Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
At Angie Stone‘s Atlanta funeral, loved ones remembered the R&B icon with an emotional eulogy from Tyler Perry and powerful performances from Anthony Hamilton, Tamela Mann, Kirk Franklin, and Keke Wyatt bringing the house down.
On Friday, March 14, Word of Faith Cathedral live-streamed the service filled with soulful tributes and heartfelt memories to celebrate Angie Stone’s legendary life. In a ceremony fit for a queen, hundreds of roses surrounded her silver and gold coffin. A star-studded lineup took the stage to honor Stone’s contributions to multiple music genres, countless careers, and more than 40 years in the music industry.
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Tyler Perry Wasn’t Just Sad About Losing Angie Stone, He Was “Angry” That The Music Industry Cheated Her: “All Of That Money… Where Is It?”
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
As the world gave the Grammy-nominated singer her flowers in death, Tyler Perry called out the predatory music industry for failing to do that in life. The director said he was “angry” that all of her talent and success never paid Stone what she was owed.
“Y’all got to forgive me because I’m angry at the way she was treated. I did not know all the things that she was going through [until] recently,” he said about the recently resurfaced claims of millions in unpaid royalties.
“To think that this woman was in the business for all of these years and there’s a difference between performing because you want to and performing because you have to,” he continued.
This point spoke volumes after the 63-year-old died in a car crash on the way home from a performance in Montgomery, Alabama. As BOSSIP previously reported, Stone was traveling with her band in a Mercedes Sprinter when it collided with an 18-wheeler truck early on March 1. The “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” singer was the only fatality from the horrible crash.
Perry credited the “More Than A Woman” star with inspiring his work throughout the years. He didn’t let up on holding the music industry accountable for mistreating Stone.
“All of those years, all of those songs, all of that money that was owed to her — where is it? It’s wrong, this is wrong, and I’m tired of seeing us struggle and go through things and work hard and not reap the benefits of what we were supposed to reap,” he continued.
Perry also reflected on Stone’s poetic and prophetic words perfectly “preached her own eulogy” in the hit song, “No More Rain.”
“In her song ‘No More Rain,’ she says ‘my sunshine has come and I’m all cried out, there’s no more rain in this cloud,” which he compared to people burdened with suffering.
“We hold so much pain, we hold so much that it has to come out of our eyes as tears. But the beauty of what she was talking about is when a cloud has no more tears, it dissipates, it’s gone,” Perry said.
The Madea creator’s comments echoed Stone’s statements from January. “I should have been able to retire 20 years ago with the money I’ve made,” she said in a now-viral video.
See the star-studded tributes and full video of Angie Stone’s funeral service after the flip.
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