D'ANGELO NEWEST FIRST ALBUM IN 8 YEARS TO BE RELEASED EARLY NEXT YEAR.

R&B star D'Angelo is making progress on his first studio album since 2000, which will likely be released early next year via J Records. The label purchased D'Angelo's contract in 2005 from Virgin, which issued his first two studio albums. For his as-yet-untitled J debut, D'Angelo has already collaborated with Raphael Saadiq and also plans to record with John Mayer, according to a source. A single may be out before the end of the year. But just in case you can wait that long, you can go out and pic up the singer's The Best So Far..., a CD/DVD retrospective, which features hits, rarities and previously unreleased videos.

D'Angelo has largely fallen off the musical map since 2000's Voodoo, which has sold 1.69 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its single Untitled (How Does It Feel), hit No. 2 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart and No. 25 on the Hot 100. In recent years, the artist has endured a serious car accident and drug-related arrests. In lieu of new music of his own, he's made sporadic guest appearances on albums by Common, Snoop Dogg and J Dilla.
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