Angie Stone

Angie Stone has been one of the top R&B and soul singers of the past 20 years. Born in Columbia, South Carolina as Angela Brown, she started out singing as a child at the First Nazareth Baptist Church. When she was 16, she was a member of the hip-hop/funk/rap trio the Sequence. Billed as Angie B., she was on their hit records of “Funk You Up,” “Funky Sound” and “I Don’t Need Your Love.” She worked with Mantronix, contributed background vocals for Lenny Kravitz, was in the R&B group Vertical Hold (recording “Seems You’re Much Too Busy” and “ASAP”), recorded with Devox, and co-wrote songs with D’Angelo. Angie Stone finally released her debut album as a soloist in 1999, Black Diamond, and it went gold, spawning a top 10 R&B hit in “No More Rain (In This Cloud).” Her follow-up CDs, Mahogany Soul (which included “Brotha”), October 16, 2001 and Stone Love were also big sellers. Stone’s recordings often pay tribute to earlier soul records by using samples from classic performances. At the same time, they are quite modern, utilizing influences from both hip-hop and R&B. In 2006 Stone signed to the revived Stax label and recorded The Art of Love & War. In addition to her singing, Stone is an occasional actress. She toured with the play Issues: We’ve Got Them All and has been regularly on the reality television series Celebrity Fit Club.