For years, fans of Angie Stone and D’Angelo have wished that the two would work on music together again, but she says that’s not happening due to male “pride.”

During an interview with VladTV, Stone says her legendary singer ex-boyfriend has let that ego get in the way of his artistic aspirations. During the 1990s the pair were a couple and share a son together, Michael D’Angelo Archer II. Stone also was an inspiration for D’Angelo’s debut album Brown Sugar while he helped produce her debut LP Black Diamond.

“Let me tell you something, and I’m being 100, he would be a lot further here today, and I’m not discrediting him,” Stone told VladTV. “Don’t misunderstand me, but because of the powers that be, everybody and they momma wish Angie Stone and D’Angelo would get back together and work again. I’ve heard it a million times.

“His pride as a man would not allow of him to do that because he doesn’t want to share the credit,” she added. “He doesn’t want it to look like, ‘What if I get with her and we win? Then it’s going to look like she did it.’ I mean the writings on the wall, but if you want to roll like that, I’m not mad at you, but that’s not my spirit.”

She continued: “My spirit is we have a winning element God gave us that. You didn’t give me that. God gave us that, and what you should do, if nothing else, is put your difference aside. You have children and say, let’s get in the studio and work on our God-given craft, but his pride would not allow him to go there, and it’s sad, but the industry created that energy, and because they created it, they have to now suffer, and wait for the kind of music that we created. It would never happen because that we factor isn’t there.”

Watch the full interview segment below: