singer; soul musician; songwriter
Personal Information
Born and raised in Columbia, SC, in 1965; father sang in a local gospel quartet; Son, Michael.
Education: Attended high school in Columbia; star basketball player; received but turned down several college basketball scholarship offers.
Career
Soul vocalist. Joined rap group the Sequence, ca. 1982; group released album The Sequence, 1982; worked as singer of television and radio commercial jingles, 1980s; joined group Vertical Hold, 1988; group released album Vertical Hold, 1992; active as songwriter for D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige, Lenny Kravitz, and other artists, 1990s; released solo debut Black Diamond, 1999.
Life's Work
Though the era of classic soul vocals reached its peak in the 1970s, it lived on into the twenty-first century in the voice of Angie Stone. Around the year 2000 a group of vocalists, predominantly female, turned to older soul and R&B styles in order to express various musical ideas, but it was Stone who evoked the pure vocal sounds of the pre-hip hop era. Releasing her debut solo album at the age of 35, Stone outsold many of the artists half her age who had begun to dominate the U.S. musical scene.
Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, around 1965. A strong gospel influence in her mature vocal style resulted from her singing gospel music at the city's First Nazareth Baptist Church and by attending gospel concerts with her father, a member of a local gospel quartet. In high school Stone was a standout basketball player (her father was also a fine football player). She received several offers of college basketball scholarships. But Stone, who had written poetry since she was a girl, hoped for a musical career; standing in front of her bedroom mirror she would lip-synch whole concerts to recordings of soul vocalists such as Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye.
Pioneer Female Rap Artist
Stone broke into the music business as a rap artist--which was ironic since her music would later be seen as offering an alternative to a hip-hop-dominated urban radio mainstream. In New York in the early 1980s, she joined with two other women to form the Sequence. That group landed on the roster of the pioneering rap label Sugarhill, and they are generally regarded as the first female act in the rap genre. Stone, who was known as "Angie B," delivered raps in such Sequence dance-club hits as a remake of Parliament's "Tear the Roof Off."
Statuesque and strong, with a large Afro hairstyle that she has retained throughout her career, Stone had a look that was little influenced by the high-fashion inclination of many urban artists. "I loved Pam Grier. Cleopatra Jones," she told Rolling Stone. "Strong, beautiful, dark-skinned women. Pam had the Afro, the strong 'I'm beautiful, but I'm bad and I'll take it there.'" But as with many of the other acts of rap's first generation, the popularity of the Sequence did not last. For a time, Stone supported herself by singing commercial jingles.
Recorded Budweiser Jingles
"I did Afro Sheen," she told Rolling Stone. "Budweiser, too. Budweiser ran for eight years, and I'm gonna tell you something: That stuff really pays well, because it really helped me survive when I was in transition with my career." But Stone's creative side didn't take long to reassert itself. A prolific songwriter, she began to work with other rap acts, such as the group Mantronix and the innovative white rapper Lenny Kravitz. By 1988 Stone had formed an R&B trio, Vertical Hold, that incorporated more of her own affinity for the classic style of soul vocals and enabled her to emulate such models as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Donny Hathaway.
Vertical Hold's records bubbled around the lower end of Billboard magazine's urban music charts for several years, and in 1993 the group released a self-titled CD. One dance number from the album, "Seems You're Much Too Busy," rose into the top 20, and several other singles made an impression, but that wasn't enough to propel the group to an ongoing recording career. Stone's family began to doubt her chances for success. "My mom used to say, 'If God had meant you to make it, then you'd have made it by now," she told the London Daily Telegraph. But Stone continued with her songwriting, numbering among her collaborations those with soul veteran Al Green and modern R&B hitmaker Mary J. Blige.
One collaboration in particular proved both personally and professionally fruitful. Stone contributed songs to the recordings of D'Angelo, whose 1995 debut album Brown Sugar is often credited with kicking off the neo-soul musical phenomenon, and who remains the most significant male representative of the style. Stone placed four tracks on D'Angelo's critically acclaimed 2000 release, Voodoo, which incorporated a host of modern influences into a basic soul context, and she and D'Angelo became romantically involved. The relationship resulted in a child, Michael, but after three years Stone and D'Angelo called it quits.
As Stone assembled material for her own debut release, Black Diamond, she was sometimes dogged by publicity connected to her relationship with D'Angelo, who remains a strong draw for female crowds. In conversation with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she imitated the question she often faced: "Isn't that the lady that had D'Angelo's baby?" Nevertheless, she and D'Angelo remained friends; he contributed guest vocals on Black Diamond (as did Lenny Kravitz), and he continued to influence Stone musically.
Stone offers her own explanation for the preponderance of female vocalists in the neo-soul movement. "Our men are frustrated," she told the Daily Telegraph. "That's why you hear all that anger [in hip-hop music]. They feel it's the only way they can make themselves heard. We are able to tolerate more, and in any culture women will always take on that motherly role. We caress and comfort our men through song, because we understand how bruised they are."
Released Solo Debut
In her mid-thirties in late 1999, an age when the careers of many urban contemporary vocalists are on a downward trajectory, Stone released her solo debut on the Arista label. Black Diamond was a creative triumph. Gaining momentum over several months, the album, and its lead single, "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" (cowritten by Stone and based on a phrase she had often heard her father say), stayed on the charts for more than 30 weeks. The album spawned a successful tour which, unlike those of Stone's neo-soul rivals Macy Gray and Jill Scott, attracted predominantly African-American crowds. Billboard named Black Diamond its 2000 album of the year.
Part of the reason for the album's success was that it intelligently updated classic soul with samples and other manifestations of hip-hop techniques. Paying homage to such vocalists as Gladys Knight through samples (Knight's "Neither One of Us" is heard in "No More Rain (In This Cloud)"), Stone also drew on the 1970s funk styles of Rufus and other bands (the hard-edged vocals of Rufus frontwoman Chaka Khan are another influence on Stone's style). Yet it was Stone's voice that made the greatest impression. Clearly reflecting her gospel origins, it exuded a raw power of a kind not often heard in the increasingly electronics-dominated world of urban music.
"Real soul singers have used hip-hop beats as a crutch for too long now," Stone told the London Daily Telegraph. "My music stems from the church, and in church there are no limits to where music can take you." Stone emphasized a religious message in her concerts and in the liner notes to Black Diamond. Those notes said that the album represented "a woman's life, all the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations, and the joys." After 20 years of trials in the music business, Angie Stone had earned the right to a few joys.
Awards
Received Billboard magazine Album of the Year award for Black Diamond, 2000.
Works
Selected discography
Further Reading
Periodicals
— James M. Manheim
| For The Record... |
| Born Angela Laverne Brown c. 1965 in Columbia, SC; married Rodney C. (a rap musician), c. 1985; divorced; children: (with Rodney C.) Diamond Brown, (with R&B singer D’Angelo) Michael D’Angelo Archer II. Formed rap trio Sequence, c. 1977; group signed with Sugar Hill label, released the single “Funk You Up,” 1979; sang on ad campaigns for Afro Sheen and Budweiser; worked as a backup singer and saxophone player for Lenny Kravitz on his Let Love Rule tour; lead vocalist for Vertical Hold, which released A Matter of Time and produced the top 20 R&B hit “Seems You’re Much Too Busy,” 1993; songwriter for Mary J. Blige, SWV, Solo, and Malik Pendleton; cowrote and coproduced D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar, 1995; released Black Diamond, 1999; released Mahogany Soul, 2001. Awards: Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist—Solo, and Best R&B/Soul Single—Solo, both for “No More Rain (In This Cloud),” 1999. Addresses: Record company—J Records, 745 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10151. Website—Angie Stone Official Website: http://www.angiestoneonline.com. |
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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2008) |
| Angie Stone | |
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Angie Stone at Berns, Stockholm |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Angela Laverne Brown |
| Born | December 18, 1961 [citation needed] Columbia, South Carolina, United States |
| Genres | R&B, soul, neo soul |
| Occupations | singer-songwriter, record producer, actress |
| Instruments | Singing, keyboards |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Labels | Arista, J, Stax |
| Associated acts | The Sequence, Vertical Hold, Mantronix, Devox, Joss Stone, Anthony Hamilton |
| Website | www.angiestoneonline.net |
Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. She has been most successful on the R&B charts, with four Top 10 albums, including a number one album, and ten singles, including a Top 10. She has sold over 1.4 millions albums in the U.S. and over 5 millions albums worldwide.
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Contents
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Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began singing gospel music at First Nazareth Baptist Church, under the leadership of Reverend Blakely N. Scott.
She has a daughter and son. Her daughter Diamond (born 1984) is from her marriage to Rodney Stone (also known as Lil' Rodney C!, from the hip hop group Funky Four Plus One). Diamond contributed background vocals to her 2007 song "Baby",[1] and gave birth to Stone's grandson in 2008. During the 1990s Stone dated neo soul singer D'Angelo. Their son Michael was born in 1998. Stone lives in Atlanta, Georgia with Michael and fiancé Ashanti, an airline auditor who has two children of his own.[2]
In the early 1980s, Stone (then known as Angie B.) was a member of The Sequence, a female hip hop/funk trio consisting of Cheryl The Pearl and Blondie. They were the second rap group signed to the Sugar Hill Record Label after auditioning for Sylvia Robinson backstage at a Sugar Hill Gang concert in South Carolina. They had a hit in 1980 with "Funk You Up", which reached number fifteen on the U.S. Top Black Singles chart, and a minor hit with "Monster Jam" featuring rapper Spoonie Gee. The Sequence enjoyed a series of rap hits as the first female rap group during the early years of Hip Hop. Such hits as "Funky Sound (Tear The Roof Off)" kept The Sequence touring with many of the Soul Bands of the day. She then worked with Mantronix, before singing background on Lenny Kravitz's fifth studio album, 5. The Sequence faded into obscurity as Hip Hop changed from its original party sound to a more gritty street art form.
Stone emerged during the 1990s as part of the R&B trio Vertical Hold which released the popular single "Seems You're Much Too Busy" as well as two albums: A Matter of Time (1993) and Head First (1995).
In 1996, she teamed up with Gerry DeVeaux (Lenny Kravitz's cousin) and together with Charlie Mole they formed Devox. They recorded one album, Devox Featuring Angie B. Stone. Released in Japan by Toshiba EMI and selected cuts featured on Gerry DeVeaux's Front Of The line via the UK Expansion Records, which also included Stone-penned material.
Stone shared songwriting credits on D'Angelo's first two studio albums, Brown Sugar (1995) and Voodoo (2000), as well as providing backing vocals on tour with him.
Her solo debut album, Black Diamond, was released on September 28, 1999 on Arista Records; the album would eventually be certified gold by the RIAA. She has since also released, on Clive Davis' J Records, Mahogany Soul on October 16, 2001 (which also went gold), and Stone Love on July 6, 2004.
Much of Stone's solo material has significant soul influences and features notable samples. For example, her first solo single, "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" samples Gladys Knight & the Pips' 1972 song "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", while "Wish I Didn't Miss You" samples The O'Jays' 1972 song "Back Stabbers".
Stone sings the theme song for the UPN/The CW's sitcom Girlfriends.
During an interview to BBC 1Xtra on August 27, 2006, Stone announced that she had signed to the reworked Stax Records. Her fourth studio album |- The Art of Love & War was released on October 15, 2007. The lead single is "Baby" and features Betty Wright. Its music video features cameo appearances by comedian Mike Epps and America's Next Top Model, Cycle 3 winner Eva Pigford. The song was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
Angie released her fifth studio album titled "Unexpected" in the UK on February 8, 2010 on Stax Records. Speaking to noted UK R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul in January 2010, she explained her ideas behind 'Unexpected': "Being as I've delivered four decent albums already, I felt it was safe to switch up and do something different this time. And musically overall I just wanted to have FUN! I wanted to do something that embodied a jam kinda feel, so that we could have some fun in concert and show people everything doesn't always have to be so serious."[3]
Stone recently finished a stand-up theatre play tour entitled Issues: We've Got Them All in which she had a leading role. She appeared on the VH1's reality television series Celebrity Fit Club for the fourth season, which began on August 6, 2006. While on the show, Stone lost eighteen pounds, the second lowest loss in the history of the show.
Stone has had various Summer Festival dates lined up across America and also three headlining American shows in June and another two in the Netherlands in August.
Stone toured with Sisters in the Spirit in 2007; toured in Europe in May/June 2008; toured on various Summer Festivals in the U.S. in summer 2008 (including three headlining June shows); and two in the Netherlands in August 2008.
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | The Hot Chick | Madame Mambuza |
| 2003 | The Fighting Temptations | Alma |
| 2008 | Caught on Tape | Diane |
| 2009 | Pastor Brown | Rick Fredericks |
| 2010 | School Gyrls | Headmaster Jones |
| 2011 | Dreams | |
| 2012 | The Wonder Girls | Betty |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Moesha | Herself | "D-Money Loses His Patience" (season 5, episode 22) |
| 2002 | Girlfriends | Darla Mason | "Blinded by the Lights" (season 3, episode 51) |
| 2004 | One on One | Herself | "It's a Mad, Mad Hip Hop World" (season 3, episode 92) |
| 2008 | Lincoln Heights | Octavia | "Prom Night" (season 3, episode 9) "The Ground Beneath Our Feet" (season 3, episode 10) |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Chicago | Big Mama Morton |
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Angie Stone |
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