obviously Brown Sugar was the first to get the "label" of neo-soul...

but if you want to look beyond the label.... you could go a couple ways...

either look at what were the sonic and musical pre-cursors to Brown Sugar...

or... look generally at the idea of a contemporary album that utilized a vibe or a style that harkened back to a particular sound in previous Soul or R&B...

I'd have to think about it...