D’Angelo’s album was rush-released following Ferguson protests

D’Angelo’s tour manager has confirmed that the release of ‘Black Messiah’ on Sunday was pushed forward because his artist “wanted to say something” about the Ferguson verdicts, in which a police officer was found not guilty of killing Michael Brown.

Alan Leeds spoke to the New York Times this week about the album’s sudden release, stating to that D’Angelo called his manager Kevin Liles in dismay at the verdict and is quoted as saying “I want to speak out… the one way I do speak out is through music”

Elsewhere, the article confirms that ‘Black Messiah’ was scheduled to be released in 2015, though events in America lead to the sudden release. At the time of release, RCA record officials were at a listening party for the album on Sunday 14th December, hours before the album went live on iTunes.

Read the full article here and listen to ‘Sugah Daddy’ taken from ‘Black Messiah’ below.