Brown Sugar

Recording took place during 1994 and 1995 at Battery Studios and RPM Studios in New York and at Pookie Lab, Raphael Saadiq's studio in Sacramento, with extra work on Cruisin' at Back Pocket Studios in New York. D'Angelo supplied all the vocals and played drums, saxophone, guitar, bass and keyboards, including a Fender Rhodes and a Hammond organ. The sessions mixed vintage gear such as Wurlitzer instruments with drum machines and computers. In a 2014 interview he said he picked Bob Power because of his love for A Tribe Called Quest and what they were doing, and that EMI was a little leery of him producing on his own. In 1995 he said he had read the album credits and realized that Prince was a true artist who wrote, produced and performed.

The title track is a thinly veiled ode to marijuana, Shit, Damn, Motherfucker is a cheating song, and the closer Higher combines spiritual love of God with carnal love. Stereogum's Tom Breihan found it remarkable how fully formed the album was and noted that D'Angelo produced or co-produced every song and wrote or co-wrote all but the cover.

It debuted at 6 on the Top R&B Albums chart in July 1995 and peaked at 4 in February 1996. It sold 300,000 copies in two months, was certified platinum in the US on 7 February 1996 and gold in Canada on 9 May 2000, and earned four Grammy nominations. Mojo ranked it 97 on its list of 100 Modern Classics, and Rolling Stone placed it at 183 in its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums. A deluxe edition followed on 25 August 2017, remastered by Russell Elevado with a booklet by Nelson George and 21 extra songs.