In 1980, I was ten years old, one of about ten kids labeled “gifted and talented,” bussed across town to our elementary school.
Our bus driver was a street-smart young woman with a big personality, a sharp wit, and an even deeper love for music.
Every morning and afternoon, she’d blast the latest R&B and hip-hop, turning our bus into a rolling concert.
We sang along to Michael Jackson, The Gap Band, Kurtis Blow, and other R&B and Hip-Hop pioneers, but one song transformed that bus into something magical – “Funk You Up” by The Sequence.
The moment the beat dropped, our driver would catch our eyes in the rearview mirror and shout, “Come on, choir! Y’all know what time it is!”
We sang at the top of our lungs, our voices bouncing off the metal walls, our little bodies swaying to the rhythm. It was pure, unfiltered joy.
That was the moment I first fell in love with Angie Stone.
Back then, I didn’t know anything about her life, her struggles, or her journey. I just knew her music made me feel something.
Years later, I’d learn that Angie Stone had been just a teenager when she co-founded The Sequence, one of the first all-female hip-hop groups.
Even after the group faded into obscurity, my love for her never did.
She kept moving, kept creating, and helped to shape the sound of artists I admired such as Mantronix, Lenny Kravitz, and D’Angelo (when I found out they had a child together, I thought, That is going to be the most talented baby in the world.)
Then came her solo career.
In 1999, her debut album Black Diamond gave us the hit “No More Rain (In This Cloud).”
Two years later, she followed with Mahogany Soul and “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” a song so raw and aching, I played it on repeat.
Angie had the gift of turning a feeling into something timeless.
On Stone Love, her third album, she wrote and produced half the tracks herself. It became her highest-charting album, topping the R&B charts. The lead single “Baby,” a duet with the legendary Betty Wright, earned her a Grammy nomination.
Stone kept pushing the boundaries of what a Black woman in music could be and in June 2024, she was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Now, hearing the news of her passing, I am heartbroken.
Stone’s voice was the soundtrack to my childhood, my adolescence, my adulthood.
Angie Stone, I wish I didn’t miss you, but I thank you for enriching my life.
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Frederick J. Goodall is the Editor-in-Chief of Mocha Man Style, media spokesperson, event host, photographer, and a top social media influencer in Houston, TX. He likes to write about fashion, cars, travel, and health.