Angie Stone, an amazing singer and songwriter who established herself as a soul star in the late 1990s and early 2000s, passed away on Saturday, March 1, at the age of 63. Although most music fans are well aware of Angie Stone’s singing career, her roots in Hip-Hop run deep, and Hip-Hop Wired examines those connections.

Angie Stone was born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961, in Columbia, S.C. It was in her hometown that she was a member of The Sequence, an all-woman Hip-Hop trio consisting of Cheryl “Cheryl The Pearl” Cook, Gwendolyn “Blondie” Chisolm, and Angie “Angie B” Stone. The group came together when the three were all in high school, and they were first noticed after a Sugarhill Gang performance along with Sugar Hill Records founder and CEO, Sylvia Robinson.

The Sequence was the first female Hip-Hop trio to be signed to the famed Sugar Hill Records label and made history with their 1979 single “Funk You Up,” the second single released from the label after “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang. Stone is also credited on the pioneering Hip-Hop single, which helped usher the music to wider audiences and mainstream appeal.

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