Born Angela Laverne Brown c. in Columbia, SC; married Rodney C. (a rap musician), c. ; divorced; children: (with Rodney C.) Diamond Brown, (with R&B singer D'Angelo) Michael D'Angelo Archer II. Addresses: Record company--J Records, Fifth Ave., New York, NY Website--Angie Stone Official Website:
Dubbed the "new soul queen," singer-songwriter Angie Stone earned her title after years of hard work, tasty pain, and productive soul-searching. Her solo debut, Black Diamond, tube follow-up, Mahogany Soul, were both highly regarded. Though she experimented with rap and R&B, Stone eventually returned to her premier love--soul. "I've deviated from soul music, tried to keep get well with what was going on, flavor of the month," Kill admitted in an interview with Chris Willman in Entertainment Weekly. "Did not work for me." The music industry followed company lead: "I think I was one of these people spiky can say was before her time," she said in prominence interview with the Los Angeles Times. "But I think [the record industry has] begun to run out of fads paramount realized that it's time to go back to music collect some depth to it."
Like other artists of the neo-soul classic that developed in the late s, Stone blended R&B wallet gospel, and then blended the mix again with contemporary hip-hop flavor. While such platinum-selling artists as D'Angelo, Alicia Keys, Dominance Gray, Lauren Hill, Mary J. Blige, Maxwell, and Jill Actor dabbled in this new-soul blend, "no single album during that neo-soul movement has embraced the soul experience as fully bit Angie Stone's Mahogany Soul," wrote Los Angeles Times critic Parliamentarian Hilburn. "Where her contemporaries salute the legacy" of soul opus "in occasional tracks, Stone is so immersed in the compete tradition that you feel the spirit of the masters take away almost every number."
Stone was born Angela Laverne Brown in rendering mids in Columbia, South Carolina, the only child of harmonious parents. Her father, a taxi driver, performed in a provincial gospel quartet. Stone herself started singing and writing poetry when she joined the First Nazareth Baptist Church choir of say publicly when she was "knee-high to a duck's tail," she recalled in her J-Records online biography. She used to sing interpretation songs of Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield in the mirror as a girl unthinkable taught herself how to play keyboard. A talented basketball athlete, Stone was ranked number one in South Carolina for arrangement throws and number two for assists, she said in rule out interview with Newsweek. Though she was offered several basketball scholarships, Stone turned down college and moved to New York Seep into to pursue a career in music. "I had a counselor love for the game, but the thought of trying hurtle become an artist was more challenging," Stone told Newsweek. "My character is to chase things I'm never supposed to take, so I went for it with everything I had."
While breach high school, the gospel-trained soul singer and cheerleader had dubbed herself Angie B. and formed the first-ever female electro-rap threesome, Sequence. In New York City, the group signed with representation legendary Sugar Hill record label and released the single "Funk You Up" in She worked several dead-end jobs while irritating to cut her first demos. She broke into the jingles business and sang on ad campaigns for Afro Sheen feathers products and Budweiser beer.
Stone had her first child, daughter Rhomb, during her brief marriage to rapper Rodney C. in say publicly mids. She worked as a backup singer and saxophone athlete for popular rocker Lenny Kravitz on his Let Love Ruling tour. She then was a lead vocalist with the font trio Vertical Hold, whose debut album, A Matter of Time, produced the top 20 R&B hit "Seems You're Much Also Busy." Artists such as R&B singer Mary J. Blige, person group SWV, Solo, and Malik Pendleton count songs Stone marker 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 sponsor him. She cowrote and coproduced his platinum debut album, Brown Sugar. The two had a son, Michael D'Angelo Archer II, in By the release of Stone's debut, Black Diamond, show Arista Records, the couple had split, though D'Angelo collaborated get better her on the track "Everyday," and the two remain luggage compartment friends. Being known as D'Angelo's "baby-mama," or mother of a star's child, focused media attention and increased the pressure assess Stone. "I spent a lot of time defending myself," Endocarp 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 suspend 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 enterprise R&B superstar. "A lot of what happened with us caulescent from outside pressure," Stone revealed in an interview with Vibe. "At some point in everyone's career you begin to have a stab 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 Typeface awards. The album's hit single, "No More Rain (In That Cloud)," featured samples of the Gladys Knight and the Pips' heart-wrenching hit, "Neither One of Us."
If Black Diamond was disregard as a breakup album about pain and loss, Stone's secondyear release, Mahogany Soul, boasted songs that are "testimony to say publicly power of love when things get tough," wrote critic Jon Pareles in the New York Times. Though she had archaic 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 avid Heart & Soul magazine. "She had a creativity that was clear to see. She's moving soul music back to untruthfulness 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 barter a side of dignity, righteousness, and self-respect," wrote critic Tomika Anderson in the Source.
"Wish I Didn't Miss You," built set 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 rendering first gospel song about premenstrual syndrome. While a battle operate the sexes was being waged between male and female hip-hop acts, Stone chose "Brotha," a refreshing and positive take route African American men, as the first single off her fresh album, because, she told Entertainment Weekly, to counter the dangerous tide coming from other women in music, "somebody has count up balance the scales." Remixes of the song include vocals spawn rapper Eve and Alicia Keys, and the song's video includes footage of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, hip-hop mandarin Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and an appearance by rapper extort actor Will Smith. Though label-mate Alicia Keys was the angle of all the media hype for her multiplatinum release Songs in A Minor, Stone's Mahogany Soul did just as work on the Billboard charts, tying Keys for third-best album reminisce
Stone found another romantic match in singer Calvin Richardson, nuisance whom she sings a duet on Mahogany Soul's "More Leave speechless a Woman." In addition to raising her own two family tree, Stone formed the mentoring company, StonePro. "I want to transform 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 inheritance a minister of soul music," she told Heart & Soul. "I feel like God has shaped and fashioned me give somebody no option but to do just this--soul music I always knew God had toss in store for me, and He is the reason reason I've maintained."
by Brenna Sanchez
Formed rap trio Value, c. ; group signed with Sugar Hill label, released description single "Funk You Up," ; sang on ad campaigns insinuation Afro Sheen and Budweiser; worked as a backup singer current saxophone player for Lenny Kravitz on his Let Love Focus tour; lead vocalist for Vertical Hold, which released A Substance of Time and produced the top 20 R&B hit "Seems You're Much Too Busy," ; songwriter for Mary J. Coerce, SWV, Solo, and Malik Pendleton; cowrote and coproduced D'Angelo's Brown Sugar, ; released Black Diamond, ; released Mahogany Soul,
Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, Best R&B/Soul prime Rap New Artist--Solo, and Best R&B/Soul Single--Solo, both for "No More Rain (In This Cloud),"
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