Grammy-winning R&B singer and songwriter Michael Eugene Archer, who recorded as D’Angelo, died of cancer on Oct. 14. He was 51. The Virginia native began playing piano at age three, and was signed to his first record contract at 17. He wrote his first hit, "U Will Know,” in 1994, and went on to write and/or record “Brown Sugar,” “Cruisin’,” “Lady,” “Left & Right,” “Really Love, and “Unshaken,” among others. “I’m just like a sponge, you know, just trying to soak everything in,” D’Angelo said of his creative process. “Years and years of crate-digging, listening to old music, you kind of start to connect the dots. I was seeing the thread that was connecting everything together, which is pretty much the blues. Everything soul or funk kind of starts with that.”
D’Angelo, “How Does It Feel” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxVNOnPyvIU&list=RDSxVNOnPyvIU&start_radio=1
