D’Angelo’s producer and manager Dominique Trenier has died

Trenier died at his home in LA on Friday (August 5)

Dominique Trenier, the former manager and producer of D’Angelo, has died.

He was found dead at his home in Los Angeles on Friday morning (August 5). No cause of death has been revealed as yet.

As Billboard reports, Trenier produced D’Angelo’s Number One album ‘Voodoo, while he also was behind the mixing desk for Seal‘s cover of Steve Miller‘s ‘Fly Like An Eagle’. The track was co-produced by R Kelly and featured on the Space Jam soundtrack.

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The producer also worked with Mark Ronson on ‘Here Comes The Fuzz’ and the Billboard 200 hit ‘Everybody Got Their Something’ by Nikka Costa.

Among those paying tribute to Trenier on social media were Questlove, who posted a photo of his friend on Instagram alongside the caption: “Trenier. So Much Wisdom. So Little Time.”

Trenier. So Much Wisdom. So Little Time.

A photo posted by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on

Ronson also posted a photo with a lengthy caption. In it, he said: “I can trace most every important thing that happened in my career back to his hand”.

He added: “For a good chunk of my life, Dominique Trenier was one of my very closest friends. He was also my musical mentor, my most trusted set of ears and my earliest champion.”

Words for Dom Part 1 For a good chunk of my life, Dominique Trenier was one of my very closest friends. He was also my musical mentor, my most trusted set of ears and my earliest champion. At 24 years old, I was just a downtown kid playing records at trendy hip hop clubs. One Friday night, he came up to my booth in the VIP room at Life and said, “Yo, i got this girl. She’s got an incredible voice…really incredible. Anyway, i don’t know what the album’s supposed to sound like exactly, but i want it to feel like one of your [DJ] sets. You know, EPMD, AC/DC, Chaka Khan…Biggie, all that shit”. I was both psyched and incredibly flattered. Dom was a already a bit of a downtown icon. His music cred was nuts. He worked with D’Angelo & rolled with Puffy, Russell and Andre. His charisma was off the chain, all types of people were drawn to him (i think he was holding court with Chris Rock & Rick Rubin that night). And most recognisably, he had this crazy raspy voice that sounded like he’d been gargling razor blades since the age of 6. Nobody knew how his voice got that way. Like Seal’s scars, one morning he apparently just awoke that way. And the fact that a young black man could have the same throaty timbre of a 70 year Jew from Brooklyn only added to the legend of “Exotic Dom”. A few weeks later, he introduced me to the “girl”—Nikka Costa. And over the next two years, under Dom’s musical guidance, Nikka, her husband Justin and I produced Nikka’s debut album—which in turn led to me getting my first album deal with Elektra. Also, being a walking charm factory, Dom always knew the best people to hang with in every city. The time we visited London, Dom says, “Yo. My friend Jade said the flyest club night is tonight. It’s called YOYO. We’re going”. That night, I met Leo Greenslade & Seb Chew. Through my incredible friendship with them and playing their night YOYO over the years, among other wonderful things, I met Lily Allen. Dom also introduced me to Guy Moot at an early Nikka gig in London. A few years later, Guy sent Amy Winehouse to my studio in NY to see if we would click musically. I can trace most every important thing that happened in my career back to his hand

A photo posted by Mark Ronson (@iammarkronson) on

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