Outpoll | Lauryn Hill Pays Tribute to D'Angelo After His Death

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Lauryn Hill Pays Tribute to D'Angelo After His Death

Lauryn Hill Pays Tribute to D'Angelo After His Death

2 days ago7 min read4 comments

The news hit the music world with the force of a sudden, dissonant chord resolving into a heartbreaking minor key: D’Angelo, the neo-soul virtuoso whose velvet voice and pioneering artistry defined an era, has died at 51 after a battle with cancer. In a wave of grief that washed over social media and the industry alike, Lauryn Hill added her voice to the chorus of mourning, her tribute standing as a profound acknowledgment from one icon to another.This isn't just the passing of a singer; it's the silencing of a seismic force in modern music, a man whose 1995 debut ‘Brown Sugar’ didn’t just arrive on the scene—it curated a new one, blending soul, funk, R&B, and hip-hop into a smooth, intoxicating concoction that felt both timeless and urgently new. He was the architect of a soul renaissance, a perfectionist in the studio whose work with the Soulquarians collective—a lineup that included Questlove, J Dilla, and Common—forged a new sonic scripture for a generation.His 2000 masterpiece, ‘Voodoo’, was a raw, hypnotic, and deeply funky opus that deconstructed rhythm itself, its grooves feeling less played and more conjured, with the iconic, minimalist video for ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ cementing his status as a magnetic, albeit reluctant, sex symbol. Yet, for all the adulation, D’Angelo’s relationship with fame was a complex and often torturous melody; he retreated from the spotlight for nearly 15 years, a period marked by personal struggles, before returning with the critically acclaimed ‘Black Messiah’ in 2014, an album that proved his genius had only deepened, channeling the social unrest of the time into a work of fiery, political funk.For an artist like Hill, whose own journey through the crucible of fame and artistic integrity mirrors his in so many ways, her tribute carries the weight of a shared understanding—a recognition of the immense cost and the incandescent beauty of creating music that truly matters. The silence he leaves behind is not an empty one; it is filled with the reverberations of his influence, heard in the work of everyone from Anderson.Paak to H. E.R. , a testament to a legacy that, like the best soul records, is built to last, to be rediscovered, and to move listeners for generations to come. The final track may have played, but the album is on eternal repeat.