D’Angelo, Widely Revered R&B Singer and Innovator, Dies at 51

D’Angelo, the Grammy-winning R&B singer recognized by his raspy yet smooth voice and for innovating the genre of soul music, has died. He was 51.

The singer, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, died Tuesday, according to a statement from the family.

The singer’s family confirmed in a statement Tuesday that he died after a prolonged battle with cancer. They called him “a shining star of our family and has dimmed his light for us in this life,” adding that they are “eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind.”

In his music, D’Angelo blended hip-hop grit, emphatic soul and gospel-rooted emotion into a sound that helped spearhead the neo-soul movement of the 1990s. Earlier this year, the Virginia native celebrated the 30th anniversary of his debut studio album Brown Sugar, a platinum-selling offering that produced signature hits like “Lady” and the title track. The 1995 album earned him multiple Grammy nominations and cemented him as one of R&B’s most original new voices.

D’Angelo’s sultry vocal style — a mix of raspy texture and church-bred fluidity — set him apart from his peers. That voice became inseparable from the striking visuals of his 2000 single “Untitled (How Does It Feel).” The minimalist, shirtless music video became a cultural touchstone, igniting conversations around artistry, sexuality and vulnerability in Black male representation. The song earned him a Grammy for best male R&B vocal performance.

He later said in interviews that the attention on the “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” video, specifically at his body, became a burden for his self-image. While his sophomore album Voodoo topped the Billboard 200 chart and won the Grammy for best R&B album, D’Angelo gained a reputation for being reclusive and did not release another album for more than a decade.

However, 2014’s Black Messiah marked a long-awaited return to the studio, touching on familiar themes of love and relationships alongside police killings, as on the songs “The Charade” “1,000 Deaths.” The album won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and was voted Album of the Year in a Village Voice poll of music critics.

In the Bay Area, D’Angelo collaborated with Oakland native Raphael Saadiq, of Tony Toni Toné, to write “Untitled (How Does It Feel).” He performed a handful of times in the Bay Area, at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, the Fox Theater in Oakland, the Concord Pavilion and the Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park.

In 2015, D’Angelo visited Oakland to meet with Black Panthers cofounder Bobby Seale for a tour through the city and a robust conversation about police brutality.

Beyond his own catalog, D’Angelo’s artistry shined in collaborations. He memorably duetted with Lauryn Hill on the soulful ballad “Nothing Even Matters,” a highlight of her landmark 1998 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. He also contributed to The Roots’ 1996 album Illadelph Halflife and was part of the supergroup Black Men United, which yielded one song: “U Will Know,” which D’Angelo wrote and co-produced, for the film Jason’s Lyric in 1994.

D’Angelo was partnered to Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone in the ’90s. The pair met while he was finishing Brown Sugar and bonded over their similar backgrounds: Both are from the South and both grew up in the church. Stone worked on the album with D’Angelo and the pair co-wrote the song “Everyday” for her 1999 debut album, Black Diamond.

Stone described D’Angelo as her “musical soul mate,” to The Associated Press in 1999, adding that their working relationship was “’like milk and cereal … Musically, it was magic. It’s something that I have not been able to do with any other producer or musician.”

They had a son together, the artist Swayvo Twain, born Michael Archer Jr.

Stone died earlier this year in a car crash. She was 63.

D’Angelo also has a daughter, Imani Archer.

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and KQED Arts & Culture Senior Editor Gabe Meline contributed to this story.