Angie Stone, pictured on the 2009 Soul Prepare Awards in Atlanta, died in a automotive accident on Saturday.
Gregory Smith/AP
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Gregory Smith/AP
The music world and saddened followers are mourning the sudden lack of Angie Stone. The Grammy-nominated R&B singer died Saturday morning in a automotive crash in Montgomery, Ala. She was 63.
Stone’s sultry voice resonated with a number of generations. She first entered the music scene professionally within the late Nineteen Seventies as a member of the hip-hop trio The Sequence. The group was one of many first all-female teams to launch a rap single, with “Funk You Up” in 1979. Stone can also be remembered for her vocals as a part of the R&B group Vertical Maintain within the early Nineteen Nineties.
Stone earned the next of a brand new technology of followers through the emergence of the neo-soul period of the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s with well-liked hits like “No Extra Rain” and “Want I Did not Miss You.” Neo-soul combines modern R&B and soul with different genres, together with hip-hop and jazz. Stone’s recognition grew alongside different well-liked neo-soul artists corresponding to Erykah Badu and Musiq Soulchild.
Her two kids expressed shock over her sudden loss of life, in a joint assertion Stone’s publicist shared with NPR on Sunday.
“By no means in 1,000,000 years did we ever anticipate to get this horrible information. Our mother is and can at all times be our all the things,” stated her daughter, Diamond Stone, and her son, Michael Archer, who Stone shared with singer-songwriter D’Angelo. “We’re nonetheless making an attempt to course of and are fully heartbroken.”
Stone, a local of Columbia, S.C., started singing gospel music as a toddler in church, based on a biography shared by her publicist. Her father would additionally take her to see gospel artists carry out. Rising up, she wrote poetry and used her cash saved from odd jobs to file demos at an area studio.
The singer’s profitable solo profession started after her time with The Sequence and Vertical Maintain. The latter group reached the R&B Prime 40 with “Appears You are A lot Too Busy” in 1993.
Stone signed with Arista Data as a solo artist and launched her first album, Black Diamond, in 1999, which was licensed gold. The album received her two Soul Prepare Woman of Soul Awards. Stone’s second album Mahogany Soul, launched in 2001, was additionally licensed gold. She obtained her first of three profession Grammy nominations for the album Extra Than a Lady. Her music received many extra accolades and recognition. She additionally appeared in a number of motion pictures and TV exhibits, together with the 2003 movie The Combating Temptations and the sitcom Girlfriends. Stone additionally sang the theme music to Girlfriends.
In response to Stone’s label SRG/ILS, Stone was touring again to Atlanta after a efficiency the earlier evening in Cell, Ala. The Alabama Legislation Enforcement Company says her Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van overturned on Interstate 65 earlier than it was hit by a semi-truck. Stone, who was a passenger joined by different musicians, died on the scene. She was the one one who was killed. Eight different passengers within the van have been injured. The crash is underneath investigation.
“We’re really devastated at this sudden and unlucky tragedy, and there are merely no phrases to precise how we really feel,” stated Stone’s longtime supervisor Walter Millsap III in an announcement.
“I couldn’t consider it once I obtained the decision that essentially the most stunning soul is now gone,” stated Claude Villani, CEO of SRG/ILS group. “I’m fully heartbroken.”
Stone was as a consequence of carry out at halftime for a school basketball championship sport in Baltimore hours after the crash, stated the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Affiliation (CIAA). Spectators noticed a second of silence on the sport.
“We’re heartbroken by the tragic and sudden passing of Angie Stone, an award-winning singer, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., a group activist, function mannequin, and mom whose soulful artistry and spirit made an indelible mark on her group, our nation, and the world. She used her unimaginable expertise, ardour, and presence to encourage and contact us with energy and hope,” stated CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams-Parker in an announcement.
In a video put up to Instagram on February 17, Stone expressed pleasure over the scheduled performances in Alabama and Baltimore, in addition to various upcoming excursions and tasks.
“Lots of stuff is happening that I do not wish to simply set free the bag simply but, however you’ll be able to see that there is a huge grin on my face,” Stone stated. “It is a number of issues occurring, so far as movie, tv, excursions, artists, songwriting.”
Along with her two kids, she is survived by two grandchildren.