Written by: Alex Green

After years of false starts, odd appearances and cryptic clues, D’Angelo is set to release his new album.

Dubbed Black Messiah, the record is the proper follow up to 2000’s Voodoo and although the release date hasn’t yet been finalized, pictures have been surfacing of the sealed CD with cover art, confirming that the album is indeed ready to go.

At least it appears that way.

With D’Angelo you never know and even though his manager posted a few seconds of a new track, the singer himself hasn’t commented at all.

On anything.

The Red Bull Music Academy are set to premiere Black Messiah’s first single “Sugah Daddy” on December 14. The first 1000 people can download the track, before it switches over to a streaming format.

The Virginia-born soul singer is now 40 and in spite of making appearances on other artists’ albums, he’s shied away from the limelight for the last decade and a half. In many ways, he has become the J.D. Salinger of neo-Soul.

He has, however, been playing sporadic, but well-received, shows in Europe since 2012.

Back in 2009 he was said to be working on Voodoo’s follow-up–an album dubbed James River, that was said to be a heavy collaborative effort with Prince. The James River sessions may or may not have yielded tracks that will appear on Black Messiah. 

At this point, Black Messiah has no release date, though the activity from D’Angelo’s camp suggest it might be sooner than later.

Or will it?