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Singer Angie Stone, known for her hit Wish I Didn’t Miss You, has died at the age of 63.
A representative for the singer confirmed to Variety that Stone was killed in a car crash in Montgomery, Alabama. She had reportedly been on her way home from a show and was the only person who died in the crash.
Her daughter Diamond Stone wrote online: “My mommy is gone.”
Stone has been a founding member of groundbreaking female hip-hop trio the Sequence in the late 70s at the age of 16. They scored a hit with Funk You Up, a song that was later sampled by Dr Drew for his single Keep Their Heads Ringin and Bruno Mars in Uptown Funk.
“I think that being the first female rap group to actually come out and have an authentic original rap record is an accomplishment that no one else has been able to top,” she said in 2023.
After the group disbanded in the mid-80s, Stone worked as a vocalist for Vertical Hold and then Devox before she later provided songwriting credits to D’Angelo for his first two studio albums. She was also a backing vocalist for the singer on tour before providing vocals for Lenny Kravitz on his album 5 in 1998.
In 1999, Stone released her first solo album, Black Diamond, which contained the hits No More Rain (In This Cloud) and Life Story. She went on to record the theme to the hit sitcom Girlfriends in 2000 and released her second album, Mahogany Soul, the following year.
That album featured the hit Wish I Didn’t Miss You, which became her biggest international success.
Her third album, Stone Love, featured the song I Wanna Thank Ya with Snoop Dogg, which became a big hit in Europe. The video also featured a young Idris Elba.
Stone went on to record a further seven albums, the most recent of which was 2023’s Love Language, which featured Musiq Soulchild and Stone’s son Swayvo Twain.
She was nominated for three Grammys in her career and also wrote songs for Erykah Badu and Raphael Saadiq. “There is a deep sad feeling that as a songwriter – something such a gift – you never get acknowledged for it,” she said in 2011. “People think that’s how I eat because I make records but I make far more money as songwriter than from being a singer.”
Stone also worked as an actor, with roles in big screen comedies like The Hot Chick and The Fighting Temptations and on stage in Chicago playing Big Mama Morton.
