Album: Brown Sugar (EMI; 1995)
Songwriters: D'Angelo and Ali Shaheed Muhammad
R&B Peak Position: #5
"Brown sugar babe.../ I gets high off your love, don't know how to maintain"
By the mid-90's, claims that R&B had lost touch with it's "soul" were rampant. The meandering grooves and sultry musicianship of yesteryear had faded from view from a genre now mostly populated by an emphasis on hip hop-derived "beats" or over-polished, adult contemporary-leaning musings. That was until the arrival of Virginia-born D'Angelo, a singer/ songwriter/ producer and multi-instrumentalist, whose exciting brew of silky '70's soul with a '90's rap grit satisfied the cravings of those longing for some of that old-school verve.
Shaded in a delectable display of smoky, jazz-blues improv and ecstatic peaks of falsetto, D'Angelo's premier single "Brown Sugar" was a seducing bridging of yester-year and today. The song was structured with a conversational tone, with D explaining the appeal of this Philly chick he met with the title moniker. "The way that we kiss is unlike any other way/ That I be kissin' when I'm kissin' what I'm missin/ Won't you listen," he sings, in a eased flow that complimented the relaxed arrangement beneath him.
While the song could easily be taken as a tribute to a caramel-hued fox, it was in actuality a cleverly veiled ode to marijuana. A closer listen revealed it's true intention, with references to a "big sister by the name of Chocolate Thai" and lines like "Always down for a menage-a-trois/ But I think I'll hit it solo/ Hope my niggaz don't mind". Whether you "got it" or not, it was universally agreeable that the song was ultra-sexy, it's rich, bar-room musicality (lightly brushed with a retro dustiness) and his sly tenor accomplishing an aphrodisiac soul sensibility that hadn't been felt this strongly in years.
Breaking the barriers of what urban radio condoned at the time, "Brown Sugar"'s pleasure-inducing throwback air spearheaded a well-appreciated neo-soul movement that would flourish over the next few years with acts like Maxwell and Erykah Badu.
Best Moment: The wispy falsetto notes that billowed in the mix at the end of each chorus line, like the satisfied exhale of the finest sticky-icky.
DL: "Brown Sugar" (YFH)
1 comments:
I still play this song... I wish D would come back with some more hits.
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