Brown Sugar

Released as the lead single in June 1995 on the Cooltempo label, it was written and produced by D'Angelo and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. D'Angelo played and sang everything and Muhammad programmed the drums. It was recorded at Battery Studios in New York and mixed by Bob Power. It reached 27 on the Hot 100 and 24 in the UK, and Brett Ratner directed a video of D'Angelo performing it in a nightclub.

It is an ode to marijuana that personifies a woman. Albumism called it a slyly clever ode to Mary Jane, and the writer Todd Boyd set it beside Rick James's Mary Jane. Rolling Stone's Cheo H. Coker described the title track as oozing into the ear with a dark, gooey, molasses-like texture, bolstered by a tricky old stage organ.