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Brown Sugar (D'Angelo song)
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Brown Sugar
| cover = Brown_Sugar_dangelo.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = D'Angelo
| album = Brown Sugar
| released = June 13, 1995
| recorded = 1994
| studio =
| venue =
| genre =
| length =
| label = Cooltempo
| writer =
| producer = D'Angelo, Ali Shaheed Muhammad
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title = Cruisin'
| next_year = 1995
| misc =
}}
"'Brown Sugar'" is a song by American recording artist D'Angelo, taken from his debut album of the same name. The song was released as the album's lead single in 1995, through the Cooltempo label. The song was written and produced by D'Angelo and frequent collaborator Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
Composition
Opened by falsetto ad-libs, an organ refrain and pulsating bass lines,[http://www.music-city.org/D/%27Angelo/Brown-Sugar-6464/ MusicCity.org: Brown Sugar]. Music City. Retrieved on January 29, 2009. the title track "Brown Sugar" features a dark, thick texture and a gutbucket-jazz style and rhythm.Coker, Cheo H. [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/brown-sugar-19950907 Review: 'Brown Sugar']. 'Rolling Stone'. Retrieved on November 27, 2008. The instrumentation throughout the song, highlighted by Jimmy Smith-style organ work, atmospheric percussion and snapping snare drums, has been described by music writers as "organic".[https://web.archive.org/web/20040918025904/http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1108221/a/Brown+Sugar.htm Product Page: 'Brown Sugar']. Muze. Retrieved on February 3, 2009.Shapiro (2006), p. 104. The song's sound is also similar to the work of funk, soul and jazz musician Roy Ayers,[http://www.prweb.com/releases/dangelo/rcamusicgroup/prweb1717364.htm D'Angelo Signed to RCA Music Group (J Records)]. PRWeb. Retrieved on December 8, 2008. while D'Angelo's soulful tenor-delivery throughout the song's verses is stylistically similar the flow of most emcees at the time.
Misinterpreted as a traditional love song about a femme fatale by most R&B audiences, "Brown Sugar" is an ode to marijuana use through its use of the personification of a brown-skinned woman.[http://www.mvremix.com/urban/reviews/2003/brownsugar.shtml MVRemix Album Reviews: D'Angelo - Brown Sugar]. MVRemix Media. Retrieved on January 29, 2009. This thematic substitution is a conventional lyrical technique in hip hop.Jon Caramanica et al. Hoard (2004), p. 210. Music journalist Peter Shapiro wrote of the song's lyrical content, stating "D'Angelo was extolling the pleasures of pot-fuelled solipsism ('Always down for a mnage trois/But I think I'ma hit it solo/Hope my niggaz don't mind') and intimating that love, or at least love of the herb, leads to insanity ('Brown sugar babe/I gets high off you love/Don't know how to behave')." Writer and academic Todd Boyd compared the song, along with Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic' (1992) and Styles P's "Good Times" (2002), to Rick James's "Mary Jane" (1978), stating that the song "celebrated his love for gettin' blazed and spawned ... a truly large following."Boyd (2007), p. 135.
Credits
*Written by D'Angelo and Ali Shaheed Muhammed
*Produced by D'Angelo and Ali Shaheed Muhammad
*Vocal arrangements by D'Angelo
All vocals by D'Angelo
*Musical arrangements by D'Angelo
*All instruments by D'Angelo
*Drum programming by Ali Shaheed Muhammad
*Recorded at Battery Studios, NYC
*Additional engineering by Tim Latham at Soundtrack, NYC
*Mixed by Bob Power at Battery Studios, NYC
*Assistant engineer: G-Spot
Charts
{| class="wikitable"
!Chart (1995)
!Peak
position
|-
|UK Singles Chart
|align="center"|24
|-
|US 'Billboard' Hot 100
|align="center"|27
|-
|US 'Billboard' Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
|align="center"|5
|}
References
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