Stream D'Angelo & The Vanguard's "Black Messiah"

After Beyonce dropped her self-titled album unannounced last December, ironically enough, a "surprise" album was pretty much expected for 2014's fourth quarter. Bets were on Rihanna, Madonna, and Kanye West, but the ever-elusive D'Angelo was never in the running. Thus, the announcement of Black Messiah was a surprise in the traditional sense, because truly no one saw this coming.

Only a few days after word spread of the release, D'Angelo and The Vanguard's new effort can now be streamed on Spotify. For anyone that still didn't believe the mastermind behind 2000's Voodoo was actually delivering this week, the evidence is below.

Now, about that Ye album...