D’Angelo recorded Brown Sugar in New York in 1994 and 1995 with Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest, producer Bob Power, and Raphael Saadiq. He was 21 years old. The title track came together by accident during a session with Muhammad in a New Jersey home studio. D’Angelo played everything himself on many tracks — piano, bass, drums, organ — drawing on Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Prince but refusing to replicate any of them. Brown Sugar effectively launched the neo-soul movement and gave a name to a generation of artists — Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Lauryn Hill — who were reaching back to classic soul at the exact moment hip-hop was consuming everything else. The album sold over a million copies and earned four Grammy nominations.
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