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D'Angelo at KMEL All Star Jam 1996

Source: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty

D’Angelo‘s debut on Verzuz led to numerous moments, including a first-time collaboration between he and H.E.R. for “Nothing Even Matters,” but according to Verzuz founder Swizz Beatz, it was supposed to be even bigger than that.

Typically, Verzuz is built around the celebration of two artist’s respective catalogs and a mythical battle where commenters and more can gauge on which artist picked the best 20 songs and has the stronger catalog. However, in D’Angelo’s case, he didn’t have an opponent on Saturday (February 27), prompting Verzuz to pull a different route – a near traditional concert with guests such as Redman, Method Man and the aforementioned H.E.R.

After the Virginia native’s solo concert wrapped up, Swizz and Timbaland joined one another on Instagram Live for their now traditional post-Verzuz recap and Swizz revealed the original plan for D’Angelo was to have him go up against Maxwellon Valentine’s Day.

“That didn’t work out…the fact that D’Angelo was still ready to go…and motivated, we had to celebrate him…no matter who was on stage with him,” Swizz said. “We had to celebrate that king because, as you can see, those songs that he played tonight, man, that’s real music and this is celebrational stage…and we couldn’t play around with him. We had to let him get his garden because he showed up and showed out.”

He continued, “That man pulled up to Verzuz three hours early. D’Angelo was the earliest in Verzuz history tonight. So, don’t get him showing up at the time he did (an hour after the show was scheduled to start) mixed up with the pre-show, which was by DJ Scratch.”

Now that would have been something. Relive D’Angelo’s soothing Verzuz performance below featuring songs such as “One Mo’Gin,” “Cruisin,” and “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” and jam the playlist here.

RELATED: D’Angelo Announces ‘D’Angelo & Friends’ Verzuz Event

D’Angelo Was Supposed To Battle Maxwell On Valentine’s Day For Verzuz  was originally published on myhoustonmajic.com