D'Angelo

He was born Michael Eugene Archer in Richmond, Virginia, to a father who was a Pentecostal preacher. His parents divorced while he was young, and he lived with his mother.

Before D'Angelo, no one ever heard of "neo soul," a genre that blends R&B and traditional soul music with elements of jazz, funk, pop, hip hop and African music. His 1995 album, Brown Sugar, has been hailed by music critics as the birth of the new style, whose purveyors would include Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Maxwell and, later, John Legend.

He wrote and recorded the demo tracks for Brown Sugar in his bedroom. He was 19 years old when he was signed to EMI Records and first started work on the album.