D’Angelo—“Untitled (How Does It Feel)”

60 Songs That Explain the '90s

The Ringer

Music

4.7 • 849 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 113 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, Rob breaks down one of the many impossible expectations we have for our musical stars—the memorial performance. After years of staying out of the public eye, D’Angelo paid tribute to the artist he grew up imitating, Prince, not because he was expected to but because he had something to share. The bulk of D’Angelo’s career was spent defying our expectations, from taking his time between each of his three studio albums to refusing to become a one-dimensional sex symbol after the release of his “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” music video. Rob speaks to author and poet Hanif Abdurraqib about how we misinterpreted this music video and how we should all be grateful we were born at a time when we could listen to D’Angelo. Host: Rob Harvilla Producers: Justin Sayles and Olivia Crerie Additional Video Editing: Kevin Pooler Guest: Hanif Abdurraqib Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Birthday coming up?
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0:07.0	Celebrate Stylish Julia with a cute vintage jewelry box.
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0:15.0	Or your caffeine-loving dad with a handmade pour-over coffee maker.
0:19.0	Don't just celebrate birthdays.
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0:33.6	People often ask me. They rob what was it really like being a rock critic back in the
0:45.9	late 2000s and what i always say is i once live blogged Michael Jackson's funeral.
0:57.6	This is a moment that I wished that I didn't live to see come.
1:07.5	No one has ever asked me what it was really like being a rock critic in the late 2000s, but
1:13.0	if anyone ever did ask me, that's what I would say. On Tuesday, July 7th, 2009, I helped
1:20.7	live blog Michael Jackson's funeral. Live blogging anything is a fundamentally perverse and debasing activity, much like
1:31.1	taxidermy or pickleball. Live blogging a funeral is sicko behavior. Objectively, what is wrong with me?
1:39.9	Stevie Wonder is on stage, sitting somberly at a piano with a palpable, unbearable grief and shock and heaviness in his voice.
1:50.1	And meanwhile, I'm watching on my computer at my desk at the village voice doofily typing away.
1:56.6	Like do, do, do, do, do do do.
1:58.6	I do know that as much as we may feel, and we do, that we need Michael here with us.
2:07.5	God must have needed him far more.
2:10.0	To paraphrase Grandpa Simpson, live blogging was the style at the time.
2:15.1	I don't know what to tell you.
	...

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