Justin Timberlake Pays Emotional Tribute to D’Angelo For Inspiring Him: ‘You Took R&B And Put It In All Capitals’

Justin Timberlake joined the loud and passionate chorus of musicians and fans paying tribute to R&B icon D’Angelo following the singer’s death on Tuesday (Oct. 14) at age 51 following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

In a heartfelt Instagram Story post on Tuesday night, Timberlake went deep on how much D’Angelo’s music meant to him and inspired his own music, as well as reminiscing about the first time they met. “I’ll never forget hearing Brown Sugar for the first time. It changed me. You changed me,” JT wrote about D’Angelo’s beloved 1995 debut album, which is considered a stone cold neo soul classic thanks to the silky smooth title track and his indelible, languid cover of Smokey Robinson’s 1979 single “Cruisin’.”

“It was the most pivotal moment in establishing confidence in my own voice,” Memphis native Timberlake continued. “For the first time, I heard a sound that reflected the sounds I grew up with — early R&B, but ‘now’ it was intertwined with a modern edge. The chords and arrangement carried a mixture of church/jazz/funk. The harmonies delicately dancing with one another. It sat in my spirit and always will.”

The “SexyBack” singer also had high praise for D’Angelo’s 2000 sophomore album, Voodoo, which critics and fans agreed was well worth the five-year wait thanks to such soul-stirring, slow-cooking burners as “Devil’s Pie,” “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” and the Method Man/Redman team up “Left and Right.”

“And then???! Voodoo??? Where do I begin with this one???,” Timberlake wrote. “Maybe my favorite mixed album of all time. The rawness, that took time to cultivate and process. Created an absolutely transcendent listening experience. The legendary players and collaborators, the sounds, the way it made colors dance around my head. It grabbed me, it shook me, I was changed once again.”

Timberlake also shared a photo of the first time the two singers met backstage at Radio City Music Hall, where the then-19-year-old boy bander saw D’Angelo on his Voodoo tour. In the snap, D’Angelo has his arm around Timberlake’s shoulder as the two men stare into the camera.

“The Voodoo tour at Radio City was one of the best concert experiences of my life,” Timberlake wrote. “You. Quest. Pino. Poyser. And everyone on that stage had just ripped the faces off that crowd. And then I was lucky enough to grab a sacred moment with you backstage and tell you how in awe of you I was. (The picture before is from that moment…) You were kind, under-spoken. I will never forget that.”

Though D’Angelo only released three studio albums in his lifetime, Timberlake said he was fully there for every note, also lavishing praise on D’s third — and at this point, final — studio album, 2014’s Black Messiah. Saying he could “go on and on” about that LP or his favorite “Lauryn [Hill] collab,” “those beautiful covers captured in live recordings,” Timberlake said one thought summed up his fandom.

“You took R&B and put it in all capitals,” JT said, dubbing himself “one of your biggest” fans. “Meshed it with something else and changed the landscape, made it something more. Your contribution will always be remembered,” he added, dedicating his post to “1 of 1. RIP Trailblazer.”

Timberlake joined a long list of musicians who flooded the zone on Tuesday with high praise and emotional memories of the high priest of neo soul, a roster that included Tyler, the Creator, Doja Cat, DJ Premiere and Beyoncé, who wrote that D “changed and transformed rhythm & blues forever.”

At press time no information about memorial services for D’Angelo had been announced.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.