Personnel: D'Angelo (vocals, various instruments); Rafael Saadiq (guitar, bass); Mark Whitfield, Bob Power (guitar); Laura Vivino (flute, piccolo); Bob "Bassy" Brockman (trumpet); Tim Christian (piano); Larry Grenadier, Will Lee (bass); Gene Lake, Ralph Rolle (drums); Ali Shaheed Muhammad (drum programming).
Producers: D'Angelo, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Bob Power, Rafael Saadiq.
Engineers: Bob Power, G-Spot, Darrin Harris.
Recorded at Pookie Lab, Sacramento, California; Battery Studios and RPM Studios, New York.
The single "Brown Sugar" was nominated for 1996 Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song, and the album was nominated for Best R&B Album.
"Lady" was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
Japanese version features three extra versions of "Brown Sugar."
By the mid-'90s, most urban R&B had become rather predictable, working on similar combinations of soul and hip-hop, or relying on vocal theatrics on slow, seductive numbers. With his debut album, Brown Sugar, the 21-year-old D'Angelo crashed down some of those barriers. D'Angelo concentrates on classic versions of soul and R&B, but unlike most of his contemporaries, he doesn't cut and paste older songs with hip-hop beats; instead, he attacks the forms with a hip-hop attitude, breathing new life into traditional forms. Not all of his music works -- there are several songs that sound incomplete, relying more on sound than structure. But when he does have a good song -- like the hit "Brown Sugar," Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'," or the bluesy "Shit, Damn, Motherfucker," among several others -- D'Angelo's wild talents are evident. Brown Sugar might not be consistently brilliant, but it is one of the most exciting debuts of 1995, giving a good sense of how deep D'Angelo's talents run. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All the new jacks who talk about molding the forces of classic R&B's style, hip-hop's modernism, and jazz's flexibility into a sleek, soulful package should take a good close look at D'Angelo's debut. BROWN SUGAR is audacious enough to succeed on aesthetics alone. Instead of stilted, synthetic textures, there is the constant warmth of a Fender Rhodes electric piano (evoking Stevie and Marvin's mid-'70s records), and rather than filling the air with shrieking castrato vocals, there are four-part harmonies peeking out from behind every corner. In short, BROWN SUGAR is an honest-to-goodness soul record without the hollow bluster of modern soul.
Some of the credit for this must go to the 21-year-old's choice of collaborators--or the absence of. Rather than hand his talents over to any of the uber-producers who rule modern R&B, D'Angelo handles most tasks himself--from writing and producing to arranging and playing (including all vocals and most of the instrumentation). When he does turn for help, D'Angelo takes on musicians with distinctive feels--Tribe Called Quest DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Tony! Toni! Toné!'s Rafael Saadiq--then works to their strengths. "Brown Sugar" percolates between Muhammad's breathy, organic jazz track, accented by a sleek snare and laid-back piano, and D'Angelo's playful, sexually-charged delivery. On "Lady," Saadiq's funky licks try to steal the song away from the melodious Four Tops-like chorus, playing to a wonderful draw. When alone, D'Angelo sculpts pieces as warmly innovative as "When We Get By," with its swingin' stride bass, and as traditionally uplifting as the gospel "Higher," on which D'Angelo's organ competes for the spotlight with a choir of his voices. minimize