Lady

Written by D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq (former lead singer of the R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné!), "Lady" was the third single from D'Angelo's debut album, Brown Sugar. It's a very romantic song, with D'Angelo celebrating a divine lady in his life. The song, along with the rest of the album, marked an evolution in R&B that came to be known as "neo-soul."

D'Angelo started dating the singer Angie Stone around the time the song was released, but it's not about her. "I wrote 'Lady' in a Marriott Hotel lobby in Connecticut," his co-writer Raphael Saadiq told Wax Poetics in 2009. "There was a piano sitting there, and I just sat down and started writing this song about a girl I knew who lived in Long Island. I originally played it for the members of Tony! Toni! Toné!, but they didn't like it. I remember them saying, 'Everything you write is not a hit.' So, I put it away."

D'Angelo confessed that he didn't really like the track while he was recording it because it was too simple. Saadiq explained: "D was trying to be very complex. But when people started telling him how they had made babies to that track, he appreciated it more."