Angie Stone: Grammy-nominated US rap pioneer dies in car accident in Alabama while nine other passengers survive
Angie Stone, the Grammy-nominated US hip hop pioneer whose group The Sequence was one of the first all-female groups to record a rap song, has died in a car crash.
Stone, 63, known for the 2001 hit Wish I Didn’t Miss You, died in a car accident in Montgomery, Alabama, early on Saturday, following a performance, her representative Deborah R Champagne said.
Guy Todd Williams, better known as Rahiem from the Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, the first rap group inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, said nine other passengers were in a van with Stone during the accident but she was the only fatality.
Angie Stone singing at the Blue Balls Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland in 2004. File pic: AP
Music producer Walter Millsap III told The Associated Press in an email: “Unfortunately, at around 4am while heading back to Atlanta from Alabama, the Sprinter flipped over and was subsequently hit by a big rig. Thankfully, all survived except for Angie.”
Stone, who was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including for best female R&B vocal performance in 2005, was also a songwriter and acted in movies and on Broadway.
Born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1961, Stone honed her singing talents in church.
She helped form female hip-hop trio The Sequence, whose most popular song, 1979’s Funk You Up, peaked at 15 on Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles.
The song has been sampled by numerous artists, including Dr Dre.
Angie Stone performs with Dan Aykroyd, second left, and Jim Belushi as the Blues Brothers at a tribute to Aretha Franklin in 2008. File pic: AP
It was the first rap hit performed by women, according to Rolling Stone.
The group were signed to the now defunct Sugar Hill Records, which also represented Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, among other artists.
Williams said Stone “left her indelible mark on the music industry initially as a member of the legendary rap group Sequence”.
Her success in the UK was modest but her 1999 album Black Diamond and 2001 LP Mahogany Soul went Gold and spawned several chart hits.
She also had a number of successful collaborations with artists such as Guru, Omar, Macy Gray, Moby, Prince and Blue including on the 2003 top 11 chart hit Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours.
She created hits such as No More Rain (In This Cloud) which reached number one for 10 weeks on Billboard’s Adult R&B airplay chart, Baby with soul singer Betty Wright, another number one hit, as well as Wish I Didn’t Miss You and Brotha.
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Mahogany Soul also reached number 22 on the Billboard 200, while 2007’s The Art Of Love & War peaked at number 11.
She tried her hand at acting, appearing in The Hot Chick starring Rob Schneider, The Fighting Temptations which starred Cuba Gooding Jr and Beyonce, and Ride Along featuring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart.
Stone also trod the boards on Broadway as Big Mama Morton in the musical Chicago, and appeared in the reality TV shows Celebrity Fit Club and R&B Divas: Atlanta.
It’s 5.30am, but the car park outside a laundrette in south central Los Angeles is already bustling.
A woman is setting up a stand selling tacos on the pavement and the sun is beginning to rise behind the palm trees.
A group of seven women and two men are gathered in a circle, most wearing khaki green t-shirts.
The leader, a man named Francisco “Chavo” Romero, begins by asking how everyone is feeling. “Angry,” a few of them respond. “Proud of the community for pushing back,” says another.
Ron, a high school history teacher, issues a rallying cry. “This is like Vietnam,” he says. “We’re taking losses, but in the end we’re going to win. It’s a war.”
Francisco ‘Chavo’ Romero leads a volunteer group, attempting to warn people ahead of ICE raids
This is what the resistance against Donald Trump’s immigration policy looks like here. In the past month, immigration and customs enforcement agents – known as ICE – have intensified their raids on homes and workplaces across Los Angeles.
Since the beginning of June, nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the city, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The previous monthly high was just over 850 arrests in May this year.
Police use tear gas against protesters, angry at a recent immigration raid at a farm in Camarillo, California. Pic: AP
Videos have circulated online of people being tackled to the ground in the car park of DIY shops, in car washes and outside homes. The videos have prompted outrage, protests and a fightback.
“Chavo” and Ron belong to a group of organised volunteers called Union del Barrio. Every morning, a group of them meet, mostly in areas which have high immigrant populations.
The day I meet them, they’re in an area of LA which is heavily Latino. Armed with walkie talkies to communicate with each other, megaphones to warn the community and leaflets to raise awareness they set out in cars in different directions.
A volunteer from Union del Barrio shows Sky’s Martha Kelner how they try to stay one step ahead of ICE agents
They’re looking for cars used by ICE agents to monitor “targets”.
“That vehicle looks a little suspicious,” says Ron, pointing out a white SUV with blacked-out windows, “but there’s nobody in it”.
An elderly Latino man is standing on a street corner, cutting fruit to sell at his stall. “He’s the exact target that they’re looking for,” Ron says. “That’s what they’re doing now. The low-hanging fruit, the easy victim. And so that is proving to be more successful for their quotas.”
This man, selling fruit on a street corner in LA, is a potential target of immigration agents
In the end, it turns out to be a quiet morning in this part of LA, no brewing immigration operations. But elsewhere in the city, dawn raids are happening.
ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
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In June, tear gas and rubber bullets were fired at protestors demonstrating against immigration raids
Maria’s husband Javier was one of those arrested in LA. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was 19 and is now 58.
The couple have three grown-up children and two grandchildren. But Javier’s work permit expired two years ago, according to Maria and so he was living here illegally.
Maria’s husband Javier was arrested after his work permit expired
She shows me a video taken last month when Javier was at work at a car wash in Pomona, an area of LA. He is being handcuffed and arrested by armed and masked ICE agents, forced into a car. He is now being held at a detention centre two hours away.
“I know they’re doing their job,” she says, “but it’s like, ‘you don’t have to do it like that.’ Getting them and, you know, forcing people and pushing them down on the ground. They’re not animals.”
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Maria wipes away tears as she explains the impact of his absence for the past four weeks. “It’s been so hard without him,” she says. “You feel alone when you get used to somebody and he’s not there any more. We’ve never been apart for as long as this.”
The family have a lawyer and is appealing for him to remain in the US, but Maria fears he will be sent back to Mexico or even a third country.
Maria fears her husband, who has lived in the US for nearly 40 years, will be sent back to Mexico
“I don’t know what to say to my grandkids because the oldest one, who is five was very attached to his papas, as he calls him. And he’s asking me, ‘When is papa coming home?’ and I don’t know what to say. He’s not a criminal.”
The fear in immigrant communities can be measured by the empty restaurant booths and streets that are far quieter than usual.
People in LA are being asked to report sightings of ICE officials so others can be warned
I meet Soledad at the Mexican restaurant she owns in Hollywood. When I arrive, she’s watching the local news on the TV as yet another raid unfolds at a nearby farm.
She’s shaking her head as ICE agents face off with protesters and military helicopters hover overhead. “I am scared. I am very scared,” she says.
All of her eight employees are undocumented, and four of them are too scared to come into work, she says, in case they get arrested. The process to get papers, she says, is too long and too expensive.
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Soledad, who owns a Mexican restaurant, plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive
“They call me and tell me they are too afraid to come in because immigration is around,” she says.
“I have to work double shifts to be able to make up for their hours, and yes, I am very desperate, and sometimes I cry… We have no sales, and no money to pay their wages.”
There is just one woman eating fajitas at a booth, where there would usually be a lunchtime rush. People are chilled by the raids.
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Soledad says she plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive.
“I’ve told them, get inside the fridge, hide behind the stove, climb up where we have a space to store boxes, do not run because they will hunt you down.”
The White House says they’re protecting the country from criminals. ICE agents have been shot at while carrying out operations, their work becoming more dangerous by the day.
The tension here is ratcheting up. Deportation numbers are rising too. But the order from Donald Trump is to arrest even more people living here illegally.
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