D’Angelo’s Black Messiah: Stream his first album in 14 years here, via Spotify (AUDIO).

 Stream D’Angelo’s First Album in 14 Years, Black Messiah

 Stream D’Angelo’s First Album in 14 Years, Black Messiah

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Brow Beat
Slate's Culture Blog
Dec. 15 2014 12:03 PM

Stream D’Angelo’s New Album, Black Messiah

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Stream D'Angelo's surprise first album in 14 years now.

Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

On Friday, D’Angelo surprised us all with the announcement of Black Messiah, his first album in nearly 15 years. Just three days later, he’s made the album available for purchase on iTunes. You can also stream the entire album below, via Spotify. We’ve already heard one song from the album, “Sugah Daddy,” which suggests his latest album will be worth the long wait since 2000’s Voodoo.

As for the album’s title, D’Angelo explained in a booklet distributed at a listening party that while “many will think it’s about religion,” for him, it’s about “an idea we can all aspire to … It’s about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen … It’s a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader.”

Dee Lockett is a writer for Vulture and a former Slate editorial assistant.