Angie Stone

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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

  • (with The Sequence) The Sequence, Sugarhill, 1982.
  • (with Vertical Hold) Vertical Hold, A&M, 1993.
  • Black Diamond, Arista, 2000.

Further Reading

Periodicals

  • Billboard, April 8, 2000, p. 27.
  • Daily News (New York), April 24, 2000, p. 46.
  • Daily Telegraph (London, England), April 6, 2000, p. 27.
  • The Observer (London, England), February 27, 2000, p. 10.
  • Rolling Stone, March 16, 2000, p. 31.
  • St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 21, 2000, p. C2.
  • Washington Post, May 5, 2000, p. C3.
Online
  • All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com.

— James M. Manheim

Top

Singer, songwriter

Dubbed the "new soul queen," singer-songwriter Angie Stone earned her title after years of hard work, emotional pain, and productive soul-searching. Her solo debut, Black Diamond, and follow-up, Mahogany Soul, were both highly regarded. Though she experimented with rap and R&B, Stone eventually returned to her first love—soul. "I’ve deviated from soul music, tried to keep up with what was going on, flavor of the month," Stone admitted in an interview with Chris Willman in Entertainment Weekly. "Did not work for me." The music industry followed her lead: "I think I was one of these people you can say was before her time," she said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "But I think [the record industry has] begun to run out of fads and realized that it’s time to go back to music with some depth to it."

Like other artists of the neo-soul genre that developed in the late 1990s, Stone blended R&B and gospel, and then blended the mix again with contemporary hip-hop flavor. While such platinum-selling artists as D’Angelo, Alicia Keys, Macy Gray, Lauren Hill, Mary J. Blige, Maxwell, and Jill Scott dabbled in this new-soul blend, "no single album during this neo-soul movement has embraced the soul experience as fully as Angie Stone’s Mahogany Soul" wrote Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn. "Where her contemporaries salute the legacy" of soul music "in occasional tracks, Stone is so immersed in the soul tradition that you feel the spirit of the masters in almost every number."

Stone was born Angela Laverne Brown in the mid-1960s in Columbia, South Carolina, the only child of musical parents. Her father, a taxi driver, performed in a local gospel quartet. Stone herself started singing and writing poetry when she joined the First Nazareth Baptist Church choir of the when she was "knee-high to a duck’s tail," she recalled in her J-Records online biography. She used to sing the songs of Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield in the mirror as a girl and taught herself how to play keyboard. A talented basketball player, Stone was ranked number one in South Carolina for free throws and number two for assists, she said in an interview with Newsweek. Though she was offered several basketball scholarships, Stone turned down college and moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. "I had a natural love for the game, but the thought of trying to become an artist was more challenging," Stone told Newsweek. "My character is to chase things I’m never supposed to have, so I went for it with everything I had."

While in high school, the gospel-trained soul singer and cheerleader had dubbed herself Angie B. and formed the first-ever female electro-rap trio, Sequence. In New York City, the group signed with the legendary Sugar Hill record label and released the single "Funk You Up" in 1979. She worked several dead-end jobs while trying to cut her first demos. She broke into the jingles

business and sang on ad campaigns for Afro Sheen hair products and Budweiser beer.

Stone had her first child, daughter Diamond, during her brief marriage to rapper Rodney C. in the mid-1980s. She worked as a backup singer and saxophone player for popular rocker Lenny Kravitz on his Let Love Rule tour. She then was a lead vocalist with the soul trio Vertical Hold, whose 1993 debut album, A Matter of Time, produced the top 20 R&B hit "Seems You’re Much Too Busy." Artists such as R&B singer Mary J. Blige, female group SWV, Solo, and Malik Pendleton count songs Stone penned for them among their repertoire.

R&B singer-songwriter D’Angelo, whom she considers "a musical soulmate," according to her online biography, entered Stone’s life while she was working as a backup singer for him. She cowrote and coproduced his platinum 1995 debut album, Brown Sugar. The two had a son, Michael D’Angelo Archer II, in 1997. By the 1999 release of Stone’s debut, Black Diamond, on Arista Records, the couple had split, though D’Angelo collaborated with her on the track "Everyday," and the two remain close friends. Being known as D’Angelo’s "baby-mama," or mother of a star’s child, focused media attention and increased the pressure on Stone. "I spent a lot of time defending myself," Stone said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "My life was such an open book… A lot of people thought I was bouncing back from heartbreak."

Stone has referred to her weight—which is more than that of a typical R&B diva, but considered by some critics to be a refreshing change—as one reason for their breakup. She has suggested that the media and those close to D’Angelo may have convinced him a more slender woman should be on the arm of an R&B superstar. "A lot of what happened with us stemmed from outside pressure," Stone revealed in an interview with Vibe. "At some point in everyone’s career you begin to hear the roar of the crowd." Despite the pressures, Black Diamond sold more than one million copies, was nominated for a Grammy Award, and won two Soul Train Lady of Soul awards. The album’s hit single, "No More Rain (In This Cloud)," featured samples of the Gladys Knight and the Pips’ heart-wrenching hit, "Neither One of Us."

If Black Diamond was seen as a breakup album about pain and loss, Stone’s sophomore release, Mahogany Soul, boasted songs that are "testimony to the power of love when things get tough," wrote critic Jon Pareles in the New York Times. Though she had been with Arista since the label discovered her singing for D’Angelo, Stone was invited by label-head Clive Davis to start his own label, J Records. "When I encountered Angie, it was clear she was going to be a pathfinder," Davis told Heart & Soul magazine. "She had a creativity that was clear to see. She’s moving soul music back to its roots." Stone had more control over this album and wrote and produced it, revealing a "more refined, mature soul album," wrote Joseph Patel in Vibe. She "dishes out realness with a side of dignity, righteousness, and self-respect," wrote critic Tomika Anderson in the Source.

"Wish I Didn’t Miss You," built on a sample from the O’Jays’ "Backstabbers," and "Bottles & Cans," which Hilburn suggested is evocative of Al Green, are songs of tempestuous romance. "Time of the Month" may be the first gospel song about premenstrual syndrome. While a battle of the sexes was being waged between male and female hip-hop acts, Stone chose "Brotha," a refreshing and positive take on African American men, as the first single off her new album, because, she told Entertainment Weekly, to counter the venomous tide coming from other women in music, "somebody has to balance the scales." Remixes of the song include vocals by rapper Eve and Alicia Keys, and the song’s video includes footage of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and an appearance by rapper and actor Will Smith. Though label-mate Alicia Keys was the subject of all the media hype for her multiplatinum release Songs in A Minor, Stone’s Mahogany Soul did just as well on the Billboard charts, tying Keys for third-best album of 2001.

Stone found another romantic match in singer Calvin Richardson, with whom she sings a duet on Mahogany Soul’s "More Than a Woman." In addition to raising her own two children, Stone formed the mentoring company, StonePro. "I want to become more involved in discovering, educating and grooming young artists," she told Heart & Soul. Ultimately, she sees herself as a minister. Though she has not attended seminary school, "I’m just a minister of soul music," she told Heart & Soul. "I feel like God has shaped and fashioned me to do just this—soul music…. I always knew God had something in store for me, and He is the reason why I’ve maintained."

Selected discography
Black Diamond, Arista, 1999.
Mahogany Soul, J Records, 2001.

Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, November 3, 2001; November 10, 2001.
Daily News (New York), November 4, 2001.
Entertainment Weekly, January 18, 2002, p. 35.
Heart & Soul, December/January 2002, p. 66.
Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2001, p. 3.
Newsweek, November 18, 2001, p. 66.
New York Times, November 10, 2001.
Paper, December 2001, p. 104.
People, November 5, 2001.
Source, December 2001.
Time Out New York, November 15-21, 2001, p. 46.
Vibe, March 2002, p. 124.

Online
"Angie Stone," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (January 24, 2002).
Additional materials were provided by the J Records publicity department, 2002.
  • Genres: Rhythm & Blues

Biography

A singer, MC, self-taught keyboardist, and prolific songwriter, Angie Stone's first claim to fame was her membership in the Sequence, an all-female trio that recorded for pioneering hip-hop label Sugar Hill, beginning with the 1979 single "Funk You Up." Several years later, she re-emerged as the lead vocalist for Vertical Hold, where she scored with the smooth urban dance track "Seems You're Much Too Busy," a Top 40 R&B hit during the summer of 1993 that led to very productive solo career. With the release of her 1999 solo debut, she became one of neo-soul's leading lights, providing sharp insight into romantic relationships with her smoky yet upfront voice.

Stone, a native of Columbia, SC, began singing gospel music at a young age at First Nazareth Baptist Church. Her father, a member of a local gospel quartet, would take his only child to see performances by gospel artists such as the Singing Angels and the Gospel Keynotes. During her youth, she wrote poetry, played sports and, after high-school graduation, was offered college basketball scholarships. While working dead-end jobs, Stone began saving money to record her own demos at a local studio called PAW. She joined Gwendolyn Chisholm and Cheryl Cook in the rap trio the Sequence, who recorded hits for Joe and Sylvia Robinson's Sugar Hill label -- "Funk You Up," a remake of Parliament's hit "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" called "Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off)," and "I Don't Need Your Love." Soon after, Stone was working with futuristic rappers Mantronix and rocker Lenny Kravitz and formed the classy R&B trio Vertical Hold, who first charted with the Criminal single "Summertime." Besides "Seems You're Much Too Busy," the group's self-titled A&M album spawned another charting single, "ASAP." The group split after its second album.

Stone subsequently signed to Arista as a solo artist and recorded 1999's Black Diamond, a Top Ten R&B album that was certified gold on the strength of the singles "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" and "Everyday" (one of several songs she has written either for or with D'Angelo). The album won her a pair of Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. She shifted to J for 2001's Mahogany Soul, another gold seller. 2004's Stone Love fared just as well commercially, yet she moved to the revitalized Stax label for her fourth studio album, 2007's The Art of Love & War. It topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and featured two of her best singles, "Baby" and "Sometimes." Unexpected, a second Stax release, followed two years later. Also an occasional actor, she appeared in a handful of movies, including The Fighting Temptations and Pastor Brown, as well as the television programs Moesha, Girlfriends, and Lincoln Heights. ~ Ed Hogan & Andy Kellman, Rovi
Top
Angie Stone

Angie Stone at Berns, Stockholm
Background information
Birth name Angela Laverne Brown
Born (1961-12-18) December 18, 1961 (age 50)[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 performing live at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on July 11, 2008

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.

Contents

Biography

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]

Musical career

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]

Tours

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.

Discography

Studio Albums

Filmography

Films

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

Television

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)

Theatre

Year Title Role
2003 Chicago Big Mama Morton

Awards and nominations

Wins

Nominations

References

External links


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Mentioned in

The Sequence (Rap Band, '80s, '90s)
Mahogany Soul (2001 Album by Angie Stone)
Stone Hits: The Very Best of Angie Stone (2005 Album by Angie Stone)
Stone Hits: The Very Best [Alternate Tracks] (2006 Album by Angie Stone)