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Angie Stone
  Angie Stone  
Biography
Angie Stone


Born Angela Laverne Brown, 1961, Columbia, South Carolina, she would become known for her singing and acting world-wide. Her music represents Hip-Hop fused with R&B and Classic Soul influences. She sound’s similar to legends like Aretha Franklin, or other modern diva’s such as Kelly Price. The fact is; this biography research taught me a couple of thing’s about this inspirational musical mind. Her networking in the music industry has been an Angie gift from day one, because the connection’s she has made in her career path are spot on, and they always lead her onto the higher level. I love Angie Stone and she has given undiscovered soul artists a platform to stand upon, because she is one of the few that made it in this special genre. With a slick, funky image, Angie ignites soul music with a completely new flavor, her recordings always have an admirable and not to say, soulful touch to it. Since Angie Stone commercial became famous on the music scene, she already had a lot of experience under her belt. People thought she was a new soul star with ‘Black Diamond’, but honestly, Angie was just living another day doing her music thing. Before her official debut ‘Black Diamond’, which was released in 1999 on Arista Records, she was first known as Angie B in a funky/hip hop collective called The Sequence, in 1979.

Biography

This trio girl group featured unique and original acts such as Angie B (Angie Stone), Blondie (Gwendolyn Chisholm) and Cheryl the Pearl (Cheryl Cook). The three lady’s were the first female rap group to release material from Grandmaster Flash’ label, in New York called the Sugar Hill Records. The group received moderate success with singles like ‘Funk You Up’, a collaboration produced by Mantronix. This 1979 hit had many lyrics from a Sugar Hill Gang track ‘8th Wonder’, which they repeated through out on the Doug Wimbish type bass line. With Stone’s inner confident and communication skills, this diva was straight away accepted in the hectic music business and the unpredictable soul music world. After her period with The Sequence, she formed another trio called Vertical Hold, before this she ventured into the more musicianship side of things. Here Angie would play saxophone and do backing vocals for Lenny Kravitz. In the 90’s Vertical Hold were a solid hip-hop/R&B female group, but had an extremely soulful, groovy style, and dress sense. They released a song entitled ‘Seems you’re Much Too Busy’, and it did pretty well, in 1993. The album ‘Sugar Hill Presents the Sequence’ had a hip-hop party type vibe, but also the soul tip was included due to the artist’s soul wrenching singing. Track’s such as ‘We Don’t Rap the Rap’, has a unique lyrical style, were the females express topics on unwanted pregnancy. ‘Funk a Doodle Rock Jam’, sounds as if it has an impressive riff through out the song, ‘Funky Sound’ is possibly the first hip-hop track to feature a George Clinton sample from his song ‘Give Up The Funk’. Nevertheless, Angie lays her talent down impressively and professionally, as usual. There is a ballad on the album called ‘The Time we’re alone’, and other’s, it was obvious that this trio had a lot of talent, they worked great together, and the music sounded brilliant. Sylvia Robinson contributed her production talents to this project, who also helped a group called Spoonie Gee on a hit ‘Monster Jam’. The Sequence made two other albums, which featured a lot of cool tracks. The band on these LP’s was Skip McDonald (guitar), Reggie Griffin and Dwain Mitchell (keyboards), Dennis Chambers and S. Powell (drums), Eddie Fletcher (percussion), and some others like horn section players etc. Vertical Hold released a contemporary urban sounding album ‘A Matter of Time’. There are many tracks that sound like a Chaka Khan or Angela Winbush tune. There is a great Isley Brothers cover called ‘Don’t Say Goodnight (It’s Time for Love)’, but other than that one sample, everything is written by Angie Stone. Lenny Kravitz is included on this record, on guitar on ‘Magic Carpet Ride’, but there is only one track with rapping on this record, ‘You Got Something (I Want)’. The next Vertical Hold album is ‘Head First’, in 1995. This is where D’Angelo comes into Angie’s life, and soon has a child together. However, he musically contributes on the song ‘Pray’, also co-writing it. Steve Hurley, Itaal Shur are the other guys that help out on this Angie Stone CD. The other female vocalists are great but to me Angie stands out as the better vocalist. After all this collaborating, group experiences in the studio as trio recordings, Angie was about ready to record a solo debut album, which she would call ‘Black Diamond’, as I’ve mentioned before. ‘Black Diamond’ has musicians such as Chalmers Alford, Joe Belamaati, D’Angelo, Iran, Jonas Krag, Lenny Kravitz, Aaron Lyles, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, Joe Quindy, Rex Rideout and Craig Ross. ‘Bone 2 Pic (Wit U)’, was produced by the incredible Ali Shaheed Muhammed, ‘Love Junkie’, ‘Everyday’ and the best interlude ever, ‘Black Diamonds & Blue Pearls’. Are the special attributions from the CD, Soundtracks were the next Angie Stone career make, and she created a song in 2000 called ‘Slippery Shoes’ for the Bamboozled soundtrack. More Angie Stone albums were coming our way! With ‘Mahogany Soul’ in 2001 and ‘Stone Love’ in 2004. Producers include on the 2001 release are Eran Tabib ‘Soul Insurance’, Raphael Saadiq ‘Brotha’ (single), Ivan Matias and Andrea Martin, Warryn Campbell, Ali Shaheed Muhammed and Aaron Freedom Lyles. The remix of ‘Brotha’ featured Eve and Alicia Keys, which is a cool, radio friendly track on the end part of the record. ‘Stone Love’ stepped her down the inspirational ladder I’m afraid on this one, Angie spoke of topics that weren’t really inspiring and the music was far too commercially orientated. Missy Elliot served as producer on ‘U- Haul’, ‘You Don’t Love Me’ steals a sample of a Curtis Mayfield record, ‘You’re Gonna Get It’, is based on the Delfonics track ‘La La Means I Love You’, and rappers like Snoop Dogg appear on single ‘I Wanna Thank You’, so over all, me being a true soul obsessive, it wasn’t my thing. I still am proud to own the Angie Stone record, but the sound I just didn’t dig. Betty Wright, Floetry, Anthony Hamilton all feature as guests on this release. Over all Angie Stone has had a long, strong, and exciting musical career, that I’m sure will still continue to have it’s twists and turns. That’s what has captivated me about this unique diva, she is business minded, and you never know what she is going to do next. In 2004/2005 Angie Stone was going to release an album out called ‘A Diary Of A Soul Singer’, or something similar to that, but Alicia Keys would release her ‘A Diary Of Alicia Keys’, so unfortunately there was no sign of it. Let’s hope that a live Angie Stone album is heading our way!

 

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

Discography
Black Diamond (1999) [Arista]

  1. Freedom (Intro)
  2. No More Rain (In This Cloud)
  3. Green Grass Vapors
  4. Everyday
  5. Coulda Been You
  6. Visions
  7. Life Story
  8. Just A Pimp
  9. Trouble Man
  10. Bone 2 Pic (Wit U)
  11. Man Loves His Money
  12. Love Junkie
  13. Black Diamonds & Blue Pearls (Interlude)
  14. Heaven Help
Black Diamond
Black Diamond
Discography
Mahogany Soul (2001) [J-Records]

  1. Soul Assurance
  2. Brotha
  3. Pissed Off
  4. 20 Dollars
  5. Snowflakes
  6. Easier Said Than Done
  7. Time of the Month
  8. What You Dyin' for?
  9. If It Wasn't
  10. Gotta Get to Know You Better
  11. Mad Issues
  12. Life Goes on
  13. Heat
  14. Bottles & Cans
  15. More Than a Woman
  16. Make Love
Mahogany Soul
Mahogany Soul
Discography
Stone Love (2004) [J-Records]

  1. Stoned Love (Intro)
  2. I Wanna Thank Ya
  3. My Man
  4. U-Haul
  5. Stay For A While (feat. Anthony Hamilton)
  6. Lover's Ghetto
  7. Little Bit Of This, Little Bit Of That...(Interlude)
  8. You're Gonna Get It
  9. Come Here (Live Witl Me)
  10. You Don't Love Me
  11. Remy Red
  12. That Kind Of Love (feat. Betty Wright)
  13. Touch It (Interlude)
  14. Cinderella Ballin'
  15. Karma
  16. Wherever You Are (Outro)
  17. I Wanna Thank Ya (No Rap)
Stone Love
Stone Love
Discography
Stone Hits (2005) [J-Records]

  1. Wish I Didn't Miss You
  2. Brotha
  3. No More Rain
  4. Stay For A While (feat. Anthony Hamilton)
  5. I Wasn't Kidding
  6. I Wanna Thank Ya
  7. Everyday
  8. Pissed Off
  9. More Than A Woman (feat. Joe)
  10. U-Haul
  11. Bottles & Cans
  12. Little Boy
  13. Makings Of You
  14. Bone 2 Pic (Wit U)
  15. Brotha Part II (feat. Alicia Keys & Eve)
Stone Hits
Stone Hits
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