Neo-soul music star D’Angelo has died aged 51, his family shared that he passed away after a long battle with cancer.
The singer found success in the mid 90’s and early 2000’s with his soulful tunes including Brown Sugar and Untitled (How Does It Feel), the latter having an iconic video which saw the singer standing naked and singing.
The track won a Grammy award for Best Male R&B vocal, while his album was named best R&B album of the year.
“The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life… After a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer, we are heartbroken to announce that Michael D’Angelo Archer, known to his fans around the world as D’Angelo, has been called home,” his family said in a statement to Variety.
His death has been attributed to pancreatic cancer.
Much of his early work was inspired by his relationship with singer Angie Brown who he met while recording his debut album Brown Sugar. He helped produce her acclaimed album Black Diamond. Together the couple had a son Michael Archer Jnr, who is professionally known as Swaylo Twain.
The couple broke up after D’Angelo fathered another child outside of the relationship. Stone died earlier this year, tragically killed in a car accident. D’Angelo would go on to have a third child in another relationship.
As his fame grew D’Angelo struggled with alcoholism and substance abuse and he only put out one more album. Black Messiah came out in 2014, 14 years after his hugely successful Voodoo record. He was reportedly working on a new album with producer Raphael Saadiq at the time of his passing.
