was it during the "brown sugar" ramp up?

or after "brown sugar" and pre "baduizm"?

disregarding the labelling, i think that somewhere between meshell, tony toni tone, and tribe is the first instance of (*gulp*) "neo soul." i heard it as the anti-teddy riley soul music that was made by younger artists (e.g. not anita baker, luther, etc.).

closer to d'angelo's arrival, i remember dred scott saying that adriana evans' first promo single ("reality"?) pre-dated "brown sugar" by some months.