A decade ago, D'Angelo and his public-dominating muscles were at the top of the intersecting world between hip-hop and soul music, but he's been notably absent in recent years. Now, the elusive singer has finally surfaced for an interview with The Urban Daily -- his first in nine years. Unfortunately, they were barred from asking about D'Angelo's current songs, album or legal troubles, but D did reveal his current inspirations and confirm that a new album is finally in the works. "I just got turned on to this group called Black Merda that I'm just kinda beating myself up over because I'd never heard of them before," D'Angelo explained. "I think about a couple of months ago, my boy turned me on to them. I'm just revisiting groups that are basically looked at like funk groups or funk artists, but I'm looking at it differently now. These guys who were really trying to push the envelope back then, I think they were just a head of their time as far as black rock is concerned."
This could be a definite hint about where the artist's new material is headed. He also took time to explain that real music lives on in the underground and that he doesn't really pay attention to major labels and industry politics.
"I think it's out there, but there's a lot of folks, people in power, record executives or what have you, that are less willing to take chances on s--- that might be different," he continued. "But I think there's a underground bubbling up under. A lot of black folks are trying to do different s--- or they wanna do different s---. I don't know the condition of what's going on in the business right now, but they're having a hard time cracking through."
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