She did not initially aspire to a career in music, instead studying architecture at Howard University,[4][5] singing only to earn extra money.

One of the other members of "Hot Tea" was Tawatha Agee, who later did a lot of background singing on the albums of several well-noted recording artists, eventually joining the funk/soul band Mtume.

She shopped it to various record labels with no success but, through a personal introduction furnished by respected industry veteran, Wayne K. Garfield, the demo was heard by New York disc jockey Gary Byrd, who made the call that landed Angela a spot in Stevie Wonder's backing vocal group, Wonderlove.

In 1985 they scored a U.S. number one hit with "I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love" by Stephanie Mills, with whom Angela had forged a close friendship (an earlier version of the song had been recorded by Alton McClain & Destiny).

Eventually Street Called Desire sold over a million copies, going platinum, but on the brink of their greatest success, tensions between Winbush and Moore had grown.

Producing, writing and arranging the Isleys' Smooth Sailin' album, Winbush helped the group, now featuring just Ronald and Rudolph (eldest brother O'Kelly had died the previous year), score a top 10 R&B hit with the title track.

Other notable hits include the dance track, "Run to Me," "C'est Toi (It's You)" and the Ron Isley duet, "Hello Beloved."

The following year, she scored more top 20 R&B hits as a writer/producer for R&B girl group Body ("Footsteps in the Dark") and newcomer Lalah Hathaway ("Baby Don't Cry") as well as contributing cuts to their respective albums.

Produced by Chuckii Booker, the song peaked at number six on the R&B chart making it Winbush's ninth top ten R&B hit altogether in her career.

The song was later remixed by Sean "Puffy" Combs and featured guest vocals from Lil' Kim and the group 112 in backgrounds.

Winbush continued to collaborate with the Isley Brothers until 2001's Eternal with Angela notably only contributing to 3 tracks as their marriage began to cool off.

During a 2006 interview on the Christian TV show, Gospel of Music with Jeff Majors, Winbush disclosed that she had overcome Stage 3 ovarian cancer after six months of chemotherapy in 2003.

During the interview she revealed that her undying faith in God got her through having a cyst (benign) removed from her breast, the ending of her marriage to Isley in divorce, and her struggle with depression.