Biography: Angie Stone

Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, keyboardist, record producer, and occasional actress.

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 is engaged to an airline auditor named Ashanti, 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. 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. She then worked with Mantronix, before singing background on Lenny Kravitz's fifth studio album, 5.

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). Stone was featured in the 2010 film directed by Nick Cannon, School Gyrls as head master Jones.

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 only by Toshiba EMI, it 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

• 1999: Black Diamond
• 2001: Mahogany Soul
• 2004: Stone Love
• 2007: The Art of Love & War
• 2010: Unexpected

Filmography

Films

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations

Wins

• 2000 Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: Best R&B/Soul Single, Solo for "No More Rain (In This Cloud)"
• 2000 Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist, Solo
• 2004 Edison Award for Stone Love

Nominations

• 2003 Grammy Awards: Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "More Than a Woman" (with Joe)
• 2004 Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "U-Haul"
• 2008 Grammy Awards: Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "Baby" (with Betty Wright)
• 2008 BET Awards: BET J Award
• 2008 BET J Virtual Awards: Album of the Year for The Art of Love & War

References

1. ^ Angie Stone Interview on Michael Baisden Radio show
2. ^ Angie Stone Planning To Wed In The Bahamas
3. ^ Angie Stone interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' February 2010

External links

• Official website
• Angie Stone at Allmusic
• Angie Stone at the Internet Movie Database

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Angie Stone main page.