At Angie Stone’s funeral, Tyler Perry didn’t hold back. Speaking to a packed congregation at Word of Faith Cathedral in Austell, Georgia, the media mogul paid tribute to the R&B legend while voicing his frustration over how the music industry treated her.
“I’m angry at the way she was treated,” Perry said, his voice full of emotion. He shared that he had only recently learned about the financial struggles Stone faced—especially the money she was owed but never received from her record label. “To think that this woman was in the business for all these years… all those songs, all that money that was owed to her. Where is it? It’s wrong.”
Stone, who passed away on March 1 at 63 after a car accident in Alabama, had been open about her fight to get the royalties she deserved. Just weeks before her passing, she posted on social media that after more than four decades in the industry, she hadn’t received any royalty payments from her former label, Universal Music Group. “They’re going to have to give me my money,” she had declared, explaining that she had only recently uncovered the situation while dealing with medical issues. In a heartbreaking twist, the night she lost her life, she was traveling home from a performance in Montgomery.
Perry, known for films like Madea’s Family Reunion and Beauty in Black, didn’t mince words when he reminded the audience about the consequences of mistreating good people. “You have to be careful when you start mistreating people, especially children of God,” he warned. “The Bible says, ‘Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.’”
Reflecting on one of Stone’s most powerful songs, No More Rain (In This Cloud), Perry urged everyone to pay attention to her lyrics. “‘My sunshine has come, and I’m all cried out. There’s no more rain in this cloud,’” he quoted, explaining the deeper meaning. “When a cloud has no more tears, it dissipates. It’s gone. But there’s another part of the song I want you to really listen to: ‘What goes around comes around. What goes up must come down. The things you do come back to you.’”
Perry described Stone as a woman who “sold kindness, joy, and love to people” through her music and her presence. Though he admitted he didn’t know her as well as some, he often saw her at events and recognized her incredible spirit. Calling her a “prophet,” he pointed out how, in a way, Stone “preached her own eulogy” through the messages in her music.
Closing his tribute, Perry spoke directly to her: “God bless you, Angie. My heart, my soul, is with you. I’m so glad that there’s no more rain in your cloud.”
