Outpoll | Nile Rodgers Honors D'Angelo with a Personal Memory

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Nile Rodgers Honors D'Angelo with a Personal Memory

Nile Rodgers Honors D'Angelo with a Personal Memory

2 days ago7 min read2 comments

In a moment that felt less like a social media post and more like a quiet, sacred track added to the great mixtape of music history, Nile Rodgers of Chic just honored the late, incomparable D’Angelo with a memory so personal it resonates like a perfect bassline. Taking to Instagram, the legendary guitarist and co-founder of a band that fundamentally rewired the DNA of funk and disco didn’t just offer a generic RIP; he shared a keepsake, a tangible fragment of a moment shared between two giants who operated on the same spiritual frequency of soul.Rodgers recounted their meeting, a memory he’s clearly held close, and the artifact from it—perhaps a photograph, a scrawled note, or something else entirely—serves as a physical testament to a connection that transcended genre and generation. This isn't merely celebrity mourning; this is a curator of rhythm paying homage to a modern master of it, a passing of the torch that was already glowing brightly in both their hands.D’Angelo, whose 2000 album 'Voodoo' stands as a monolithic achievement in neo-soul, was a musician’s musician, a artist who treated the studio like a sanctuary and every groove as a prayer. His work, from the raw sensuality of 'Brown Sugar' to the complex, jazz-inflected layers of his later work, was built on the very foundations that Rodgers helped pour with Chic’s timeless, impossibly tight rhythms.Think about it: the crackling, live-in-the-studio feel of 'Voodoo,' with its intentional imperfections and human pulse, is a direct philosophical descendant of the Chic Organization’s method—that relentless pursuit of the 'good times' groove that feels both meticulously crafted and utterly spontaneous. For Rodgers, a man who has collaborated with everyone from Bowie to Madonna and whose 'Good Times' riff is arguably the most sampled in history, to single out D’Angelo in this way speaks volumes about the latter’s unique genius.It underscores a lineage, a continuum of Black music where the funk of the '70s didn't die but was distilled, fermented, and reborn in the '90s and 2000s through artists like D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, and the Soulquarians collective. This Instagram post, therefore, is more than a tribute; it's an annotation in the grand syllabus of soul, a footnote from one professor to another. It reminds us that while the artists may leave us, the conversation their music started continues, echoing in the memories of those who shared the stage, the studio, or even just a moment in time, their mutual admiration now a permanent part of the record.