D’Angelo Performs Really Love & The Charade On SNL

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D’Angelo made his SNL debut last night and performed “Really Love” and “The Charade” from Black Messiah. Both performances were great but “The Charade” is unforgettable because of the chalk outline of a dead body onstage and The Vanguard’s T-Shirts that read “I Can’t Breathe.” These were Eric Garner’s last words and also a reference to Mike Brown and so many other Black men killed by the police. Jesse Johnson’s guitar solo gave the right emotion to an unpleasant but necessary topic. Despite being away for 14 years and the pressures of releasing a new album on a major label, D’Angelo had no qualms about making a visual statement to go with the song’s message. His overall appearance was a microcosm of Black Messiah’s concerns with love, racism and social change. His SNL show is a warm-up to his first time headlining the Apollo this month on the 20th and 21st.