Within the field of R&B music, singer/songwriter Angie Stone was both an innovator and a legacy keeper. Her career started as a hip-hop pioneer and continued in R&B with a career that paid homage to women R&B singers of the 70s and 80s.
Stone died in a car crash in Montgomery, Alabama early Saturday morning (March 1). She was 63.
A rep for the singer confirmed to Variety that she was coming from a show with her band members and background singers when her Sprinter turned over. The statement to the entertainment industry news outlet says that others were injured in the crash, though it’s unclear if there were other deaths. Celebrity news and gossip site TMZ was first to report Stone’s passing.
Her 45-plus year career spanned genres and several mediums. She was a rapper, singer, songwriter and actress. She was an accomplished stage actress and performed on the big and small screen both as an actress and a reality television personality.
In Stone’s songs, love stories evolved – and sometimes dissipated. Heartbreak gave way to healing. Sometimes it didn’t, and she just took the opportunity to pour out her emotions in response to love that was lost or stolen.
The Columbia, South Carolina native was only 16 when she got her start as one-third of the Sequence, the first female hip-hop trio signed to Sugar Hill Records. They released several albums but were most notably known for “Funk You Up.” The 1979 single went on to become a regularly sampled song in contemporary music including Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and Erykah Badu’s “Love of My Life Worldwide.”
She later joined the group Vertical Hold and released two albums with them in the 1990s.
Her breakthrough as a solo artist directly followed the creative support she provided to former partner D’Angelo. She contributed as a songwriter and provided background vocals to his genre defining albums “Brown Sugar” and “Voodoo.” She also performed as a background singer on his “Voodoo” tour. D’Angelo and Stone’s relationship during their creative partnership resulted in the birth of Stone’s only son, Michael D’Angelo Archer II.
In the late 1990s, she signed to Arista Records and moved over to Clive Davis’ J Records – where she released her debut solo album “Black Diamond.” The record spawned the moderately successful radio hit “Every day” which featured D’Angelo both with the co-writing and on the background vocals.
It was her sophomore album “Mohogany Soul” that put Stone in the mix as a fundamental member of the neo-soul movement of the late nineties and early 2000s. Cohort members such as Jill Scott and Erykah Badu used their respective platforms to expand the genre through the merging of other elements such as poetry, hip hop and jazz.
But Stone used her music as a solo songstress to pay tribute to a seemingly lost and underappreciated art form within soul and R&B. Stone’s vivid lyrics and emphasis on the story as well as her vocal prowess was reminiscent of the female R&B storyteller era that dominated urban FM radio stations and blue light basement parties in the 70s and 80s. The late Betty Wright and Minnie Ripperton, as well as St. Louis area natives Shirley Brown and Ann Peebles, were among them.
In Stone’s songs, love stories evolved – and sometimes dissipated. Heartbreak gave way to healing. Sometimes it didn’t, and she just took the opportunity to pour out her emotions in response to love that was lost or stolen.
Among her biggest hits included 2001’s “Brotha,” her ode to Black men, “No More Rain,” “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” and the Grammy Award-nominated “More Than A Woman” featuring Joe.
Stone is survived by her daughter Diamond Stone, son Michael D’Angelo Archer II and two grandchildren.