Angie Stone will have memorial service in metro Atlanta next week

Stone was leaving her show in Mobile, Ala., when her van, which included her crew and backup singers, overturned after being hit by a semi-trailer truck on Interstate 65. She was set to perform at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament in Baltimore later that day. Stone was 63.

The Grammy-nominated artist’s career spans four decades. In the 1979, she she formed the pioneering rap outfit the Sequence. The trio, which boasted songs like “Funk You Up” and “Come On Let’s Boogie,” was the first female rap group to release a song and sign to a major label (Sugarhill Records).

In the 1990s and early aughts, Stone found success as a soloist, becoming a pivotal voice in the neo-soul scene. She dropped her debut album “Black Diamond in 1999 via Clive Davis’ Arista Records. In 2001, she released “Mahogany Soul.” The LP is certified gold and features hits “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” “Brotha” and “More Than a Woman,” which garnered her first Grammy nomination.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Throughout her career, Stone has collaborated with Lenny Kravitz, D’Angelo, Prince and Alicia Keys. She sang the theme song for the popular UPN show “Girlfriends.” She also starred alongside Beyonce and Cuba Gooding, Jr., in the 2003 film “The Fighting Temptations.” In the 2010s, Stone was a main cast member on TVOne’s “R&B Divas: Atlanta.”

“I wanted to smooth things out by telling my story, which spans three decades,” she told the Journal-Constitution at the time about joining the show. “I set a standard in my career, in my life. I will always think, act and be a first-class woman. I will never degrade myself with all the cursing and screaming and hollering. I have a brand. People look up to Angie Stone. I’m in control of how and what levels I will go to.”

After her death, many celebrities took to social media to honor the singer. Tyler Perry wrote on Instagram last week that he couldn’t get Stone’s song “20 Dollars” “out of my head.” He shared that he wanted to clear the song for his upcoming Netflix film “Straw,” which will star Taraji P. Henson.

“Listen to it, it’s so soulful and it speaks to so many of our upbringings and struggles,” he wrote in a post. “She was preaching… I hadn’t had a chance to tell her how it touched and moved me, and just like that! She’s gone.”

Lenny Kravitz also posted a tribute to Stone, describing her as “the best of the best.”

“We bonded over music, humour, and southern cuisine which she cooked with great joy. She knew her food tasted better than everyone else’s and it did. She had a phrase that I loved, ‘Lenny, I am overly confident.’ She believed it and so did I. She went on to become Angie Stone and changed the face of music as a solo artist, becoming known as the queen of neo soul.”

Stone is survived by her daughter, Diamond Stone, and son, Michael Archer, Jr., whom she shared with fellow R&B star D’Angelo.