*From her early days with the all-girl group ‘Sequence’ to her recent acting endeavors on the Urbanflix TV show “Heaux Phase,” Angie Stone is widely considered the pioneer of female hip-hop groups. She opens up about her remarkable career and spills on some of her struggles in love and parenthood with iHeart radio personality and EURweb.com Spotlight host Jazmyn ‘Jaz’ Summers.
YOU’VE BEEN IN THE GAME FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS AND YOU’RE STILL GOING STRONG. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CURRENT DOMINATION OF FEMALE HIP-HOP ARTISTS?
It’s inevitable. Women always find a way to rise up, so it doesn’t surprise me. We’ve been paying it forward since 1979, so it’s like a full-circle moment for us.
YOU’VE HAD AN IMPRESSIVE ACTING CAREER AS WELL FROM GIRLFRIENDS TO THE HOT CHICK. NOW YOU HAVE A ROLE IN THE NEW URBANFLIX TV SHOW HEAUX PHASE. TELL US ABOUT IT.
Oh, man, it was so much fun! Acting has always been my first love, and it’s exciting to see it coming back into play more as I get older. Heaux Phase is a wild show where I play the mother of the main character. I don’t want to give the story away, but a good-looking young cat gets tangled up in a romantic relationship with a mother and a daughter. Of course, I end up going ballistic on him. It’s scandalous. You don’t want to miss it.
YOU WANTED TO SUE BRUNO MARS FOR ALLEGEDLY USING YOUR HIT SONG ‘FUNK YOU UP’ FOR HIS ‘UPTOWN FUNK‘ HIT AND NEVER COMPENSATING YOU FOR IT. WASSUP WITH THAT NOW?
Bruno once admitted that it was inspired by The Sequence. Mark Ronson, who actually did the work, knew that the song was a derivative of Funk You Up, so in knowing that they should have at least acknowledged us. But when they got sued by everybody, they ended up paying everybody but us and we had more of a stake in the song than anybody else from the title to the melody to the chants. And it just kind of struck me as odd that they didn’t come back and make that right. God has a way of dealing with crooked people. And my thing is once we’ve put it out there once, twice, three times and you don’t bite the bait, then we have to sit back and let the chips fall where they may. We’re not in a position to fight, fight, fight, and hurt, hurt, hurt. Because at the end of the day, you know what’s right and you know what’s wrong.
YOUR LOVE STORY WITH D’ANGELO IS EPIC. ARE YOU FINALLY OVER HIM?
He was the love of my life. I’m not ashamed of it. I’ll tell anybody. When you find true love, it is undeniable. You can’t deny true love. And at the time when we fell in love, it was definitely a love that I had never experienced before. So when we lost that love, it was almost like a death happened. It was very hard. But because I am a child of the creator, I stomached it and got on through. But it’s been hard to find another love to equal that love.I don’t even look, I don’t try to replace it. Because when it’s perfect, how do you find that perfect one again?
WHAT WAS THE MOST PAINFUL MOMENT?
The most painful part of that is when people didn’t understand that you can’t help who you love. And he was made to feel guilty because he loved me. That’s the saddest place to be. Because I can tell you that our love was equally matched. It wasn’t, “I love him more,” or “He loves me more.” But it’s sad because he was made to feel awkward for loving me.
(Aug. 20, 2015 – Source: Ethan Miller/Getty Images North America)
YOU’VE BEEN OPEN ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY OF CO-PARENTING WITH D’ANGELO. HOW HAVE YOU DEALT WITH THAT?
It’s hard to love someone else fully if you don’t love yourself. I won’t tell you that he doesn’t love his son because he absolutely loves his son. But when the world is watching and you already have insecurities, that’s a very lonely and sad place to be. His own insecurities don’t let him love fully so I feel like I’m parenting alone. It’s very difficult for you to expect someone who’s having all those challenges to come right off the springboard in a top-notch position to do it perfectly. He can’t. My job as a mom is to secure my son’s place in his heart and in my heart, so that my son knows that the way his father is does not mean” I don’t love you.” It translates into, “I don’t know how to do this.”
YOUR SON WITH D’ANGELO IS FOLLOWING IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS UNDER THE NAME SWYAVO TWAIN.
Yeah, he’s great. He’s worked on my project, and he’s doing his second single now which is getting rave reviews. He was down at Outkast’s studio last week recording. And I mean, they kind of all just embrace him. He’s a good, big little teddy bear. And he’s just super talented.
YEARS AGO YOU WERE ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY KNOCKING OUT YOUR DAUGHTER’S TEETH IN A FIGHT. HOW ARE Y’ALL DOING NOW?
For people that worry, know this, teeth and tongue fall out, but mama and daughter going to always be mama and daughter. Just never forget that
My daughter and I are in the best position that we’ve ever been in. She’s actually my executive, she’s helping me with my social media. She’s taking over from a business standpoint. Both of my children are now running my company for me. And you can’t get anything past Diamond Stone because as mean as she was to me, she’s worse to the world. So when it comes to her mom, she’s not having that. Right now we’re thicker than thieves.
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET MARRIED LAST FALL. WHAT HAPPENED?
I was getting married in November. I found out some things about the young man after I went into this whole process. And before I could get settled in that good, I was already filing for an annulment or a divorce. Because I am Angie Stone and I have to be very careful of the people that are in my space. Once again, I was vulnerable to love. And that’s the problem with finding love in all the wrong places. I just believe that people were waiting on me, waiting on the dust to settle so that they could get in and take advantage. And that’s just not what God has me built for. And so I said, “Absolutely not.” I walked away from it.
YOUR MUSICAL CAREER IS IMPRESSIVE. YOU’VE BEEN NOMINATED FOR GRAMMYS, YOUR RECORDS HAVE GONE GOLD. WHAT IS THE MUSICAL HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR CAREER?
I think the musical highlight is when it’s infused with gospel. I think when the song is inspired by God, it comes out excellent. Like No More Rain (In This Cloud), I write some songs metaphorically. And that’s been a highlight for me, just recognizing the ones that are from God.
WHAT CAN YOUR FANS LOOK FORWARD TO?
My new album ‘Love Language’ is out and I’ll be going on tour. I’m launching a new hot sauce called 400 Degrees, and I’m doing Brother Man Tacos. I’m going to open my own franchise in Atlanta. I also have my Angel Stripes Foundation where I’m receiving grants to aid and help the senior citizens as well as the homeless children and the kiddies. So I’ve been giving away Easter baskets, clothes, soap, and toothpaste. Yeah, that is my passion, to give and serve.
You can catch the full conversation in the video immediately above. Please don’t forget to subscribe to Jazmyn Summers’ youtube. Spotlight edited by Patrick House films.
Interview/article by Jazmyn Summers. Follow her @jaztalk1 on Instagram and Facebook. She is no longer using Twitter due to the increased racism on the site which she believes is a result of Elon Musk’s policies.
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