D'Angelo, Grammy-winning R&B and soul star, dies at 51 after pancreatic cancer diagnosis

Born Michael Archer, D’Angelo helped launch a new era for R&B, nodding to an old-school soul sound while incorporating notes of funk, hip-hop and jazz. Dubbed “neo-soul” by his music manager, the subgenre became a mainstay of 1990s pop, associated with artists including Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Maxwell and Jill Scott.

Despite releasing only three studio albums, D’Angelo is considered by peers to be among the greatest R&B singers and musical talents of his generation. Born and raised in Richmond, he came from a line of preachers, with a musical education that began in the Pentecostal church. He played multiple instruments on his records, beginning with his 1995 studio debut “Brown Sugar.”

D’Angelo’s follow-up, 2000s “Voodoo,” won him two Grammy Awards and established him as an international star, in no small part due to the music video for the song “Untitled (How Does it Feel),” in which he appeared shirtless in close-ups. The video established him as a sex symbol and came to haunt the singer, who was concerned that the visuals were distracting from the music, according to friends.

D’Angelo receded from public view for more than a decade, and had a series of legal and personal troubles, including arrests for cocaine and marijuana possession

After years away, he released “Black Messiah” in 2014, an album that nodded to racial-justice protests, thrilled R&B fans and earned him two more Grammy Awards.

Since then, rumors swirled about how much longer the elusive singer would wait to release new work. Singer and musician Raphael Saadiq, a frequent collaborator, said in a Rolling Stone podcast interview last year that the pair were working on songs for a new album.

D’Angelo had three children, including a son he shared with singer-songwriter Angie Stone, who died in a car crash in March. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.

A complete obituary will be published soon.