D'Angelo On Being 'Objectified' By Female Fans

Last week R&B crooner D’Angelo appeared on " The Tavis Smiley Show" in his first television interview in over a decade.

During the two-part conversation, the Grammy Award-winner discussed various topics, including how he felt “objectified” by female fans following the release of his 2000 video “Untitled,” which famously shows the singer performing topless.

“It would bother me...A lot of times the crowd -- or a lot of the ladies were just screaming, ‘Take it off.’ And I kind of felt like, for lack of a better thing, like a male stripper, you know? Or I expected to be that,” he said.“I wasn’t mad at that…but I think that I’m a serious artist. So it’s a fine line to walk. But I accept that. This is the realm that we’re in.”

The song -- which was featured on D’Angelo’s second album “Voodoo” -- ultimately went on to receive Grammy Awards in 2001 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Album. Following the album's success, D'Angelo took a hiatus and returned in 2014 with his latest album “Black Messiah.”

As he has discussed in previous interviews, the album’s lyrics from songs on "Black Messiah" speak about social issues often addressed by the Black Lives Matter Movement -- making it his most political project to date.

“Young black men and women are just getting killed for nothing,” he said before later adding, “I’m not trying to be like a poster child or anything of the movement, but definitely a voice as a black man -- as a concerned black man and as a father, as well.”

Check out part one of D’Angelo’s interview with Tavis Smiley in the clip above, and part two below.