June is Black Music Month, Countdown of Shamontiel's Top 30 African-American Artists

President George W. Bush had a lot of screw-ups during his eight-year term, but he did do a couple things right. One of them was proclaiming June as Black Music Month on May 31, 2002. June is here, and to celebrate Black Music Month, I'll be featuring one of my favorite artists each day, sharing my first or most personal memory of them, explain what their accomplishments are and why I felt they should make the Black Music Month Top 30 list. There will be some oldies, some newbies and some artists who are in between stages.

My June 17 selection is Angie Stone.

Black Music Month Heat Factor "Why's this artist hot?": If you've heard "Pissed Off," you know Angie Stone isn't hesitant to share what's on her mind. That song was the most soulful, angry song I'd ever heard right next to "Shit. Damn. Motherfucker," D'Angelo's song, who Angie Stone also worked with. You haven't experienced Angie Stone's talents until you've seen her live. Listening to her powerful voice on a song is great, but watching her interact with a crowd is what sets her apart. She'll big up everybody from black men to sisterhood to an author whose book she's enjoyed. If it's on her mind, she'll share it unapologetically. Even on "The Michael Baisden Show" where she declared the talk show host a hero, this seemed to be something that was just on her mind so she went ahead and sang it on out. And then she comically sang about how she was going to walk away, and just left the stage to start dancing and singing somewhere else. She just says what she thinks so it's entertaining to watch her. Angie Stone is creative in the best way and seems completely disinterested in fitting into industry standards, which makes her that much more fun.

First Memory, Most Personal Memory of the Artist: I'd always liked her voice and quite a few of her songs, but last year when I saw her perform at Country Club Hills Theater and the way she interacted with the audience, that made me that much more of a supporter. When she sang "Brotha," she had all the black men in the entire audience standing up, pumping their arms, singing loud (and most were on key) and dancing back and forth. It was like a musical version of the Million Man March, with black men pumping their chests way out to feel appreciated.

Slim Thug can say what he wants about black women. Angie Stone and plenty of other black women feel otherwise about having brothas' backs. "Brotha" may have been geared to black men, but when Angie Stone was singing, I watched sistas everywhere in the audience singing along, staring googly-eyed at whatever guy was with them. She reprimanded us a little bit for being more into the song dedicated to them than the song she sang dedicated to sisterhood and black women, but historically we've always been quick to celebrate the fellas before we celebrate ourselves. Harriet Tubman took a brick to defend her husband. Angie Stone used her voice. It's all a part of womanhood in our community.

Accomplishments from the Artist: Angie Stone has done everything from sing in the choir to singing with hip-hop group Sugarhill Gang and neo-soul icon D'Angelo. But her best work is all her own. Her single "Wish I Didn't Miss You" in 2002 spent 26 weeks on the charts and "I Wanna Thank Ya" hit the charts for 12 weeks. Her albums also hung out on the charts for a respectable amount of weeks, 2004's "Stone Love" for 22 weeks and 2007's "The Art of Love & War" for 37 weeks.

Other Black Music Month Selections:

June 1 Trey Songz

June 2 Marvin Gaye

June 3 Rakim Allah

June 4 Brandy Norwood

June 5 Tina Turner

June 6 MC Lyte

June 7 Lyfe Jennings

June 8 Bill Withers

June 9 Wyclef Jean

June 10 Erykah Badu

June 11 Chaka Khan

June 12 Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott

June 13 Ne-Yo

June 14 Michael Jackson

June 15 Mos Def

June 16 Aaliyah