Also, what D'angelo has in his favor is that certain 'thing' i see amongst many gospel musicians, which is the ability to 'encourage' through music. I believe it's a gift from above. I'm not a gospel listener but from what i've heard of it, certain songs by certain artists 'lift you up' and i really don't know why that is. There's an inherent honesty to most gospel music, and underneath it's content the musicianship sometimes is superb.

Here's an example (for example only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8yuihjxD1o