Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began singing gospel music at First Nazareth Baptist Church, under the leadership of Reverend Blakely N. Scott. In the early 1980s, Stone (then known as Angie B.) was a member of The Sequence, a major female hip hop/funk trio. They had a hit in 1980 with "Funk You Up", which reached number fifteen on the U.S. Top Black Singles chart and a minor hit with "Monster Jam" featuring rapper Spoonie Gee. She then worked with Mantronix, before singing background for Lenny Kravitz's fifth studio album 5.

Stone emerged during the 1990s as part of the R&B trio Vertical Hold which released the popular single "Seems You're Much Too Busy" as well as two albums: A Matter of Time (1993) and Head First (1995).

In 1996, she teamed up with Gerry DeVaux (Lenny Kravitz's cousin) and together with Charlie Mole they formed Devox. They recorded one album, Devox Featuring Angie B. Stone, released in Japan only on Toshiba-EMI, including Sto