MashGet

Maxwell spent the last eight years in a creative coma, like R&B’s answer to Rumpelstiltskin. Weirdly, he wasn’t alone in his retreat. Two of the other leading lights of modern alterna-soul also went poof, including Lauryn Hill, who became too spooked by fame to risk recording another CD, and D’Angelo, who hasn’t been seen since we saw nearly all of him in his smash nudie video for "How Does It Feel."