D'Angelo surprise releases new album Black Messiah

The record, released under D'Angelo and The Vanguard, was announced Friday, and aired in a super-exclusive listening party over the weekend. Apparently not content with that, the R&B mastermind has now surprise-released it in a tactical move of Beyoncian proportions.

Questlove, Q-Tip, bassist Pino Palladino, drummer James Gadson and Parliament Funkadelic collaborator Kendra Foster all feature/helped co-write the record. Introduced at his listening party as the most "political" record he's ever written, D'Angelo makes direct links to the current protests around the world: "It’s about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen," he wrote in a brochure/the record's liner notes.

Questlove also spoke at the event, saying: "It’s a passion project, and it’s everything, I don’t really want to give a hyperbolic or grandiose statement, but it’s everything. It’s beautiful, it’s ugly, it’s truth, it’s lies. It’s everything."

Black Messiah is out now via RCA.

Stream below.