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Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. It's rap month on our show.

And all month we are bringing you nothing but rappers.

First up this week is Angie Stone. Now you might be thinking,

wait, this Angie Stone?

And yeah, that Angie Stone who, as you can hear, is singing on that track from her

2001 album Mahogany Saul. She's a hip-maker as a singer, but also this Angie Stone.

That's a song called Funky Sound, tear the roof off from 1981, the artist, the sequence.

One of the first ever all-women rap groups, Cheryl the Pearl, Blondie, and Angie B,

now known as Angie Stone. High school friends turned hip-hop pioneers.

So suffice it to say that Angie Stone has some stories to tell. You'll hear those in a minute.

But before we get to them, let's hear a little bit of Angie's new album Love Language,

which came out earlier this year. This track is called The Gym. And you know, it's about love.

And Angie Stone, welcome to Bullseye. I'm so happy to have you on the show.

Thank you. So happy to be here. How did you decide that you were going to have a record that

is about love in the gym? Well, you know,

when you're going through the ups and downs of life, the roller coaster of, you know, deciding whether

you want to stay involved or, you know, go through, it's like being in a gym. So you really have to

...