R&B award-winning singer Michael Eugene Archer, known to fans as D’Angelo, died aged 51 after a battle with cancer, his family said in a statement.
His family said on Tuesday that the singer was leaving behind a “legacy of extraordinarily moving music” and asked fans to celebrate “the gift of song that he has left for the world”.
The influential singer was known for pioneering neo-soul, a genre blending R&B with other types of music, including hip-hop and jazz.
His three albums won him four Grammy Awards. The music video for his hit song, Untitled (How Does it Feel), gained mainstream attention after he performed in the one-shot video, naked, belting the song.
“The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life,” his family said in a statement obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner.
D’Angelo began his career as a songwriter, and worked alongside big names in music like Lauryn Hill and The Roots.
He rose to fame in the 1990s with his debut album Brown Sugar. His song, Lady, from that album reached the No. 10 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1996.
That song earned him multiple Grammy nominations and secured his spot in the music scene.
The son of a Pentecostal minister, D’Angelo was born in Richmond, Virginia, and taught himself to play piano at the age of three.
Throughout his adolescence, he performed locally in groups including Three of a Kind, Michael Archer and Precise, and Intelligent, Deadly but Unique (I.D.U.).
When he was 18, he won the amateur talent competition at Harlem’s Apollo Theater for three consecutive weeks; and was quickly signed to a publishing deal with EMI.
He established himself as a commercial force with his 1995 debut album, also called Brown Sugar, and won two Grammys for the 2000 follow-up, Voodoo.
However, he subsequently struggled with alcoholism and nearly died behind the wheel in a car crash in 2005.
He returned to music in 2014 with Black Messiah – an album in the works for years – which he finished after watching the national unrest prompted by protests over the failure to convict police officers in the deaths of the unarmed black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
It went on to win the Grammy for best R&B album in February 2016.
Among those paying tribute were hip-hop legend DJ Premier, who produced D’Angelo’s song Devil’s Pie.
“Such a sad loss,” he wrote on social media. “We have so many great times. Gonna miss you so much. Sleep Peacefully D’ Love You KING.”
2020’s Voodoo album topped the US charts and in their most recent list of the greatest albums of all time, Rolling Stone magazine placed it at 28 – one place above The Beatles’ White Album.
He had been working in the studio on what would have been his fourth album with Raphael Saadiq. Tributes have started to come in with hip hop star Tyler the Creator posting a black and white photo and Flavor Flav from Public Enemy calling him an icon.
