Brown Sugar is the debut studio album by the American musician D'Angelo, released on July 3, 1995, through EMI. The album was recorded during 1994 and 1995 in sessions at Battery Studios and RPM Studios in New York City and at the Pookie Lab in Sacramento. Its production, instrumentation, arrangements, and songwriting were primarily handled by D'Angelo, who employed both vintage recording equipment and modern electronic devices. The songs feature earnest lyrics about love and romance, set against a fusion of contemporary R&B and traditional soul music with elements of funk, quiet storm, and hip hop music.
Brown Sugar debuted at number 6 on the US Billboard Top R&B Albums chart, selling 300,000 copies in its first two months. With the help of its four singles, it spent sixty-five weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and received Platinum certification within a year of its release. Brown Sugar was met with widespread acclaim and earned D'Angelo accolades including four Grammy Award nominations. Regarded by music journalists as a pivotal release in neo soul, the album brought commercial exposure to the burgeoning musical movement amid the prominence of producer-driven, digitally approached R&B. Brown Sugar is also widely credited with launching the neo-soul movement, with the term "neo soul" in fact even being coined by D'Angelo's manager Kedar Massenburg in the short time after the album became a success.
Background
By 1991, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael D'Angelo Archer had formed his native–Richmond, Virginia, musical group—Michael Archer and Precise—and had achieved success on the Amateur Night competition at Harlem's Apollo Theater. Soon after, he dropped out of school and moved to New York City The group had previously enjoyed some notice in Richmond, evenly dividing their repertoire between soul covers and originals, while D'Angelo accumulated compositions of his own and developed his songwriting skills.
After a brief tenure as a member of the hip hop group I.D.U. (Intelligent, Deadly but Unique), D'Angelo signed a publishing deal with EMI Music in 1991 after catching the attention of record executives through a demo tape, which was originally by the group. After impressing EMI execs with a three-hour impromptu piano recital, D'Angelo was signed to a recording contract in 1993. A&R-man Gary Harris was primarily responsible for his signing, while manager Kedar Massenburg helped negotiate the contract as well. Massenburg became D'Angelo's manager after hearing of him through "the buzz on the streets". D'Angelo composed the music for "U Will Know", while his brother, Luther Archer, wrote the lyrics. Featured on the soundtrack to the film Jason's Lyric (1994), the single peaked at number 5 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for "U Will Know" featured D'Angelo as the group's choir director; he reprised the role for the live performance of the song at the Soul Train Music Awards. The success of "U Will Know" helped build the buzz surrounding D'Angelo, which was followed by a number of highly promoted performance showcases, and added to the buzz among music industry insiders. he began writing and recording most of the material that would constitute Brown Sugar during 1991 and 1992. Additional recording took place at Back Pocket Studios in New York City for the track "Cruisin'". While most of the production was handled by D'Angelo, other producers contributed as well, including Saadiq, Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest and studio engineer Bob Power. The album was later mastered by engineer Herb Powers Jr. at The Hit Factory mastering studio in New York City. these factors inspired him during the making of Brown Sugar, as D'Angelo drew upon his roots of traditional gospel and soul, and infused the sound of contemporary R&B and hip hop music to create a stylistically unique and soulful sound for the album. Its production contrasts the producer-driven and digital approach of contemporary R&B at the time of its release.
right|thumb|The album's title track was produced by D'Angelo and [[Ali Shaheed Muhammad (2008).]]
The album's sound is prominently driven by keyboards, sensual vocals, and smooth melodies, while it evokes the work of such artists as Prince, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Isley Brothers. The quiet storm love song "Cruisin'", a cover of Robinson's 1979 hit of the same name, features a string section. Along with the album's modern aesthetic and vintage texture,
Vocals
D'Angelo's singing throughout Brown Sugar is a gospel-influenced, falsetto crooning style, Despite the album's retro influence, music writers have noted his delivery as having a hip hop approach and "swagger", as one critic described the album as a "blend of classic soul and urban attitude". Music journalist Jon Caramanica later called D'Angelo a "classicist, in other words, cloaked in the guise of a hip-hop roughneck." The title track features the most hip hop influence on the album, as Ali Shaheed Muhammad's co-production for the song developed a seamless integration of hip hop beats into D'Angelo's old school-influenced material. who has been noted by music writers for exploring the "eternal dichotomy" of spirituality and sexuality. in comparison to most contemporary R&B at the time. "Shit, Damn, Motherfucker" was cited by Shapiro as "the nastiest cheating song since that hoary old standard of 60s rock, 'Hey Joe'",
Marketing and sales
Brown Sugar was released on July 3, 1995, by EMI. The album debuted at number 6 on the US Billboard Top R&B Albums chart in the week of July 22, 1995. It ultimately peaked at number 4 in the week of February 24, 1996, and spent a total of 54 weeks on the chart. Brown Sugar also spent 65 weeks on the Billboard 200 and peaked at number 22 on the chart. It sold 300,000 copies within its two months of release. The album had been selling 35,000 to 40,000 copies a week through to November 1995, With the help of its four singles, including the Gold-certified, half-million-selling Billboard Hot 100 hit "Lady" and R&B Top 10 singles "Brown Sugar" and "Cruisin'", the album reached sales of 500,000 copies in the United States by October 1995.
In late 1995, D'Angelo toured in promotion of the album, and his concert at The Jazz Café in London produced the 1996 live album Live at the Jazz Cafe. On February 7, 1996, Brown Sugar was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, following shipments in excess of one million copies in the U.S. Its total sales have been estimated by several sources within the range of 1.5 million to over two million copies.
Brown Sugar was re-released as a two-disc deluxe edition on August 25, 2017, by Virgin and Universal Music Enterprises. The reissue featured remastering by Russell Elevado, a 20-page booklet essayed by Nelson George, and 21 additional songs. The bonus material included instrumentals, a cappella versions, and remixes by CJ Mackintosh, Dallas Austin, King Tech, Erick Sermon, and Incognito; seven of the 21 additional songs had never been released before commercially, while the others were previously available only on vinyl.
Critical reception and legacy
Brown Sugar was acclaimed by contemporary music critics. In his review for Vibe, James Hunter wrote that he is "determined to give pre-hip hop forms like blues, soul, gospel, and jazz a mid-'90s vibe", and "inhabits his songs from odd angles, without non-stop Vandross-style aural showmanship." Rolling Stone magazine's Cheo H. Coker praised Brown Sugar for its soulful sound and musical deviation from the New Jack-style of R&B at the time, stating: