(March 2, 2025). As February turned to March, bridging Black History and Women’s History Months, hip-hop and R&B lost an important artist who shaped both. Angie Stone, who first rose to fame as a member of the rap trio The Sequence — the first female hip-hop act ever to chart — and later as a prominent figure in the neo-soul movement at the turn of the century, died in a horrific automobile accident in Montgomery, AL. She was 63.
Stone — born in December 1961 as Angela Laverne Brown — was blessed with a level of talent and versatility that allowed her to chart on a wide variety of lists in Billboard, including its R&B, dance, pop, gospel, jazz, rap, and Adult R&B (or what this blogger calls the Grown Folks’ chart), something few other artists of any era can claim.
But it was what she did in hip-hop during its infancy that put her — and women in general — on the rap map. In fact, when Stone — then known as Angie B — and partners Cheryl “The Pearl” Cook and Gwendolyn “Blondie,” all from Columbia, SC, signed with the fledgling Sugar Hill Records label in 1979 as The Sequence, they were only the second act to do so — and the first from the South — after the Sugar Hill Gang, the pioneering New York male trio who had dropped “Rapper’s Delight” that September.
And just like that, the ladies had equal representation on a legendary label that was instrumental in bringing rap to the forefront. Helmed by the Mother of Hip-Hop, Sylvia Robinson, it was clearly important that women had a voice at Sugar Hill. Robinson herself had built a career in ‘70s soul music ensuring that female singers had equal say in what went on in the bedroom with erotic burners like “Pillow Talk,” “Sho Nuff Boogie,” and “Sweet Stuff.”
As “Rapper’s Delight” was wrapping up its historic chart run in early 1980, The Sequence’s “Funk You Up” became only the second Sugar Hill single — and the first on any label by a female rap group — to hit Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart. Written by the trio and Sylvia Robinson, it climbed steadily, peaking at No. 15 in March. By that time, it was the only rap record on the entire chart — a major win for a genre still dismissed as a novelty and an even bigger one for women in hip-hop.
By today’s rules and had a rap chart existed at the time, that would have clearly made it a No. 1 song there. While not a crossover hit like “Rapper’s Delight” (“Funk You Up” never made the pop chart), Robinson saw something in The Sequence and in Angie B that led to a decision that made her part of a historic collaboration that stands as the only one of its kind to this day.
For Sugar Hill’s next rap single, “Rapper’s Reprise (Jam-Jam),” Robinson made history by pairing The Sequence with the Sugar Hill Gang — the first male-female rap collaboration on record. Angie B took the lead for her trio, trading bars with Master Gee and even hyping him up (“As far as I’m concerned about Master Gee, he’s vicious when he’s rapping with me”). She closed the track with a bold proclamation about the so-called “Supersonic Six”: “We’re the best darn rappers in the whole wide world.” Though “Rapper’s Reprise” didn’t chart, it remains the only male-female rap trio battle — albeit a friendly one — in hip-hop history.
It also clearly established The Sequence as the First Ladies of Rap in the genre’s first commercial year.
Off the heels of the Sugar Hill Gang collabo, and with Angie B now considered the lead rapper, the trio was paired with the label’s newly acquired Spoonie G on the hip-hop party classic, “Monster Jam.” They followed that with their own “And You Know That” and then “Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off),” a 1981 nod to Parliament’s 1976 smash, “Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker).” “Funky Sound” returned The Sequence to the charts, peaking at No. 39 on Hot Soul Singles in 1981. But, more importantly, it showcased the group’s singing talents, something that would pave the way for future hits featuring rap-sung combos as well as signal Angie B’s future away from hip-hop.
The Sequence’s next single, “Simon Says,” blended dancefloor energy with lyrics uplifting single mothers. Though it didn’t chart, it’s a must-watch time capsule of Angie’s early artistry (see below).
Continuing to speak for the ladies, the trio followed “Simon Says” with an R&B ballad that featured Angie B on what was likely her first recording as a solo singer. The 1982 tune “I Don’t Need Your Love” slowed the tempo and ditched the raps, but it showed that Angie had the soulful pipes that would pay her dividends over the next four decades. With lyrics sung to a philandering man, Stone also made it clear lyrically where she drew the line in her relationships, another theme she would revisit throughout her career on future neo-soul classics like her first Grown Folks (Adult R&B) chart No. 1 — 1999’s “No More Rain (In This Cloud),” — and this blogger’s personal fave, “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” (2001).
As the 1980s progressed, hip-hop had expanded beyond the Sugar Hill label, and its biggest acts, including The Sequence, would eventually fade into the sunset. The group’s third and last album was 1983’s The Sequence Party, although they’d record a couple of one-off singles in the mid-‘80s before the label folded in 1986.
The Sequence never got to enjoy crossover chart success that other female rap groups later did, like JJ Fad, Salt-n-Pepa, and the studio trio Afternoon Delights, who became the first rap female group to hit the pop top 40 in 1981 with the forgettable novelty tune “General Hospi-Tale.”
But Stone parlayed her pioneering rap career and powerful voice into an even bigger R&B arc that saw her shine as the lead vocalist in the ‘90s outfit Vertical Hold and later as a solo artist. She also added to her songwriting repertoire by contributing songs to D’Angelo’s first two albums as well as empowering neo-soul classics on her own gold and platinum-certified LPs, including 1999’s Black Diamond and 2001’s Mahogany Soul, featuring the Black male-uplifting “Brotha” and the “Back Stabbers”-sampled classic, “Wish I Didn’t Miss You.” Her 2007 set, The Art of Love & War, became her first to top the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. She had two dance chart No. 1 singles in “Wish I Didn’t” and “I Wanna Thank Ya” (featuring Snoop Dogg). Her last No. 1 was, of all places, on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart in 2024 on Damon Little’s “No Stressing.”
Stone even turned her talents to film and television, starring in movies like 2002’s The Hot Chick and 2014’s Ryde Along, among many others. She also appeared in TV shows and wrote and performed the theme to the highly successful 2000s sitcom Girlfriends, which starred Tracie Ellis Ross and ran for eight seasons (2000-08).
Stone, an honorary member of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., would ultimately be nominated for three Grammy Awards and win two Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. She also won a Soul Music Icon award and just last year was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame (speech below)
But it was her time with The Sequence that first brought a teenage Angie Stone to the spotlight, one that shone on her for a brief time in the early 1980s and made her part of a history-making trio that saw them get the first-ever rap hit by female MCs.
That early success set the stage for a phenomenal — if often underrated — career that made Angie Stone an industry force, both musically and personally. In her final social media post, she teased a “big surprise” for fans and announced performances in Montgomery and at the CIAA basketball championship game in Baltimore. Tragically, she never made it to the latter.
R.I.P. Angie Stone (December 18, 1961 – March 1, 2025).
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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