Hey there, if you're listening to this and you support us on Patreon, you can hear it via the Patreon page and free.

You're listening to Sound Opinions, and this week we're talking with the legendary bassist, Peno Paladino.

An artist so prolific, he's played with everyone from the WHO to D'Angelo.

I'm Jim D. Rigatis, and I'm Greg Kott.

And speaking of D'Angelo, we've got a classic album dissection of his 2000 masterpiece, Voodoo.

That's a little bit of the song, play a play by D'Angelo, the first track office 2000 album, Voodoo.

Today we're doing a classic album dissection of that record.

The story of Voodoo and what followed is absolutely fascinating.

It absolutely is, Greg.

Before we dive into talking about the record, let's give some background about who D'Angelo is as an artist.

Is born Michael Eugene Archer, 1974, grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the surrounding area,

came up in the church as the son of a pentacostal preacher and fell in love with music,

especially classics, soul, R&B, and funk.

And you can hear those influences all over his songs, was originally part of that neo-soul movement.

People in that genre getting back to, you know, recording with real instruments away from synthesized

productions. After being a member of a couple of different groups, he signed in 1991, age 17 to EMI.

And he worked as a songwriter until his debut in 1995, the Brown Sugar Record.

Now, Brown Sugar was a huge hit, Jim, and many felt at the time that this young artist,

D'Angelo, was taking up the mantle from Grace like Marvin Gaye, with those sultry vocals and

those very soulful songs. And around this time, he took a step in a different direction.

He joined the musical collective, the Soul Quarance, which included artists like Questlove,

Jay Dilla, Erica Badu, Common, Mose Dev, and Q-tip to name just a few.

...