Angie Stone had been performing in Alabama on the last night of her life. In the early hours of Saturday, March 1, 2025, the van carrying her home overturned on Interstate 65 near Montgomery and was struck by a lorry. Stone, 63, was pronounced dead at the scene. Other passengers were taken to hospital. The Grammy-nominated singer had spent more than four decades in music, from the first days of hip-hop to the neo-soul movement she helped create.
The Sequence
Stone was born Angela Laverne Brown in Columbia, South Carolina, and sang gospel as a child. As a teenager she co-founded The Sequence, one of the first female hip-hop groups, which signed to Sugar Hill Records and in 1979 released “Funk You Up”, one of the earliest rap records by women. The song’s hook was later borrowed by Dr. Dre and by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson for “Uptown Funk”.
Neo-soul
In the 1990s Stone sang with the group Vertical Hold and worked with D’Angelo, with whom she had a son, Michael. Her solo debut, Black Diamond, in 1999 and its hit “No More Rain (In This Cloud)” made her one of the leading voices of neo-soul, a style that brought back the warmth of 1970s soul. “Wish I Didn’t Miss You”, from her 2001 album Mahogany Soul, became her best-known song, and “Brotha” became an anthem of pride for Black men. She had several number one hits on the adult R&B charts and received three Grammy nominations.
Her family
Stone also acted on stage and screen, including in the Broadway musical The Color Purple. She was survived by her daughter, Diamond, and her son with D’Angelo. D’Angelo himself died later that year.
Stone’s career ran from one of the first rap records made by women to some of the warmest soul of the 2000s, and she was still on the road, singing for her audience, when she died.