Two weeks ago it was announced that D'Angelo would take part in a tribute to the late-great Prince, who passed this past April, at this year's BET Music Awards. This was a no-brainer because D'Angelo just may be the biggest Prince fan in the world. He has paved much of his long and successful music career in the similar steps of Prince did with his multi-instrumental skills and wide vocal range and styles. D'Angelo's most popular song "Untitled (How Does it Feel)" was said to be a direct tribute to Prince in 2000 by D'Angelo himself. D'Angelo even attempted to create an album where he plays every single instrument on it, as Prince has done before. However, this attempt ultimately resulted in D'Angelo scrapping the album and became a major contributing factor in his 14 year hiatus from music. The two did have chances to meet and work with one another, but it is unsure whether any of the music that came from the two would ever be released to the public.
On April 26, 2016, just days after Prince passed, D'Angelo made a rare national TV appearance on The Jimmy Fallon Show and performed a heartbreaking cover of Prince's "Sometimes it Snows in April." During the performance on live national TV, D'Angelo replaced some of the lyrics in the song to say, "I often think of heaven, and I know that Prince is there." After this line he appears to begin to break down and causes him to miss the next line. D'Angelo was visibly teary eyed throughout the performance. This was a huge honor for him to commemorate his idol on national TV. When presented with the spot on the BET Awards to perform a tribute with Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monaé and The Roots this seemed like the ultimate honor and spotlight for D'Angelo to honor his fallen idol. However, on the night of the awards, D'Angelo was nowhere to be found at the Southern California theatre to deliver his tribute in the limelight.
Speculation began that D'Angelo was a no-show after one of D'Angelo's closest friends and colleagues Questlove responded to fans on Twitter asking about D'Angelo's performance with "Not gonna happen" in a disgruntled fashion. Questlove knows a thing or two about D'Angelo not following through on prior commitments. He met D'Angelo in 1998 and played drums on every track on D'Agenlo's critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning album "Voodoo." The two have had multiple collaborations throughout the years including the majority of D'Angelo's newest album "Black Messiah." As long as Questlove has know D'Angelo. he has known one thing about him that affects him heavily; he is incredibly insecure. D'Angelo used to be a chubby quiet kid but got himself into incredible shape for "Voodoo" and put his new-earned body on display for the entire world to see in the music video for his breakout song "Untitled (How Does it Feel)." The music video features a seemingly-naked D'Angelo on display from the waist upward for the entire song. With this arguably being the best shape of his life that D'Angelo had ever been in he was setting the bar awfully high for himself appearance wise.
"Take it off" was a common phrase D'Angelo would hear while on stage for his Voodoo tour. In an interview with music jounalist Touré, Questlove explained how this infuriated D'Angelo that all his fans were wanting was for him to strip for them rather than put on a musical spectacle. There were nights that D'Angelo would look in the mirror before shows and say "I don't look like the video," and then push-back the performance for up to an hour and a half to do 2,000 abdominal crunches and would sometimes just not perform out of insecurity all together. This insecurity lead to D'Angelo cancelling many shows, the remainder of tours, musical collaborations, studio time, pushing back album deadlines and neglecting to pay those who had worked with him in the past. He was so insecure that he believed he had to play every single instrument on his following album to have any sort of musical respect. This insecurity lead him into alcoholism, drug addictions, losing close relationships and a 14 year drought for him releasing any music.
Last Sunday would have been D'Angelo's first live performance at an awards show in over a decade. I feel that his insecurity may have gotten the best of him at the last minute. Being poised to pay tribute to your idol on one of the biggest national stages is no easy task to live up to. Maybe D'Angelo didn't believe he could do his idol a justice. Maybe he was afraid to return so such a public stage after all his years of hiatus. Maybe some of the expectations from the "Untitled" music video still haunt him to this day.
