Angie Stone, a talented R&B singer, passes away at 63 following a car accident

Angie Stone, Grammy-nominated singer and member of hip hop trio The Sequence, has died. She was 63.

Deborah R. Champagne, a rep for Stone, confirmed the singer’s death to TMZ on Saturday, March 1, stating that the singer died in a car crash early Saturday morning after leaving a performance in Montgomery, Alabama.

Champagne told the outlet she had spoken to Stone the night before her death and the news has devastated friends and family. Stone’s publicist, Yvonne Forbes, similarly confirmed the musician’s death to CNN on Saturday.

“Angie Stone’s voice and spirit will live on forever in the hearts of those she touched,” a statement from Stone’s spokeswoman read, per the outlet. “Details regarding memorial services will be announced by the family in due course.”

Stone’s daughter, Diamond, also confirmed her mother’s death via Facebook on Saturday, writing, “My mommy is gone,” and in a previous post wrote, “On the road mind racing keep me and my family in your prayers.”

Stone was a singer and songwriter who kicked off her career in the all-female hip-hop group The Sequence, releasing three albums between 1979 and 1985, including the hit song, “Funk You Up.” Stone embarked on a solo career in the late 1990s, dropping her debut album Black Diamond in 1999 and sophomore album Mahogany Soul in 2001.

Stone — born in Columbia, South Carolina on December 18, 1961 — previously spoke about her early career in a 2020 interview on The Breakfast Club.

“I was self-taught. I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was ambitious,” she said at the time. “It’s having that bug that says, ‘I’m a rubber band. You can stretch me but I won’t pop. I’m going to always do me.’”

Her career, however, was not just about music — Stone had more than 40 acting credits under her belt across film and television, including shows like Girlfriends and Moesha, and films such as The Hot Chick and Ride Along.

Last month, Stone had reflected on her decades-long career in a video shared via Instagram. “I’ve been in the game for 50 years. My first solo album is 25 years old. I’ve put in a lot of work over the years,” she captioned her January 13 post. “God gave me this gift and I have shared it with the world. 🌍Even at this point I am asking my creator what is next because I have so much more to give.”

She said in the video, “I did not know that entering the game in 1979 was going to set a milestone that carried over into 2024. Moving into this generation of music, having something that we was a part of from the very beginning, you know, set a tone and a pace that would change music as we know it.”

Stone is survived by her two children, daughter Diamond and son Michael D’Angelo Archer II.