Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone, who founded an early female rap group and later helped pioneer the neo-soul sound, died early Saturday in a car crash, according to the late star's representative. She was 63.
The artist was involved in a fatal car accident early Saturday morning in Montgomery, Alabama, Stone's rep, Deborah R. Champagne, said.
At the time of the crash, Stone and members of her band were headed to Atlanta after a performance the night before in Mobile, according to a statement from the independent label SRG-ILS. An 18-wheeler struck the sprinter van Stone was a passenger in, causing it to flip, according to the statement.
Stone's close friend and former bandmate, Gwendolyn "Blondie" Chisolm of The Sequence, identified her body at a Montgomery hospital, Champagne said. Chisolm was not traveling with Stone at the time of the accident, according to Champagne.
The singer had been scheduled to travel to Baltimore for a halftime performance at the CIAA basketball conference on Saturday afternoon.
Stone is survived by a daughter, Diamond Stone, and a son, Michael D'Angelo Archer II.
"Never in a million years did we ever expect to get this horrible news," they said in a statement. "Our mom is and will always be our everything. We are still trying to process and are completely heartbroken."
Born Angela Laverne Brown on Dec. 18, 1961, in Columbia, South Carolina, Stone grew up singing gospel music in church and first rose to prominence with the early female rap group The Sequence, known for their 1979 hit "Funk You Up."
In the late 1990s, Stone helped pioneer the neo-soul sound, alongside contemporaries like Erykah Badu and Jill Scott. She notched several No. 1 hits on the Adult R&B charts, including "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" in 1999, which sampled Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Good Bye)" and "Wish I Didn't Miss You" in 2002.
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