D'Angelo made his first live TV appearance since releasing his surprise album Black Messiah on Saturday evening, taking the stage at Saturday Night Live. The singer used his SNL debut to make a powerful statement about police brutality against Black men and boys.
During the song "Charade," D'Angelo and his band the Vanguard acknowledged the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two unarmed black men who were killed by police officers last year, by wearing T-shirts that read "Black Lives Matter" and "I Can't Breathe," the latter in reference to Garner's last words. 
D'Angelo also wore a hooded sweatshirt for half of his performance in what seemed to be a tribute to Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen who was killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012.
A chalk outline also covered the stage in a possible ode to the victims.
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(Photo: NBC)