Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on January 30, 1961) is an American R&B, soul, and neo soul singer-songwriter, keyboardist, record producer, and occasional actress. She was nominated for the 2008 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for her duet with Betty Wright from the hit single "Baby."
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. In the early 1980s, Stone (then known as Angie B.) was a member of The Sequence, a major 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 for 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).
In 1996, she teamed up with Gerry DeVaux (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 on Toshiba-EMI, including 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 go gold. She has since also released, on Clive Davis' J Records, Mahogany Soul on October 16, 2001 it also went gold and Stone Love on July 6, 2004.
Much of Stone's solo material has significant hip hop and soul influences and features notable samples. For example, her first solo single, "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" samples Gladys Knight & the Pips' 1972 "Neither One of Us (Want to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", and "Wish I Didn't Miss You" samples The O'Jays' 1972 "Back Stabbers".
Stone sings the theme song for the UPN/CW's sitcom Girlfriends. She has two children, a daughter and a son. The son is the child of neo soul singer D'Angelo, whom Stone dated during the 1990s.
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.
During an interview to BBC 1Xtra on August 27, 2006, Stone announced that she had signed to the reworked Stax Records. She is currently working on her fourth studio album entitled The Art of Love & War, which is due out on October 16, 2007. A video for the lead single "Baby" (featuring Betty Wright) was recently released and can been seen on BET, YouTube, and Eye Music Network.
Stone has also been touring with Sisters in the Spirit 2007.
Angie is currently slated to perform in Europe in Late May / Early June 2008.
