Brown Sugar is D’Angelo’s 1995 debut. It launched neo-soul — a term coined soon after by his manager Kedar Massenburg. It features the original title track, a cover of Smokey Robinson’s 'Cruisin’', and 'Lady', which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. It was certified platinum and received critical acclaim.
Voodoo is D'Angelo’s second studio album, released in 2000 on Virgin Records after EMI’s absorption. Critics called it a 'masterpiece' and his greatest work. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 320,000 first-week US sales, remained on the chart for thirty-three weeks, and sold over 1.7 million copies in the US by 2005. It won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, shared with engineer Russell Elevado. Executive producer was Dominique Trenier. Singles 'Devil's Pie' and 'Left & Right' peaked at
Written and largely produced by Lauryn Hill after she left the Fugees and became pregnant, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill mixes hip-hop, soul and reggae recorded partly at Tuff Gong in Kingston, built around live instrumentation and a set of collaborators later credited only after a lawsuit.