D'Angelo - Cruisin'

What this video is

Released in October 1995 as the second single from D'Angelo's debut album 'Brown Sugar,' this cover of Smokey Robinson's 1979 Motown hit arrived at a pivotal juncture in Black popular music. The neo-soul movement — positioned as an organic, instrument-driven counter-narrative to the increasingly synthetic textures of mainstream mid-1990s R&B and hip-hop-soul — was coalescing around artists like D'Angelo, Maxwell,…

Why it matters

A landmark neo-soul artifact documenting the genre's emergence as a distinct commercial and aesthetic force in mid-1990s R&B. The video's performance-driven minimalism — low saturation, intimate lighting, studio setting — visually codified the neo-soul aesthetic that would define the era. As a…

The director

Brett Ratner (born 1969) is an American director and producer who graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 1990. He began his career directing music videos in the early 1990s, working with artists including D'Angelo, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Jay-Z, and…