Really Love

Album: Black Messiah (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This love song starts with breathy Spanish sweet nothings, strings, and a flamenco-tinged guitar. D'Angelo took up the guitar between his 2000 album Voodoo and Black Messiah, and he contributed many of the riffs on the latter album.
  • The string arrangement comes courtesy of Brent Fischer, who is the son of the late jazz composer and band leader Clare Fischer.
  • The song samples Curtis Mayfield's 1970 track "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue."
  • An early, unfinished version was leaked in 2007 by Questlove on Triple J Radio in Australia. The Roots frontman previously served as executive producer for D'Angelo's Voodoo album, but the leak apparently soured relations between the pair.
  • This won for Best R&B Song at the Grammy Awards in 2016.

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