D'Angelo's singing throughout "Brown Sugar" is a gospel-influenced, falsetto crooning style, which critics have compared the singing of Prince, Al Green, Donny Hathaway, and Sam Cooke. Despite the album's retro influence, music writers have noted his delivery as having a hip hop approach and "", as one critic described the album as a "blend of classic soul and urban attitude". Another writer described the album's vibe as "sultry" and D'Angelo's vocal delivery as "sly". Music journalist Jon Caramanica later called D'Angelo a "classicist, in other words, cloaked in the guise of a hip-hop roughneck." Shapiro viewed the vocal production as similar to that of Prince's "Sign o' the Times" (1987). The album's closing track "Higher" features D'Angelo's organ set to a choir of his overdubbed vocals, while "Jonz in My Bonz", which compares love to an addiction, features D'Angelo's falsetto moans overdubbed in an array for effect.