In the latest issue of Essence Magazine, Angie Stone talks candidly about her past relationship with R&B crooner D’Angelo. Amongst other things, she also talks a little bit about her new album, and her beef with J Records.

The criticism that D’Angelo and I received about our relationship only began once he became successful. What people didn’t realize was that before he became successful there was Angie Stone from the group Vertical Hold — a strong beautiful sister who dated somebody who had not even crossed the threshold of the industry yet. When I was dating him he wore glasses, had short hair and his pants were hanging down to his butt. He was just a 19-year-old kid with big shorts and nobody cared and no one saw his beauty but me. And I told him, “You are beautiful. I promise you when your record drops your lips are gonna become famous, your eyes—everything will become famous. But he couldn’t see it because his self-esteem wasn’t where it is today. He didn’t even have an image and his hair was really short so I braided his hair with thread for his first album cover. It wasn’t until Brown Sugar came out that people actually took a good look at him and said, “You know what? He’s fine.” Then all of a sudden, he’s so fine he shouldn’t be with me.

To read more about her relationship with D’Angelo, and to check out the rest of the interview, make sure you PEEP THIS LINK!