The Rhyme Suite

Sometimes, you’ve just got to go back to the basics.

Nearly four months later, I still can’t believe that D’Angelo is gone.

His music will remain on this earth, hopefully impacting generations to come in the same way that it rocked my world. Yet, at a mere 51, he’s gone. 

And each time I remember that this is the timeline I live in, one where D’Angelo is dead amongst many other anomalies and bouts of misfortune, the hope in my heart decreases more and more.

But it’s a new year, right?

A new year is a great excuse to change your habits and your mindset for the better. 

Sure, time is a relevant yet arbitrary construct that we use to justify supposed timelines and the behaviors surrounding them, but that doesn’t mean we can’t indulge the construct for just a bit.

I don’t know about you, but I spent much of 2025 in a limbo of sorts, beating myself up for what I could, would, or should have been doing all year. I could have worked harder, I should have spent more time listening to new and old-yet-new-to-me music, I would have done these things had I been less tired, more disciplined, and the list goes on.

But then I remember D’Angelo and how his life’s work and legacy is not some overglamourized package of glitz and glam. He certainly worked hard for the recognition he gained in life and now in death, but had he given up after, or even before, the success of Brown Sugar (1995), it wouldn’t have just been our loss. 

It would have been his loss too. He had to push himself to produce the works we all know and love, and it’s a great reminder to the regular folk and stars alike that giving up on yourself is not an option. That you have to be patient with yourself in the pursuit of greatness, even if it necessitates a slight hiatus. 

The reality is that it’s hard to do anything at all when you’re mourning versions of yourself that might have existed had you made different decisions in your life.

I spent so much of the year in shame of what I could, would, or should have been doing that I forgot to do the one thing that always grounds me — center the music.

Now don’t get me wrong, I listened to a lot of great music last year. Destin Conrad’s LOVE ON DIGITAL and wHIMSY, Halle’s love? or something like it, MIKE’s Showbiz! and Saba’s joint album with No I.D. were just a few of the albums that stayed on repeat in my household. I even went back a few decades to venture through Phyllis Hyman’s You Know How to Love Me (1979). The genius of this record had me in a chokehold for days. And I, of course,  returned to D’Angelo, particularly Voodoo(2000) multiple times, not just because of his passing but because it provided comfort during a multitude of stressful moments.

Yet, even as I was listening to the music I loved, I wasn’t really allowing myself to be fully enthralled by it. Anyone can nod their head to a catchy melody and memorize a lyric or two, but my enjoyment of the music was very surface level. I couldn’t be bothered to really understand what the artist was saying, appreciate the depth of the production, or even recognize the meaning of a song within the greater context of an album or EP.

I was coasting through much of life on autopilot, so it was hard to enjoy any soundtrack to it.

And while this all might sound inconsequential to most people, for me, it was like walking around with shoes a size too small — you might get used to the pain eventually, but it’s not sustainable.

Not connecting with music in the way that I became accustomed to over these past few years was a pain that gnawed at my spirit nearly everyday, and I struggled so greatly because I was, somehow, overthinking my relationship with the medium.

So when I say that I’m centering the music in 2026, I’m being literal – I will allow myself to enjoy and discover music with no regard for what others might be saying or writing about it. But I’m also saying that I’m choosing to be more present as I engage with the people, places, and things that I love.

Life is too short to get caught up in the foreground of your passions. You must dive deep.  

I’ll focus less on what I should be doing and more on what I can do right now. 

And most of all, I’ll try to remind myself that I don’t need to be perfect to be happy or productive or impactful.

If it worked for someone like D’Angelo, it could certainly work for someone like me.