R&B singer D’Angelo dies at age 51

R&B singer Michael Eugene Archer, known to his fans as D’Angelo, has died at the age of 51 after a battle with cancer, his family announced in a statement.

His family said on Tuesday that the singer would leave behind a “legacy of extraordinarily poignant music” and asked fans to celebrate “the gift of song he left to the world.”

The influential singer was known for pioneering neo-soul, a genre that blends R&B with other types of music including hip-hop and jazz.

His three albums have won four Grammy Awards. The music video for his hit song, Untitled (How It Feels), gained mainstream attention after he performed in the one-take video, naked, belting out the song.

“The bright star of our family has extinguished its light for us in this life,” his family said in a statement obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

D’Angelo began his career as a songwriter, working alongside big names in music like Lauryn Hill and The Roots.

He rose to fame in the 1990s with his debut album, Brown Sugar. His song Lady from this album reached No. 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1996.

That song earned him several Grammy nominations and secured his place in the music scene.

The son of a Pentecostal minister, D’Angelo was born in Richmond, Virginia, and taught himself the piano at the age of three.

Throughout his teens, he performed locally in groups including Three of a Kind, Michael Archer and Precise, and Intelligent, Deadly But Unique (IDU).

When he was 18, he won an amateur talent contest at Harlem’s Apollo Theater for three weeks in a row. A publishing deal with EMI was soon signed.

He established himself as a commercial force with his 1995 debut album, also titled Brown Sugar, and won two Grammy Awards for his follow-up album, 2000’s Voodoo.

However, he then struggled with alcohol addiction and nearly died behind the wheel in a car accident in 2005.

He returned to music in 2014 with Black Messiah, an album in the works for years, which he finished after witnessing the national unrest caused by protests over the failure to convict police officers in the killings of unarmed black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

It went on to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album in February 2016.

Among those honoring hip-hop legend was DJ Premier, who produced D’Angelo’s song Devil’s Pie.

“What a sad loss,” he wrote on social media. “We have so many great times. I’m going to miss you so much. Sleep peacefully, I love you, king.”