If you have ever wondered why Angie Stone and D’Angelo haven’t made any music, it might be because of ‘male pride’, at least that’s what she is calling it.
According to BET during an interview with VladTV, Stone says her legendary singer ex-boyfriend has let that ego get in the way of his artistic aspirations.
During the 1990s the pair were a couple and share a son together, Michael D’Angelo Archer II. Stone also was an inspiration for D’Angelo’s debut album Brown Sugar while he helped produce her debut, LP Black Diamond.
“Let me tell you something, and I’m being 100, he would be a lot further here today, and I’m not discrediting him,” Stone told VladTV. “Don’t misunderstand me, but because of the powers that be, everybody and they momma wish Angie Stone and D’Angelo would get back together and work again. I’ve heard it a million times.
“His pride as a man would not allow of him to do that because he doesn’t want to share the credit,” she added. “He doesn’t want it to look like, ‘What if I get with her and we win? Then it’s going to look like she did it.’ I mean the writings on the wall, but if you want to roll like that, I’m not mad at you, but that’s not my spirit.”
She continued:
“My spirit is we have a winning element God gave us that. You didn’t give me that. God gave us that, and what you should do, if nothing else, is put your difference aside. You have children and say, let’s get in the studio and work on our God-given craft, but his pride would not allow him to go there, and it’s sad, but the industry created that energy, and because they created it, they have to now suffer, and wait for the kind of music that we created. It would never happen because that we factor isn’t there.”
Angie Stone’s Relationship with D’Angelo
When Essence spoke with Angie Stone in 2020 they asked her quite a few details about her relationship with D’Angelo, specifically the backlash she received fr dating him.
She said:
The criticism that D’Angelo and I received about our relationship only began once he became successful.
What people didn’t realize was that before he became successful there was Angie Stone from the group Vertical Hold—a strong beautiful sister who dated somebody who had not even crossed the threshold of the industry yet.
When I was dating him he wore glasses, had short hair and his pants were hanging down to his butt. He was just a 19-year-old kid with big shorts and nobody cared and no one saw his beauty but me. And I told him, “You are beautiful.
I promise you when your record drops your lips are gonna become famous, your eyes—everything will become famous.
But he couldn’t see it because his self-esteem wasn’t where it is today.
He didn’t even have an image and his hair was really short so I braided his hair with thread for his first album cover. It wasn’t until Brown Sugar came out that people actually took a good look at him and said, “You know what? He’s fine.” Then all of a sudden, he’s so fine he shouldn’t be with me.
They also asked her if they would work together again and she said back then, that he was ‘prideful’.
So will you and D’Angelo work together again?
A.S.: Deep in my heart and soul, I believe D’Angelo would love to work with me again, but being a prideful man that has been so misunderstood and second-guessed that might not happen. He once told me, “I don’t want people to think I can’t do an album without you.” And I have to respect that because for so long people grouped us together in that sense and it had so much more to do with our spiritual connection. We work extremely well together, but I have a respect for him as a musician, as a Black man because I understand the pressure of the will to do greatness with the odds against you and your spirit has been broken.
Do you think that some of the public’s comments about you and D’Angelo not being suited for each other affected your relationship?
A.S.: No. D’Angelo and I didn’t make it and he ended up with another woman and they have a beautiful daughter and everything is cool because if that’s what you do, then that’s what you do. But it doesn’t discredit me, because my inner beauty is going to surpass any chick in the game. Anybody who knows me know that I don’t have a qualm about how I look because I’m so proud of who I am on the inside. When you have a heart like mine, I’ll go up against the baddest one and it won’t matter.
Angie and D’Angelo dated during the nineties, and they have one son together born in 1998 and named after dad, D’Angelo Archer II
Watch the full interview segment below:
