Rockstar Games has shared a touching tribute to legendary R&B artist D’Angelo, who died of pancreatic cancer on October 14, calling him “a true titan of soul” in a message posted to Instagram.
D’Angelo—real name Michael Eugene Archer—released three albums over a career that spanned 30 years, beginning with the Grammy-nominated Brown Sugar in 1995. That was followed by the Grammy-winning Voodoo in 2000, and Black Messiah—another Grammy winner—in 2014.
Four years later, D’Angelo was invited to contribute a song to the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack after it came to light that he was a “massive, massive, massive fan” of Red Dead Redemption, which ultimately resulted in him helping to playtest RDR2.
“He would come in here [Rockstar’s New York city office] and just play the game,” Rockstar director of music and audio Ivan Pavlovich told Rolling Stone in 2018.
“We weren’t even talking about doing music. When D’Angelo comes through, he shows up at midnight, and he’s playing the game until four in the morning. Each time he was just like, ‘it’s incredible.’ It just blows his mind. He’s such a fan. I have never seen someone that excited.”
That enthusiasm led Pavlovich to ask if D’Angelo would like to do a song for the soundtrack, and of course he said yes. The result was Unshaken, a track that not only became a signature song for RDR2 but was also a standalone hit, reaching number six on Billboard’s R&B digital song sales chart.
“Rest In Peace D’Angelo, a true titan of soul,” Rockstar wrote. “We are eternally grateful for his track ‘Unshaken’ which will forever be an enduring part of the legacy of Red Dead Redemption 2.”
Frequent D’Angelo collaborator Raphael Saadiq said in 2024 that the artist was working on new music; some reports have said that music will be released posthumously, but that remains unconfirmed for now. D’Angelo was 51.
