Angie Stone is a hip-hop pioneer and neo-soul catalyst with a fruitful career spanning four decades. A singer, MC, self-taught keyboardist, prolific songwriter, and arranger, Stone's first claim to fame was her membership in the Sequence, a trio who arrived with "Funk You Up" (1979), the second release on Sugar Hill Records and the first rap single by an all-female group. Following a brief period with the post-new jack swing R&B act Vertical Hold, and a shorter phase with the group Devox, Stone began a dynamic solo career as one of neo-soul's leading lights, known for providing sharp insight into romantic relationships with her smoky yet upfront voice. She re-established herself with a pair of gold-certified albums, Black Diamond (1999) and Mahogany Soul (2001) and added to her accolades with Grammy nominations in the R&B field for "More Than a Woman" (2002), "U-Haul" (2004), and "Baby" (2007). Stone has continued to record every few years while taking occasional acting roles. Deeply soul-rooted LPs such as Dream (2015), Full Circle (2019), and Love Language (2023) have seen her work closely with a core group of associates including producer/manager Walter Millsap III. Stone, born Angela Laverne Brown, began singing gospel music as a youngster at First Nazareth Baptist Church in her native Columbia, South Carolina. Her father, a member of a local gospel quartet, would take his only child to see performances by gospel artists such as the Singing Angels and the Gospel Keynotes. During her youth, she wrote poetry, played sports, and, after high school graduation, was offered college basketball scholarships. While working dead-end jobs, Stone began saving money to record her own demos at a local studio called PAW. She joined Gwendolyn Chisholm and Cheryl Cook in the rap trio the Sequence, who recorded hits for Joe and Sylvia Robinson's Sugar Hill label. These included "Funk You Up," a remake of Parliament's hit "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" called "Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off)," and "I Don't Need Your Love." Soon after, Stone worked with Mantronix, Vanessa Paradis, and Lenny Kravitz, among other acts. She formed the sophisticated R&B trio Vertical Hold, who in 1993 hit number 17 on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart with "Seems You're Much Too Busy." The group split after its second album was released in 1995, the same year Stone wrote, recorded, and performed as a background vocalist with D'Angelo, appearing on his breakthrough debut Brown Sugar. Around this time, Stone also teamed with Devox, who released an album in Japan in 1996, and the next year issued the more widely distributed single "Everyday," which Stone and D'Angelo composed together. Stone subsequently signed to Arista as a solo artist and recorded 1999's Black Diamond, a Top Ten R&B album that was certified gold on the strength of the singles "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" and "Everyday" (one of several songs she has written either for or with D'Angelo). The album won her a pair of Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. She shifted to J for 2001's Mahogany Soul, another gold seller. That album's "More Than a Woman," a duet with Calvin Richardson, earned a Grammy nomination in the category of Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Stone Love, released in 2004, fared just as well commercially with "U-Haul," another Grammy-nominated performance, among the highlights. Stone smoothly moved to the revitalized Stax label for her fourth studio album, 2007's The Art of Love & War. It topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and featured two of her best singles, "Sometimes" and the Betty Wright collaboration "Baby" -- the latter of which made Stone a three-time Grammy nominee. Throughout the next several years, the singer's studio output remained consistent in terms of chart performance, despite a series of label changes and frequent acting work. (By the end of the 2000s, she had appeared in several movies, including The Fighting Temptations, Pastor Brown, and Scary Movie 5, as well as the television programs Moesha, Girlfriends, and Lincoln Heights.) Unexpected, released on Stax in 2009, hit the Top 20 of the R&B/hip-hop chart with a slick if funky sound. Saguaro Road issued Rich Girl, Stone's most stylistically diverse set, three years later, and it peaked slightly higher. For Dream, a number three R&B/hip-hop album released in 2015, she joined the veteran-loaded Shanachie roster and reconnected with producer and artist manager Walter Millsap III, a Stone Love contributor with whom she would continue to work closely. The affiliation also brought about lasting creative partnerships with fellow songwriters Candice Nelson, Balewa Muhammad, and Teak Underdue. The next year, the Goldenlane label issued Covered in Soul, for which Stone updated classics popularized by the Guess Who, the Five Stairsteps, and Carole King. Continuing with support from Millsap's Conjunction Entertainment imprint, Stone returned in 2019 with Full Circle, featuring the Jaheim duet "Gonna Have to Be You." Conjunction then signed a licensing deal with SoNo Recording Group that yielded Stone's refined Love Language, a 2023 release led by "The Gym," a duet with Musiq Soulchild. ~ Ed Hogan & Andy Kellman, Rovi