25th Anniversary of Voodoo Retrospective

09 Jan 2025


Last week marked the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest album's of all time, D'Angelo's "Voodoo." Among a rotation of a few other classics, it's one of my favorite albums, and considering the project's legendary status and continued impact to this day, I wanted to write this post to appreciate the creative magic that went into crafting this iconic work of art. 

As a project that is both innovative and inherently inspired by prior classics in R&B, funk, soul, jazz, and latin music, D'Angelo created a timeless record with "Voodoo." Describing his creative process in crafting the album, D'Angelo said "I consider myself very respectful of the masters who came before. In some ways, I feel a responsibility to continue and take the cue from what they were doing musically and vibe on it. That's what I want to do. But I want to do it for this time and this generation." 

In this, D'Angelo's artistic integrity and dedication not only to the craft, but the lineage of it, is something I see is often missing in popular music today. The ability to be inspired, and build upon that inspiration to create something wholly new and truly innovative, is a skill that is harder and harder to find as samples and interpolations get lazier and lazier. 

My favorite aspect of this album though, is the teamwork and synergetic creative process that went into its recording. Fellow lovers of the neo-soul genre of course know the Soulquarians... with J Dilla, Erykah Badu, James Poysner, Questlove, and more influencing and adding their touch in collaborative studio sessions which produced many classics, including "Voodoo." When I lived in New York City, I was blessed with the opportunity of only living a block away from Electric Lady Studios. I would walk by it almost every day on the way to classes or internships. With this, as the studio where this album was recorded (along with countless other greats), you could still feel the energy and the history as you passed by. 

I could go on, but it says something that 25 years after it came out, a 23 year old kid from Colorado is posting about how much he loves it. Like Frank Ocean and a few other masters of their craft who know how to take their time with music, D'Angelo has only dropped one album between now and 2000 when "Voodoo" released. That follow up, "Black Messiah," is also amazing and quite underrated, but I won't get into that in this post. I say this to say, D'Angelo can continue to take his time with new music. I will be looking forward to it and streaming his timeless classics in the meantime.