"Brown Sugar" is a song by American recording artist

D'Angelo Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...

, taken from his debut album of the same name (1995). The song was released as the album's lead single in 1995, through the

Cooltempo Cooltempo, the dance music imprint of Chrysalis Records, was revived in May 2018. The label released albums by artists such as Kenny Thomas, Milli Vanilli, Adeva, Shara Nelson, Mica Paris and Innocence. History Cooltempo emerged at the end ...

label. The song was written and produced by D'Angelo and frequent collaborator

Ali Shaheed Muhammad Ali Shaheed Muhammad (born August 11, 1970) is an American hip hop DJ, record producer, and rapper, best known as a member of A Tribe Called Quest. With Q-Tip and Phife Dawg (and sometimes Jarobi White), the group released five studio albums ...

Composition

Opened by falsetto

ad-lib In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The r ...

s, an organ refrain and pulsating bass lines,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
Review: ''Brown Sugar''
''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''. Retrieved on November 27, 2008. The instrumentation throughout the song, highlighted by Jimmy Smith-style organ work, atmospheric percussion and snapping

snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...

s, has been described by music writers as "organic".Product Page: ''Brown Sugar''

Muze Founded in 1991, Muze, Inc. was a business-to-business provider of media information, metadata, and digital preview samples that enable search, discovery, and purchase of digital entertainment content. "Muze was founded by Zullo and Trev Huzley ...

. 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 Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and music producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Pol ...

,D'Angelo Signed to RCA Music Group (J Records)

PRWeb Cision Ltd. is a public relations and earned media software company and services provider. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois; with clients worldwide. The company went public via reverse merg ...

. Retrieved on December 8, 2008. while D'Angelo's soulful

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

-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 Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

use through its use of the personification of a brown-skinned woman.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 ménage à 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 Todd Boyd, aka "Notorious Ph.D.", is the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race & Popular Culture and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Boyd is a media commentator, author, produce ...

compared the song, along with Dr. Dre's ''

The Chronic ''The Chronic'' is the debut studio album by the American hip hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre. It was released on December 15, 1992, by his record label Death Row Records and distributed by Interscope Records. Recording sessions took place in ...

'' (1992) and Styles P's " Good Times" (2002), to

Rick James James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in ...

's " Mary Jane" (1978), stating that the song "celebrated his love for gettin' blazed and spawned ... a truly large following."Boyd (2007), p. 135.

Critical reception

Gil Robertson IV from ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' wrote, "It blends the right mix of down home slow groove

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

with a caressing

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

texture that’s bound to get folks out on the dance floor. Produced by

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

from

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

, this track is loaded with a classic old school led and provides a great introduction for this promising young talent." He also picked it as a standout track of the album.

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

References

External links

* {{authority control 1995 songs 1995 singles D'Angelo songs EMI Records singles Songs written by Ali Shaheed Muhammad Songs about cannabis