B Angie B

A protégé of pop-rapper MC Hammer, B Angie B was among the more promising urban contemporary/neo-soul singers of the early ?90s. Much to the disappointment of those who recognized her potential, the Mississippi native (who shouldn't be confused with Angie B of the Sequence) turned out to be a one-album wonder--that is, someone who only recorded one album and wasn't heard from again. But that doesn't make her lone album any less noteworthy. Born Angela Boyd in Morton, MS, the gritty, big-voiced singer became part of Hammer's posse in the late ?80s and toured with the famous pop-rapper as a dancer. Hammer realized that B Angie B could sing as well as she could dance, and in 1991, he signed her to his Capitol-distributed Bust It label. That year, Bust It/Capitol released her self-titled debut album, which Hammer produced with his Northern California colleague Felton Pilate (formerly of the popular ?70s/'80s funk band Con-Funk-Shun). Combining a strong appreciation of classic soul with a high-tech hip-hop production style, the album was the essence of neo-soul. In 1991, that soul-meets-hip-hop approach wasn't totally unprecedented--before that, artists ranging from Keith Sweat and Michel'le to En Vogue and the innovative Force MD's had been thinking along similar lines. Nonetheless, B Angie B did her part to bring soul music to a hip-hop/urban contemporary generation, and it should be noted that she was doing that type of thing before the rise of Mary J. Blige, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu or Jill Scott.