Angie Stone: Soul on the Outside

EBONY: There is also this story of how so many artists signed to Sugar Hill didn’t get royalties and were financially exploited. Is that part of the story too?

AS: It’s so sad to talk about it now but I am going to because I never had a voice to say it before. At the time that Sylvia Robinson was the queen of Sugar Hill Records we were all okay and knew we’d get more money. We just didn’t know how to get it. I think once everybody learned we were benign completely taken advantage of nobody had money to fight. Years later [The Sequence member] Cheryl the Pearl said ‘they they owe us a lot of money…’I had gotten over and beyond it [but] since I was a team player I supported them and as time went on we learned there was a lot of money owed. Our song “Funk You Up,” that we wrote, Sylvia took 25% of publishing which left us 75%. Dr. Dre cut the song “Keep Their Heads Ringin’” and when I looked up we all had was 6%. Sylvia had sold the licensing and rights to the song over to Dr. Dre. Right now to the day Dr. Dre is collecting publishing on a song we wrote. I never had a publishing deal because I was underage. By the time I went to deal with it legally the building had burned down and there were no records or files of anything. So [The Sequence is] still being cheated. It hurts because this was our first song ever by the first female rap group worldwide. It is our legacy and we have Dr. Dre collecting publishing on our song. It is a sin. I would hope one day I can look at him as a man face-to-face and say, ‘I have children and grandchildren. I would like them to know my legacy. Can I please have my publishing back because it was never hers to sell?’

EBONY: Wow, we are going need to call Dr. Dre on that one! On a personal note, are you still engaged?

AS: We have been involved for almost seven years now. With regards to where we are with marriage, we are closing in on it.

EBONY: Is your daughter Diamond still singing?

AS: Yes, we are going to get her photo shoot done and get her back in the lab. She is awesome and sings on the last song on the album. By the end of this year she should have a pretty decent compilation of music to get started with.

EBONY: What else do you have in the works?

AS: I have First Class Glam: The Angie Stone Agency, which is a glam squad. We worked with the BET roster

on “The Game” and different shows like that. There is a scripted TV show being created around myself right now. It is not a reality show, which I am really excited about. I did the theme song for a new pilot and I have a guest appearance on the new Rickey Smiley show.

EBONY: You may feel like an outsider, but you’re doing your thing!

AS: I promise you that at some point that whole little crowd will be so happy I kept the torch running in the relay. I say that because all of us have to stick together to keep the music going.

Souleo Enterprises, LLC is the umbrella company that creates, produces and curates media content, events, exhibitions and philanthropic projects by founder, Souleo. Presently Souleo Enterprises, LLC is co-curator of the art exhibition “eMerge: Danny Simmons & Artists on the Cusp,” which you can learn more about here.