Photo by Greg Harris

D'Angelo's Black Messiah was released last December after a 14-year wait. Now, the singer says he's at work on "a companion piece" to the record, composed of leftover material from the Black Messiah sessions. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, his first since releasing Black Messiah, D'Angelo said his original plan for the Voodoo follow-up was "longer than what Black Messiah ended up being."

"What I'm working on now is like a companion piece," he said. "I hope people receive it that way. It's part of the same vision." He also admitted that "if it were left entirely up to me, [Black Messiah] wouldn't have come out. I had to get out of my head. Because there were so many songs that I wanted people to hear."

When asked about his plans for the future, he responded, "I want to do what Yahweh is leading me to do. Do I know fully what that is? No, I don't. I'm trying to keep myself open, my heart open, to receive and to know what that is. But I do want to put a lot of music out there. I feel like, in a lot of respects, that I'm just getting started."

He was also asked about contemporary hip-hop, and responded "no comment" before expressing admiration for Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. "The timing of both was kind of uncanny — it was almost a sign: Motherfuckers are making some shit that's relevant to the times," he said.

D'Angelo and his band the Vanguard are currently on tour in support of Black Messiah.

D'Angelo and the Vanguard:

06-16 Dallas, TX - The Bomb Factory

06-17 Houston, TX - The Warehouse

06-20 Norfolk, VA -Norva

06-21 Forest Hills, NY - Forest Hills Stadium

06-23 Philadelphia, PA - The Keswick

06-25 Washington, DC - The Fillmore

06-27 Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre

06-28 Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom

07-03 Gdynia, Poland - Open’er Festival

07-06 Rome, Italy - Parco della Musica

07-07 Milan, Italy - Estathe Market Sound

07-08 Montreux, Switzerland - Montreux Jazz Festival - Stravinsky Hall

07-10 Rotterdam, Netherlands - North Sea Jazz Festival

07-12 Liege, Belgium - Les Ardentes

07-13 London, England - Roundhouse

07-15 Grimstad, Norway - Skral Festival

07-16 Oslo, Norway - Fjord Festival

07-17 Molde, Norway - Molde International Jazz Festival

08-07 San Francisco, CA - Golden Gate Park Outside Lands

09-04-06 Chicago, IL - North Coast Music Festival

11-06-08 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest

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