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D’Angelo, one of the most revered artists of the past 30 years, died last week at 51 after a long battle with cancer. A prodigy since age three, he became central to the Soulquarians, a collective including Erykah Badu, Questlove, J Dilla, Common, Mos Def, and Q-Tip that reshaped R&B, hip-hop, and soul at the turn of the century. Though often credited with pioneering “neo-soul,” D’Angelo preferred a simpler term: “Black music.” His small but transcendent body of work, from his biggest hit “Lady” to his signature “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” to his triumphant return with Black Messiah, cemented his reputation as a perfectionist who, according to Raphael Saadiq, had been back in the studio working on a long-awaited fourth album. Sadly, D’Angelo’s eldest son Michael also lost his mother, Angie Stone, a hip-hop and neo-soul pioneer in her own right, earlier this year.

In a week full of losses, we also said goodbye to KISS’ Ace Frehley, The Moody Blues’ John Lodge, Limp Bizkit’s Sam Rivers, and, less regrettably, Lostprophets’ Ian Watkins, who was murdered in prison while serving a sentence for horrific sex crimes.

BIGGEST Songs of the Week 📈

For the first time in years, Khalid sounds like he’s not hiding. His early albums (American Teen, Free Spirit, Sincere) lived in neutral tones: dusky R&B, muted heartbreak, songs that filled the background while you stared out a car window.

After the Sun Goes Down is something else entirely. It’s his first album since being publicly outed in 2024, and it sounds like an artist finally living in his own skin. The shift is immediate. This is a dance record, built on house rhythms, electropop textures, and a sharp Y2K gloss. The gray melancholy of his past work has given way to movement, color, and joy.