks? “Left & Right” featuring Method Man and Redman, “Spanish Joint” and D’Angelo’s take on Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love”. But there’s one song that rose above the rest by adding an extra, unexpected ingredient: a scalding music video.

“Untitled (How Does It Feel)”

Where were you when you watched the “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” video for the first time? Again, my memory is a bit hazy, but I’m certain there was a pre-launch campaign to let us know something big was coming. What we didn’t realise was that it would be big and seemingly naked. And I’m comfortably using “we” because everybody was caught by surprise. There was so much of D’Angelo on that screen! (By the way, the skin was glistening: he looked beautiful!).

Obviously, the video brought even more attention to the album, which reached number one in the US. We can’t deny it: having a muscular D’Angelo slowly gyrating his partly naked body (reportedly, he was wearing pyjama pants all along) with a pout on his lips while asking us “How Does It Feel?” produces a tantalising visual effect.

However, this was not the outcome that D’Angelo was looking for. The video wasn’t even his idea to begin with!

It didn’t feel that nice after all!

The “Untitled” video may have stirred a new set of emotions in my young self, but that doesn’t even compare to what D’Angelo went through. Despite exuding sex appeal and confidence in the video, the singer didn’t even want to get out of the car to shoot it. He had to be convinced by his manager, Dominique Trenier, who was the mastermind behind it. Just check journalist Touré’s IG story below for the whole picture.

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D’Angelo sensed the video would change the way people perceived him and his art. And his fears were widely confirmed! From being seen as the future of a new musical genre, all of a sudden, D’Angelo felt the fans were treating him like a stripper — they demanded to see him without his shirt in concerts to get that video experience live!

Oh, the dangers of objectification! The idea of a music genius with abs is too much to bear for the common soul. All that unwanted attention contributed to a 14-year hiatus between albums: D’Angelo would only release his third and final solo album, Black Messiah, in 2014.

Commercial peak with a flavour of grandmum’s kitchen

Nevertheless, Voodoo and “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” represent D’Angelo’s commercial peak and the album and track he’s most known for: he won two Grammy Awards for Best R&B album and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, respectively.

“Think of your grandmother’s greens, how it smelled in the kitchen. What did the yams and fried chicken taste like? That’s what I want you to express”.

By the way, if you’ve always wondered what or who D’Angelo was thinking about while shooting the “Untitled” video, the following lines might surprise you. I wouldn’t have believed it at the time, but after reading how the video was ‘contrived’ (I can’t get over the fact that D’Angelo wasn’t comfortable with it), it made sense.

Paul Hunter, the director, told Rolling Stone that “the goal was to make a stripped-down, unfiltered music video of D’Angelo performing the song in a really honest way. We wanted to light him beautifully and just make it very honest and raw”. And how did Hunter accomplish it? He offered D’Angelo sources of inspiration: “Think of your grandmother’s greens, how it smelled in the kitchen. What did the yams and fried chicken taste like? That’s what I want you to express”.

Food: the quintessential aphrodisiac of the mind! Do consume it with pleasure, but responsibly. Otherwise, you may end up in a music video scantily dressed, or fully undressed (as far as my eyes could see).

How The Passing of D’Angelo Made Me Feel

Never Date an Artist because they’ll fuse with their music to become one single entity. And when that happens, there’s no way to break them apart. Their art will give them immortality, which their human body will try to carry for as long as it can. But we’ll forever feel their presence through their music. That’s why music is art — because it’s an eternal gift to humanity.

Despite knowing this, reconciling art’s timelessness with life’s finitude is not easy. When our favourite music artists pass, we feel… I feel that some glorious cycle has been abruptly interrupted. How did D’Angelo’s passing make me feel? Get to the end of “Untitled” and you’ll get your answer.  

How about you? What did D’Angelo’s music mean to you? What were your thoughts when you heard he had died? Go ahead and share them in the comments below, or click here to send me a message.