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by Bill Johnson & Dan Charnas for TheUrbanDaily

D’Angelo’s last album was released ten years ago. His last interview? Nine years ago. In the time that has elapsed, we’ve heard very little from the reclusive artist. That is until last week, when we at TheUrbanDaily got a call saying that he wanted to talk.

The interview was conducted over the phone, so don’t ask us what he looks like these days. We don’t know if he resembles the diesel D’Angelo from the “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” video, or the scruffy, chubby D’Angelo that the paparazzi have caught over the last few years. We can’t tell you what any of his new songs sound like because we were forbidden to ask about them, nor any specific details about his new album, though we heard whispers from our sources of over a half-dozen great new uptempo tracks. We also couldn’t discuss his personal struggles, because those, too, were off limits.

So what exactly did D want to talk about during his first interview in nine years? Turns out that it’s his recent discovery of an old Black rock group from the 1970s and his infatuation with the more recent musical and cultural movement called Afro-Punk, both of which might be clues about where he’s headed.