Angela Laverne Brown (born December 18, 1961) known professionally as Angie Stone, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. She rose to fame in the late 1970s as member of the hip hop trio The Sequence. In the early 1990s, she became a member of the R&B trio Vertical Hold. Stone would later release her solo debut Black Diamond (1999) on Arista Records, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and spawned the single “No More Rain (In This Cloud)”.
After transitioning to J Records, she released her second album, Mahogany Soul (2001), which included the hit single “Wish I Didn’t Miss You”; followed by the albums Stone Love (2004) and The Art of Love & War (2007), her first number-one album on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Stone ventured into acting in the 2000s, making her film debut in the 2002 comedy film The Hot Chick, and her stage debut in 2003, in the role of Big Mama Morton in the Broadway musical Chicago. She has since appeared in supporting roles in films and television series as well as several musical productions, including VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club and TV One’s R&B Divas, and movies such as The Fighting Temptations (2003), Pastor Brown (2009) and School Gyrls (2010).
Stone has been nominated for three Grammy Awards and has won two Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. In 2021, she received the Soul Music Icon Award at the Black Music Honors.
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. Her father, a member of a local gospel quartet, took Stone to see performances by gospel artists such as the Singing Angels and the Gospel Keynotes.
In the late 1970s, when Stone was 16, she formed the rap trio The Sequence, a female hip-hop act, also consisting of Cheryl “The Pearl” Cook and Gwendolyn “Blondie” Chisolm. They were the second rap group signed to the Sugar Hill Records after auditioning for manager Sylvia Robinson backstage at a Sugar Hill Gang concert in South Carolina. In 1980, The Sequence scored a hit with their single “Funk You Up”, which reached number 15 on the US Top Black Singles chart. The trio enjoyed a series of rap hits as the first female rap group during the early years of hip hop. Singles such as “Monster Jam” featuring rapper Spoonie Gee and “Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off)” kept the band touring, with Robinson acting as their mentor. The group faded into obscurity as hip hop changed from its original party sound to a grittier street art form and the trio eventually disbanded in 1985.
Stone has two children. Stone’s daughter, Diamond, was born in 1984 and 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 Stone’s 2007 song “Baby”. Diamond gave birth to Stone’s grandson in 2008 and another grandchild in July 2012.
During the 1990s, Stone was in a relationship with neo soul singer D’Angelo. They have a son named Michael D’Angelo Archer II. He was born in 1998.
Stone lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her son, Michael and her daughter, Diamond.
In March 2015, it was reported that Stone had been arrested for assaulting her 30-year-old daughter.
Stone was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1999 and, along with comedian-actor Anthony Anderson, was part of the F.A.C.E Diabetes (Fearless African Americans Connected and Empowered) program sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company, which helps African Americans understand their risk for the disease and how to control it. Stone said that both her mother and her mother’s sister were diabetic.
Written by Dianne Washington