D’Angelo Discusses Black Messiah, Black Lives Matter on ‘Tavis Smiley Show’
D'Angelo made his first television interview in over 10 years on PBS on Wednesday night on The Tavis Smiley Show. In the first of a two-episode interview series, D'Angelo dissscuess a myriad of topics from his new album Black Messiah, his hiatus from music, Black Lives Matters movement, religion and much more. The singer expressed his worry of sounding too preachy when he released Black Messiah. Instead he wanted to be "a voice of the people." He elaborates more:
Black Messiah is, I think, the most sociopolitical stuff I've done on record. I think in lieu of everything that's been going—the sign of the times, right—something needs to be said. There's so few doing that right now, and that was funny to me because there's so much going on. The Black Lives Matter movement is going on, young black men and women are getting killed for nothing. I've always been a big reader and fan of history, and I love the Black Panthers. ... I'm not trying to be like a poster child or anything of the movement, but definitely a voice as a black man—as a concerned black man and as a father, as well.
When asked if he felt that music had the power to change things, his response was yes. "Absolutely," he said. "That's the frustrating thing about it, because music never loses that power, but the powers that be—the bean counters, the execs—they just want to make money and stick to a certain formula that makes money."
The interview is very interesting. Watch it part one and two above and below.