Send it On probably sealed the deal for me when it comes to D’angelo.
When I heard the Brown Sugar album I was a fan, when I then heard the Voodoo album I was a student of D’angelo.
I studied his work like an evolutionist studies Darwin. I payed close attention to the way he enthused old school soul with hip hop sensibilities. I studied his delayed bass lines and his swing drum pattern like they had the meaning of life hidden somewhere within in them.
D’angelo is a straight up genius, not alot of people understand that yet. He is so far ahead of his time that I have not heard a single new school R’n'B/Soul album that comes close to Voodoo. I also think when you talk about D’angelo, you have to mention him in the same breath and James Brown, Prince and Jimmy. The man plays the majority of the instruments you hear on the Brown Sugar albums and writes pretty much all the songs from both LPs. He is a genius.
Send it On is the one song that captures all of D’angelo’s best characteristics in a single song. If somebody wanted to know what D’angelo was all about I would play them this song over Untitled or Brown Sugar.
