Black Messiah — The Prophet Returns
Introduction: The Return of Black Messiah
Silence is one of the most powerful tools life has provided us. It can teach us so much if we allow it to, about how to use our time in a valuable way. Stillness is a spiritual and life discipline, because when we pay so much attention to the noise, we often get distracted. Allowing ourselves to be absent from the external world grounds us in our minds, hearts, spirits, and our responsibility for our lives.
D’Angelo was away from music for 14 years before he returned with Black Messiah. Because he grew up as the son of a preacher, I would liken this album to his testimony. With each album, he held a message to voice, but this album bore personal and collective witnessing of becoming. When he sings, “you can’t leave me, it ain’t that easy,” I don’t think he’s just talking to himself or another person, but his responsibility to his purpose.
Black Messiah was released in 2014, at a time when police brutality was at an all-time high and the Black Lives Matter movement was beginning. I believe this album and this movement are connected, even without direct relation. This album laid down a path for artists to speak their minds about the world that is in trouble and how it is affecting them and their communities.
From what I have learned, D’Angelo was the catalyst that opened the door for people to wake up and become aware of themselves and the world around them. He does not seek comfortability, but freedom through truth-telling. He couldn’t leave his gift without having it come full circle back to what is real and true. D’Angelo probably did not know what this album would do for Black music, how his words would prophesies to the souls of many — but they reign forever.
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
-Alice Walker
Section One: Tell Da Truth — Who Gon Shame Who?
I wrote an article back in December on religion, and when I listened to the introduction on “1000 Deaths,” it came full circle for me that I wrote the right message: that Jesus is a radical figure — and Black at that — like I always thought. Only a Black revolutionary would go into a church and knock over tables, lol. Religion, money, and power, when held in a false sense, do irreversible damage to the world, especially if you blindly follow them.
Asking questions leads to more questions, which opens up the mind of an individual. As I hear D’Angelo’s guitar riffs, I am heavily reminded of songs like “Pop Life” by Prince (his musical father 💜), where the sound is soul-filled and electric while asking questions like, “What’s the matter with your life?” It goes to show how distracted we can become in the world.
Ignorance is blissful not because it feels good, but because it keeps reality from feeling real. You don’t have to acknowledge a world of oppression when it’s not happening to you or your community. D’Angelo sang these words in 2014: “With the veil off our eyes we’ll truly see,” and Black people have known the truth of the world we live in since birth.
To see the outrage now, in 2026, about ICE brutality against other communities is unsettling. The truth has always been alive and well in the soil of the USA, but our voices were not heard when they were supposed to be. The systems of oppression are all of our problems, not just a Black problem. The outrage is finally causing disruption and has people talking, asking questions — which can lead to clarity.
The thing is to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but that, then allow it to prevail.
It is important not to sit in the comfort of not knowing, not understanding, or not wanting to become aware, and to let the picture remain ugly as it always has been. When transformation and healing start, we can paint new ones within ourselves and of the world.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Section Two: Who Gon’ Love Me Like I Do, or You? — Love as Discipline
Love has always been a complex thing for me to write about because most of my own personal journey with it has been painful and, at times, nonexistent. I am 23 years old and have only been in one serious relationship, when I was 20 — now imagine how unserious that was, lol. There is so much to learn and unlearn about what love is and how to love. It is choice, autonomy, togetherness, vulnerability, and so much more.
D’Angelo, I like to think, is a guru at teaching people about love through music. He can make it sound sexy, honest, fun, and soulful all at the same time. I also think he’s a master of double entendres, because when you hear him sing, “I fill my baby’s crib with all the love that daddy wants to give,” it isn’t only an exploration of physical desire, but also of fulfilling a partner’s emotional needs.
Love and sex are serious, but they are also meant to be playful, alongside mutual grounding and understanding. I had to learn the hard way that it takes two to be in love, to be in relationship — because you cannot love by yourself. It takes two. It also requires remembering that you and your partner are two separate individuals; you are not whole because of each other.
Love is not something you are supposed to get lost in, but something you open up with as it grows between you and the person you love. It is a conscious act and a daily choice — one that both people must continue to make. “Really Love” is truly one of the most beautiful, yet vulnerable, songs I have heard in my lifetime because it calls you to pay attention to the unique things your partner does that you love about them.
There is no limitation on how to connect and explore what love looks like between two people. Taking the time to know more of who you are and sharing those sides of yourself with another person is love. There are no cages, no conditions, no ultimatums, no forcing a choice — only honesty and care in choosing to be in love.
This is why I believe love is discipline: because it is the decision to coexist in this act with another soul.
Your attention is there — not wondering what you can get, but aligning with what you can give. Love is a protest to stay true to yourself while remaining honest with others, without resorting to brutality. If you choose to love, choose to do it with intentional truth and care.
“To love is to be brave. To love is to operate in your natural state.”
— Bethanee Epifani J. Bryan
Section Three: People, People Come Forth — Endurance, Faith, and Moral Weight
There has been discourse on TikTok surrounding activism and how it looks different for everyone. Everyone cannot be outside protesting or boycotting, but there are other ways of spreading awareness about what is going on in this world. I thought about the concept of “Black Fatigue” and how hard it has been for Black people who have been part of activism — even before my great-grandmother was born. The exhaustion that has traveled through generations. The trauma our bodies store due to historical violence. This is called epigenetics.
It is no coincidence that many people are tired and also thinking that 2026 feels like the new 2016. People just want life to feel more free, less stressful. But I think the problem is not that we are nostalgic — it is that we are trying to replicate a time that is gone in order to be present. We cannot escape our current reality by going back to the past, but we can reflect on the growth that has been made so far, both within ourselves and in the world.
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D’Angelo chants, “Said I just wanna go back / Back to the way it was,” not as a plea to return to the past, but as a call to remain present in yourself and in your community despite hardship. If you could make it through the challenges of the past, then you can do it again. This time period is no different from the rest.
When you learn how to maintain faith, that is when you can go out into the world and take action alongside others — even those who do not come from the same places as you. D’Angelo asks us to answer many questions together in “Till It’s Done (Tutu),” such as “Where do we belong?” and “Where do we come from?” in order to make progress. We must first understand where our place is in the world.
Challenging systems does not start on impulse, but with strategy — and with knowing where our resources are going. These systems do not only affect education, jobs, and housing, but also the environment. We need to care about things that do not directly affect our individual lives, but every life that exists.
I always wondered why Michael Jackson created “Earth Song,” and now I understand: we need to take care of the world we live in, because in many ways, it takes care of us in return.
“Till It’s Done” is an affirmation that change and healing happen as time passes — day by day, little by little — and eventually reveal themselves through our actions. These things will occur not only in our individual lives, but in the world itself, because that is the nature of life.
The “He” D’Angelo refers to in “Prayer” is the enemy within ourselves, systemic issues, and the spiritual darkness that can taint our faith. Faith is not something that exists without action — especially ongoing work. It is both personal and communal, because to redeem, revolutionize, and bring peace to the people requires practice. Inner peace is necessary to believe that change and healing are possible, and to commit to doing the work in whatever way it must be done.
Beyoncé said it best in 2024: “We gotta keep the faith.”
And we have to protect it — at all costs.
“We should think about each other to see how we can encourage each other to show love and do good works.”
— Hebrews 10:24
Section Four: Cross the Transformation Central
My article “Dream, Child, Dream” was one of my favorites to write because it explored the cost of identity through surrendering to the unknown. I believe standing in the truth of who you are and understanding your place in the world does the same. Once you become aware of those things, it is like flipping a switch in a dark tunnel. You cannot turn it off because you have seen the light.
Life has to push you and continue doing so, because you could not turn around even if you tried. I know this because I tried — and I still try sometimes. A commitment to your truth is a conscious act, because now you see yourself for who you are. You know your moves like God knows how many hairs are on your head. It teaches you to stand by yourself as well, because once you pull enough “fuck its,” who is really going to stop you from living in your truth and telling it?
D’Angelo repeating “I will never betray my heart” is a commitment to remain true to who you are, regardless of the world continuously trying to turn you into someone who is afraid. I learned that if I do not live my life that way, I will never be able to fulfill my purpose — both in my own life and in the world. I would transition into the afterlife with regrets, knowing who I was meant to be but having lived as a fraud. I would also prevent myself from experiencing what is meant for me.
D’Angelo sings this truth in “The Door”: allowing yourself to experience change, agency in your life, and the courage — both individually and collectively — to transform.
There are a million questions you can ask yourself, but the one I pose is this: What are you so afraid of that you are willing to hide yourself from the world?
Not only does the world need you — you need to see you, know you, and stand in your rightful place as yourself.
“Revolution is about change, and the first place the change begins is in yourself.”
— Assata Shakur
Conclusion: To the Future, We Go! — The Vision Is Forming
Black people, I think, despite the circumstances, have always seen ourselves in the future. It’s funny that I make the connection to two classic Black films by the great Robert Townsend, Meteor Man and Up, Up, and Away. Two movies in which we got to be heroes — and not die. I hate the fact that reality does not always work that way, but we are still heroes.
We have envisioned a better future for all people, even though there have been many attempts to prevent us from having one. Throughout generations, we have slowly been informing what healing and transformation look like beyond our struggles: how to remain resilient without closing ourselves off to the possibility of creating better lives for ourselves and our communities.
D’Angelo reflects on the past again in “Back To The Future (Part II),” but this time he takes what he has learned and allows it to become a compass throughout his life’s journey — showing us that things do not have to repeat in order to move forward. There are new realities, new lines connected to hope, change, and healing.
While we reflect on what was and what is, we can also allow ourselves to bask in the “What Ifs” — to explore our minds, souls, hearts, and desires. What can now come into our lives now that we have cleared out the old? What becomes possible for our communities?
“Another Life” places us in that dreamy, desirable space that allows emotion and introspection to move through our bodies, helping us accept the rebirth that comes from awakening to truth. Oh, my Pisces moon loves this track, lol. D’Angelo, maybe in another life you were my man. Enough of that, lol.
As you listen to the lyrics, allow yourself to imagine every possibility of a reality that is free — free, and at last free — without the inner critic clouding your mind.
Black Messiah, now that you are aware, now you can be real with yourself — and set yourself free.
“To soar towards what’s possible, you must leave behind what’s comfortable.”
— Cicely Tyson
Next up, we have Kendrick Lamar with….To Pimp a Butterfly
{If you have reached the end of this article, I just wanted to say thank you for reading 🥹. I hope you take the time to make yourselves aware of both your internal world and the world around you. What do you feel when you look into those places? I invite you to think about how YOU can contribute something beautiful to the world change as well as think of new realities🌎. Follow, Comment, or Share is that I ask. Y’all be blessed. 🙏🏾 — KEIA 🦋}
