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A acarce Vintage 1990s Tony Toni Tone 8x10 inch photo autograph Revival Hip Hop New Edition Jodeci signed__________________Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American R&B/soul band from Oakland, California. During the band\'s heyday from the late 1980s to mid-1990s, it was composed of D\'Wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq (born Charles Ray Wiggins) on lead vocals and bass, and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley on drums, keyboards, and background vocals.[3][4][5][6] Originally, the band went by \"Tony, Toni, Toné\" as a joke, until they realized it \"had a nice ring to it\".[7]After a stint as musicians on Prince\'s Parade Tour in 1986, the trio formed Tony! Toni! Toné! back in their hometown of Oakland that same year.[3] The band first found success performing around the San Francisco Bay Area.[3] They released their debut album Who?[1] in 1988. Their debut single, “Little Walter,” reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart; three more singles from the album reached the Top 10; and the album was certified gold.[3]Tony! Toni! Toné! started producing their own music and found more mainstream success with their second album The Revival in 1990, fueled by the No.9 Billboard Hot 100 hit \"Feels Good”.[3][4] The Revival also included the R&B No.1s \"It Never Rains (In Southern California)\" and \"Whatever You Want\" and was certified platinum. The group achieved their greatest commercial success with the double platinum certified and critically acclaimed[8] Sons of Soul album in 1993, which included the Hot 100 top 10 hits \"If I Had No Loot\" and \"Anniversary\" and top 40 hit \"(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow\".[9][10] With the group\'s reliance on traditional soul and R&B values of songwriting and instrumentation, Sons of Soul is considered a precursor to the neo soul movement of the late 1990s.[11] Tony! Toni! Toné! disbanded after the release of their platinum certified fourth album House of Music (1996), which critics cite as their best work.[12][13]
History
Amar Khalil of Tony! Toni! Toné! performing in Louisville, Kentucky, 2012
1988–1992: Who? and The RevivalTheir debut album, Who?, produced and co-written by Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, was released in 1988. The first single \"Little Walter\" went to number 1 on the R&B chart. The next three singles, \"Born Not to Know\", \"Baby Doll\" and \"For the Love of You\" were all Top 10 R&B singles. Who? spent 44 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums, peaking at number 69.[14] On December 5, 1989, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States.[15] As of August 1993, it has sold over 700,000 copies in the US.[16]Inspired by live instrumentation, turntablism, and classic soul music, Tony! Toni! Toné! recorded and produced their second album, The Revival, mostly themselves and released it on May 8, 1990 to commercial success.[17][18] The Revival charted for 64 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums, peaking at number 34 on the chart and reaching platinum status.[19] The album spawned several number 1 R&B hits with \"It Never Rains (In Southern California)\", \"Feels Good\", \"The Blues\", and \"Whatever You Want\" all topping the R&B charts. The album\'s second single \"Feels Good\" was released on June 19 and certified gold on November 13 after it had shipped 500,000 copies.[15] The single topped the R&B chart for two weeks and reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1990, going on to sell over one million copies. \"Feels Good\" was the group\'s first single to breach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.[20] In late 1990, the album\'s fourth single \"It Never Rains (In Southern California)\" became a number-one R&B hit and also peaked at number 34 on the Hot 100.[21]The Revival broadened the group\'s exposure to fans beyond their initial R&B audience.[8] However, they became ambivalent about their newfound mainstream success and their music being labeled \"retro\" by critics.[18] In an interview for People magazine, lead singer and bassist Raphael Wiggins expressed his dissatisfaction with the music industry, saying that \"every record company wants to get a group and put \'em in a Benz with a car phone and a beeper, show them dressing in three different outfits, put them in a video shot on a beach with lots of swinging bikinis. You won\'t ever see us on a beach. We\'re just down-to-earth, funky, like-to-play guys.\"[22][23] Before considering a follow-up album, the band recorded several songs for film soundtracks, including \"Me and You\" for Boyz n the Hood (1991), \"House Party (I Don\'t Know What You Come to Do)\" for House Party 2 (1991), and \"Waiting on You\" for Poetic Justice (1993).[8]
1992–1995: Sons of SoulHaving fulfilled their creative intentions with The Revival, Tony! Toni! Toné! wanted to pay homage to their musical influences with Sons of Soul.[24][25] In a 1993 interview for The New York Times, Wiggins elaborated on their direction for the album, stating \"We\'re paying homage to a lot of older artists who paved the way for us artists like the Temptations, Sly and the Family Stone, Earth, Wind and Fire. They\'re the people who inspired us when we were growing up, people like Aretha Franklin, James Brown. We feel we\'re the sons of everything and all those people who came before us.\"[24] He also explained the album\'s title as a declaration of them being descendants of those artists, \"not in a grandiose sense, but from the standpoint that we really are the musical offspring of all that\'s come before us ... paying homage to our past, but creating in a contemporary environment.\"[26]Tony! Toni! Toné! took a hiatus as a group after the commercial and critical success of Sons of Soul. According to vocalist and bassist Raphael Wiggins, each member had pursued individual music projects, and \"the group was trying to figure out where everybody\'s time, space and head was at.\"[27] He, D\'wayne Wiggins, and Timothy Christian Riley worked on songwriting and production for other recording artists during the band\'s hiatus, including D\'Angelo, En Vogue, Karyn White, Tevin Campbell, and A Tribe Called Quest.[28][29] Raphael Wiggins adopted the surname \"Saadiq\" for his professional name in 1994—\"man of his word\" in Arabic—and released his solo single \"Ask of You\" in 1995.[30][29] Their work outside the band led to rumors of a break-up during the time between albums.[29] Tony! Toni! Toné! eventually regrouped and began recording House of Music in September 1995.[31]
1996–1998: House of MusicIn 1996, the group released their final studio album to date, House of Music. The album lacked the strong singles of earlier entries, only getting \"Thinking Of You\" & \"Let\'s Get Down\" into the top 10 on the R&B charts, with \"Thinking Of You\" hitting number 22 on the Hot 100, though it eventually reached platinum status.House of Music expanded on Tony! Toni! Toné!\'s previous traditional R&B-influenced work by emphasizing live instrumentation and ballads.[32][33] In the opinion of Daily Herald writer Dan Kening, the album continued the band\'s mix of contemporary R&B and old-fashioned soul, deeming it \"half a tribute to their \'60s and \'70s soul music roots and half a masterful blend of modern smooth balladeering and danceable funk.\"[34] Released on November 19, 1996, House of Music reached number 32 on the Billboard 200 and spent 31 weeks on the chart.[35] In its first eight weeks, the album sold 318,502 copies in the US.[36] Tony! Toni! Toné! inaugurated its release with a satellite press conference and in-store performance at a small retail outlet in the San Francisco Bay Area. They also embarked on a tour of historically black colleges and Black Independent Coalition record shops after \"Let\'s Get Down\" had been sent to R&B and crossover radio on October 28 as the album\'s lead single; its music video was released to outlets such as BET, The Box, and MTV.[37] Tony! Toni! Toné! performed the song on the sketch comedy show All That; on the music variety program Soul Train, they performed \"Let\'s Get Down\" and \"Annie May\".[38] \"Thinking of You\" was released as the second single on March 11, 1997, by which time House of Music had sold 514,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[39] On August 6, the album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[40]The single \"Me & You\" appears on the soundtrack to the motion picture Boyz n the Hood. Following the release of Sons of Soul, the group (except Riley) was a part of the R&B supergroup Black Men United, along with Silk and H-Town. The song \"U Will Know\" appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Jason\'s Lyric.
ReunionsIn 2003, members of Tony! Toni! Toné!, except for Saadiq, were invited by Alicia Keys to be guest artists on her album The Diary of Alicia Keys. The song that resulted from that session was called \"Diary\". Released as a single in the fall of 2004, it gave them their first Top 10 US hit in eleven years and a nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2005 Grammy Awards.In 2023, the original lineup announced and engaged in a U.S. reunion tour, marking the band\'s thirtieth anniversary of their third release, Sons of Soul, and their first tour in twenty-five years; that included their music catalogue and a few songs from Saadiq\'s solo career and production/songwriting repertoire. Before the tour, the group talked about recording a new album, but as of September 2024, Raphael Saadiq revealed to Rolling Stone Now podcast that plans for another album have been canceled, stating that the band members no longer feel the same about working on an album and he doesn\'t think there will be another reunion.[41][42][43]D\'Wayne Wiggins died from bladder cancer on March 7, 2025.[44]
Members
Current members Raphael Saadiq (1986–1997, 2019–present)
Timothy Christian Riley (1986–present)Former members D\'Wayne Wiggins (1986–2025; his death)
Amar Khalil (1998–2018)Session musicians Elijah Baker (1986–1997)
Carl Wheeler (1986–1997)
Antron Haile (1986–1997)
Jubu SmithOther endeavorsRaphael Saadiq released his first solo effort, the Top 20 Billboard hit \"Ask of You\" for the Higher Learning soundtrack, in 1995. Around the same time, Saadiq became a much-sought-after R&B producer, scoring hits for D\'Angelo, Beyoncé, Total, The Roots, and others. Later in the 2000s, he started a solo career, releasing two albums: Instant Vintage (2002) and Ray Ray (2004). He was replaced by Amar Khalil in the band.[45] Regarding changing his surname to \'Saadiq\' for a solo career, in February 2009 Raphael stated to writer Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul: \"I just wanted to have my own identity\".[46]Lucy Pearl was an R&B supergroup formed in 1999 as the brainchild of Saadiq. The other members of Lucy Pearl were Dawn Robinson (En Vogue) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest). They released their self-titled debut album in 2000. After two singles, \"Dance Tonight\" and \"Don\'t Mess with My Man\", Robinson left and was replaced by Joi. The new line-up released the track \"Without You\". The group split up shortly afterwards, releasing no other material.In 2005, D\'Wayne Wiggins became the bandleader for the Weekends at the D.L. television show, hosted by comedian D. L. Hughley, which aired on the Comedy Central cable network until 2006. Wiggins\' solo album Eyes Never Lie sold approximately 150,000 units.D\'Wayne Patrice Wiggins (February 14, 1961 – March 7, 2025) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer best known as a founding member of the R&B/soul band Tony! Toni! Toné!.[1][2][3][4][5] He formed Tony! Toni! Toné! in 1986 with his younger half brother, Charles Ray Wiggins (later known as Raphael Saadiq), and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley.[2][3][4][5] The band achieved three platinum albums and a slew of hits in the 1980s and \'90s.[2]Wiggins founded the company Grass Roots Entertainment in 1995, which helped develop artists such as Destiny\'s Child, Keyshia Cole, H.E.R., Zendaya and Kehlani.[2][3][4][5] He released his debut and only solo project with Motown Records, Eyes Never Lie, in 2000.[4][5]Wiggins worked on the Alicia Keys 2003 album The Diary of Alicia Keys,[4][5] winning a Grammy Award as producer. He was also the bandleader for comedian D.L. Hughley’s Comedy Central series Weekends at the D.L..[4]
Early lifeWiggins was born on February 14, 1961, in Oakland, California, to Charlie and Mary (Brown) Wiggins;[2] specifically in the Lower Bottoms neighborhood of West Oakland. He was raised in East Oakland, where he attended Castlemont High School, graduating in 1979. He married the mother of his 3 children (Ilahn, Dylan, and Jaden) in 2000.
Early career and Tony! Toni! Toné!Wiggins started playing guitar at the age of 11.[5] He played in his high school band and after graduation joined a number of bands around Oakland and eventually went on tour with Tramaine Hawkins.[2] The Wiggins brothers and Riley worked with singer Sheena Easton and joined her on Prince\'s Parade Tour.[2]The trio decided to start their own band, Tony! Toni! Toné!, after returning to Oakland.[2] The band has 14 Billboard-charting R&B singles, including five number one hits, three Top Ten pop singles, one gold album, two platinum albums and one double platinum album. They sold over six million albums during their career together. Finances, miscommunication and creative differences broke up the band in 1997, and Wiggins and Riley toured under the band’s name between 1998 and 2018 with Amar Khalil taking over lead singing duties.[3] The original lineup of Tony! Toni! Toné! reunited in 2023 for a short tour.[2][3]
MusicWiggins established Grass Roots Entertainment located in his West Oakland recording studio, \"House of Music\". Also in 1995, D’Wayne Wiggins developed and signed Destiny\'s Child to Grass Roots Entertainment. The group went on to become a powerhouse of female performers and the best-selling girl group of all time. He worked with the group through three albums, which have collectively sold more than 15 million copies. He also worked with artist Keyshia Cole, who resided in the “House of Music” from 1999 to 2001. Cole was mentored and received guidance from Wiggins during that time and went on to sign with A&M Records. He also worked with Laurneá of Arrested Development on her release Laurnea II and collaborated with Jody Watley. His House of Music was patronized by artists such as Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, India.Arie, Keyshia Cole, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Money and producer Scott Storch.Wiggins released his debut and only solo project with Motown Records, Eyes Never Lie, in 2000 featuring collaborations with Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish, Jamie Foxx and Carlos Santana.[4][5] This album contributed to the foundation of the neo soul genre.Wiggins also worked with the pioneers of what is known as Oakland\'s “Hyphy”[4][5] movement on such projects as: Too Short’s How Does It Feel and Hoochie; Messy Marv’s Blades; and The Coup’s Pick A Bigger Weapon album released in 2006. You can find his guitar skills and vocals on Ludacris’s Splash Waterfalls Remix. He also formed the group Kenya Gruv, performing Top Of The World on the Menace II Society movie soundtrack.In 2003, Wiggins went into the studio to work with platinum artist Alicia Keys. The title track single, Diary, made Top Ten on the Billboard charts as well as the album going platinum and winning four Grammy Awards in 2005. D\'Wayne Wiggins co-produced another track on the album and performed the sitar, If I Was Your Woman, winning him a Grammy for production.
Film and televisionIn 2001, Wiggins was executive producer of the independent movie Me & Mrs. Jones and Life Is, a documentary on the life of multi-platinum music rapper Too Short. He also had an acting part in the movie Get Money in 2003.In 2005, Wiggins was on TV arena as bandleader for the television show Weekends at the D.L., hosted by comedian D. L. Hughley, which aired on the Comedy Central cable network.
Later life, illness and deathUp until his death, Wiggins continued to tour as bandleader of Tony! Toni! Toné!. In 2023, Wiggins would reunite with fellow members Raphael Saadiq and Timothy Christian Riley for the Just Me and You Tour.[6]On March 5, 2025, Tony! Toni! Toné! revealed on Instagram that Wiggins was experiencing medical complications and that he was \"working through it one day at a time\".[7] He died from bladder cancer at his home in Oakland two days later, on March 7, at the age of 64.[8][9]Raphael Saadiq (/səˈdiːk/; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to prominence as a vocalist and bassist for the R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, which he formed with his brother D\'Wayne and cousin Timothy Christian Riley in 1986.[4][5][6][7] Originally, the band went by the name \"Tony, Toni, Toné\" as a joke, until they realized it \"had a nice ring to it\".[8] Along with his groupwork and solo career, he has produced and written songs for other R&B artists, including Erykah Badu, D\'Angelo, Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Total, Earth, Wind & Fire, Joss Stone, TLC, En Vogue, Kelis, Mary J. Blige, Ledisi, Whitney Houston, Solange Knowles and John Legend.After touring with Prince, Sheila E. and Sheena Easton as a bassist in the mid-1980s, Saadiq co-founded Tony! Toni! Tone!.[4][9] He went on to release four albums—Who! (1988), The Revival (1990), Sons of Soul (1993), and House of Music (1996)—with the band before their indefinite hiatus.[5][6][7][4] Prior to House of Music, Saadiq released his 1995 debut solo single, \"Ask of You\", for the soundtrack to the John Singleton film Higher Learning, and he formed the music production unit the Ummah (with D\'Angelo, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and J Dilla). \"Ask of You\" peaked within the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and led him to briefly sign with the now-defunct Universal Records as a solo act. In 1999, he formed the supergroup Lucy Pearl with singer Dawn Robinson, as well as Ummah cohort Ali Shaheed Muhammad; the group\'s self-titled debut album (2000) was supported by the Hot 100-top 40 single \"Dance Tonight\", and served as their only project before disbanding in 2001.Saadiq has since released five solo albums, including the critically acclaimed Instant Vintage (2002), Ray Ray (2004), as well as the retro-styled The Way I See It (2008) and Stone Rollin\' (2011). The contemporary-sounding Jimmy Lee was released in 2019, and earned Saadiq further acclaim.[10]Music critic Robert Christgau has called Saadiq the \"preeminent R&B artist of the \'90s\".[1] Saadiq has won three Grammy Awards for his songwriting work out of 22 nominations, as well as an Academy Award nomination, two Golden Globe Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Outside of music, Saadiq also co-founded the independent video game developer IllFonic in 2007, which has developed Friday the 13th: The Game (2017), Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020) and Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed (2022), among other titles.
Early lifeSaadiq was born in Oakland, California, and was the second-youngest of 14 siblings.[9] He attended Castlemont High School. He has had four siblings die at early ages.[11] Saadiq states that he does not want his music to be reflective of the tragedies he experienced, saying that \"And through all of that I was makin\' records, but it wasn\'t comin\' out in the music. I did it to kinda show people you can have some real tough things happen in your life, but you don\'t have to wear it on your sleeve.\"[9]He has been playing the bass guitar since the age of six,[12] and first began singing at age nine in a local gospel group.[13][14] At the age of 12, he joined a group called \"The Gospel Humminbirds\". In 1984, shortly before his 18th birthday, Saadiq heard about tryouts in San Francisco for Sheila E.\'s backing band on Prince\'s Parade Tour. At the audition, he chose the name \"Raphael\", and had difficulty remembering to respond to the name when he heard that he got the part to play bass in the band.[9] He says of the experience, \"Next thing I was in Tokyo, in a stadium, singin\' Erotic City. We were in huge venues with the biggest sound systems in the world; all these roadies throwin\' me basses, and a bunch of models hangin\' round Prince to party. For almost two years. That was my Tony! Toni! Toné! and The Ummah
Further information: Tony! Toni! Toné! and The Ummah As far back as his work with Tony! Toni! Toné!, Raphael Saadiq has been a singer of doubt, of psychic wounds, of romance undergoing a test.– Ken Tucker, NPR[15]After returning to Oakland from touring with Prince, Saadiq began his professional career as the lead vocalist and bassist in the rhythm and blues and dance trio Tony! Toni! Toné! He used the name Raphael Wiggins while in Tony! Toni! Toné!, along with his brother Dwayne Wiggins, and his cousin Timothy Christian. In the mid-1990s, he adopted the last name Saadiq, which means \"man of his word\" in Arabic.[9] His change of surname led many to speculate that he had converted to Islam at that point; in reality, Saadiq is not a Muslim, but rather just liked the way \"Saadiq\" sounded and changed his last name simply to distinguish himself from and avoid potential confusion with his brother, Dwayne Wiggins.[16] As he confirmed by telling noted R&B writer Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul magazine in May 2009: \"I just wanted to have my own identity!\"[17]In 1995, Saadiq had his biggest solo hit to date, when \"Ask of You\", featured on the Higher Learning Soundtrack peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart. In 1995, Saadiq produced and performed on Otis & Shug\'s debut album, We Can Do Whatever.Tony! Toni! Toné! would become major R&B superstars throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. However, after the 1996 album entitled House of Music failed to duplicate the group\'s previous success, Tony! Toni! Toné! went their separate ways in 1997.
1999–2004: Lucy Pearl and first string of solo albums
See also: Lucy PearlIn 1999, Saadiq\'s next big project became the R&B supergroup Lucy Pearl. He recorded the self-titled album with Dawn Robinson (En Vogue) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest). The group only lasted for one album.Also in 1999, he collaborated with rapper Q-Tip on the single \"Get Involved\", from the animated television series The PJs. It samples The Intruders\' 1973 song \"I\'ll Always Love My Mama\" and charted at number 21 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.[18]His 2000 song collaboration \"Untitled (How Does It Feel)\" won D\'Angelo a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance; it was also nominated for Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.[19] The song was ranked #4 on Rolling Stone\'s \"End of Year Critics & Readers Poll\" of the top singles of 2000.[20] D\'Angelo\'s album Voodoo won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 2001 Grammy Awards.In 2002, Saadiq founded his own record label, Pookie Entertainment. Among the artists on the label are Joi and Truth Hurts. In 2002, he released his first solo album Instant Vintage, which earned him three Grammy Award nominations in addition to another two Grammy nominations for his writing work on “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)” the following year. He released a two-disc live album All the Hits at the House of Blues in 2003, and his second studio album Ray Ray in 2004, both on Pookie Entertainment.
2004–2010: Expanded output and second string of albums
Saadiq in 2009In 2004, Saadiq produced a remix of the song \"Crooked Nigga Too\" by Tupac Shakur, which is featured on the album Loyal to the Game. Other artists he has collaborated with include Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, The Isley Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Teedra Moses, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Macy Gray, Angie Stone, Snoop Dogg, Mac Dre, Devin the Dude, DJ Quik, Kelis, Q-Tip, Lil\' Skeeter, Ludacris, The Bee Gees, Musiq Soulchild, Jaguar Wright, Chanté Moore, Lionel Richie, Marcus Miller, Noel Gourdin, Nappy Roots, Calvin Richardson, T-Boz from TLC, Jody Watley, Floetry, Leela James, Amp Fiddler, John Legend, Joss Stone, Young Bellz, Anthony Hamilton, Babyface, Ledisi, Goapele, Ghostface Killah, Ginuwine, The Grouch, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bilal, Chali 2na, Larry Graham,[12] Luniz as well as many others. In 2007, Saadiq produced Introducing Joss Stone, the third album of British soul singer Joss Stone. According to J. Gabriel Boylan of The New York Observer, \"he\'s produced artists including Macy Gray, the Roots, D\'Angelo, John Legend, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, and more. With all of them he\'s pushed a classic aesthetic, heavy on organic sounds and light on studio magic, deeply indebted to the past and distrustful of easy formulas.\"[21]Saadiq\'s third solo album, The Way I See It, released on Columbia Records on September 16, 2008, available in a collector\'s edition box set of 7\" 45 rpm singles as well as on traditional CD, was critically well-received, made several critics\' 2008 best albums lists, and garnered three Grammy nominations including Best R&B Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocals (for \"Never Give You Up\", featuring Stevie Wonder & CJ Hilton); Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance (for \"Love That Girl\") and Best R&B Album for The Way I See It. Music from The Way I See It was featured in the following motion pictures: Madea Goes To Jail, Bride Wars, Cadillac Records, Secret Life of Bees, In Fighting (Rogue), and It\'s Complicated.
Saadiq performing at the 2009 Stockholm Jazz Festival, promoting The Way I See It.Touring with a nine-piece band, Saadiq hit the 2009 summer music festival circuit with performances at Bonnaroo, Hollywood Bowl, Outside Lands, Pori Jazz, Stockholm Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz, Essence Music Festival, Summer Spirit Festival, and Nice Jazz Festival, Bumbershoot Music Festival and Austin City Limits. Saadiq has been touring Europe extensively, and held a five-night residency at the House of Blues in Tokyo, Japan, in June 2009. In 2008, Saadiq formed a new label called Velma Records, a place where he promises \"people can express themselves like I did with The Way I See It... where they can dream something up and just go with it\".[22]He produced songs for LeToya Luckett\'s forthcoming second album Lady Love, released August 2009. In 2009, Saadiq produced \"Please Stay\" and \"Love Never Changes\" for Ledisi\'s August 2009 release \"Turn Me Loose\". Saadiq also was the executive producer for an emerging group called Tha Boogie. Tha Boogie\'s first EP was released on iTunes and is titled Love Tha Boogie, Vol. 1 (Steal This Sh*t).
Video game development and new musicIn 2009, Saadiq announced his video game development company called IllFonic. The first video game in development by IllFonic was Ghetto Golf, with an expected release late in 2010. It was later cancelled. Several other titles have followed.In 2009, Saadiq teamed up Bentley Kyle Evans, Jeff Franklin, Martin Lawrence, and Trenten Gumbs to create a new sitcom called Love That Girl! starring Tatyana Ali. Raphael is an executive producer and composer for Love That Girl! The show airs on TV One and debuted on January 19, 2010. That same year, Saadiq performed The Spinners hit \"It\'s A Shame\" in a legendary Levi\'s commercial and sang as part of the chorus in the 2010 remake of \"We Are the World\" for Haiti.
2011–present: Stone Rollin\', Jimmy Lee and Beyoncé
Saadiq performing at South by Southwest in 2011, promoting Stone Rollin\'.In 2011, Saadiq was the guitarist/bandleader for the group backing Mick Jagger for Jagger\'s tribute performance of the Solomon Burke R&B classic, \"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love\" at the 53rd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and on CBS. The band that accompanied the performance was Saadiq\'s touring band called Stone Rollin.[23] In 2011 he and his band performed as the ESPY\'s house band for the night, where he performed his latest compositions.Saadiq\'s 2011 album Stone Rollin\' was released to great critical acclaim.[24][25] \"He\'s always had a boyish enthusiasm for performing, and a flexible, naturally joyous voice that suggests a young Stevie Wonder,\" wrote Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, \"but with his latest album, Saadiq finds a new gear. The album and his current tour demonstrate that there\'s a big difference between retro and classic, and the artist consistently finds himself on the right side of that divide.\"[26] Kot ranked the album number seven in his year-end list, in which he dubbed it Saadiq\'s \"finest achievement\" and stated, \"He\'s always written songs steeped in soul and R&B, but now he gives them a progressive edge with roaming bass lines and haunted keyboard textures. He\'s no longer a retro stylist – he\'s writing new classics.\"[27] Critic Jim Derogatis called it \"a stone cold gas of a party disc.\"[28]In the fall of 2011, he performed on the fourth results show of Dancing with the Stars season 13. In December 2011, he performed a cover compilation of several Neil Diamond songs at the Kennedy Center Honors award ceremony.In 2012 he signed a deal with Toyota to do a TV commercial for the Toyota Prius. In 2013 Raphael partnered with Bay Area/ Atlanta Production company EL Seven Entertainment/ Republic Records and then-new R&B singer Adrian Marcel and released his first promotional mixtape Raphael Saadiq Presents Adrian Marcel 7 Days of Weak.Saadiq is a featured bass guitar player on Elton John\'s 2013 album, The Diving Board.In 2016 he executive produced Solange Knowles\' album, A Seat at the Table, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in the United States.[29][30] He also guest starred in Luke Cage, where he performs his songs \"Good Man\" and \"Angel\" at Harlem\'s Paradise.In 2017 he appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, where he recorded the Memphis Jug Band\'s 1928 song \"Stealin\' Stealin\'\".[31] live on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.[32] Of recording on the system he said, \"it\'s amazing to just look at how it\'s built, you know just look at the machine itself. It just has this like magical sound the way that it\'s built. It\'s true. It\'s just the truest sound you could ever get\".[33]In 2017, Saadiq collaborated with Mary J. Blige as a songwriter for the movie Mudbound (2017), for which they both received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song.[34]In 2018, he produced the John Legend holiday themed album, A Legendary Christmas.On August 23, 2019, Saadiq released his fifth album Jimmy Lee, to critical acclaim.During the COVID-19 pandemic, he released a song on his website called \"Rony! Roni! Roné!\", as a nod to his group \"Tony! Toni! Toné!\".[35]In 2022, Saadiq collaborated on multiple songs from Brent Faiyaz\'s album Wasteland, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart.[36][37] Saadiq also collaborated with Beyoncé on her seventh and eighth studio albums Renaissance, for which he received two Grammy award nominations, and 2024\'s Cowboy Carter, for which he was nominated for four Grammys, winning Album of the Year as a songwriter.
EquipmentThrough the course of his career, Saadiq has often played Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars.[38]
Signature guitarIn 2024, Fender announced a collaboration with Saadiq to produce a signature guitar model he designed to be available for purchase.[39] The limited edition Raphael Saadiq Telecaster features a Dark Red Metallic finish, black binding, black headstock, custom acrylic pickguard, and custom Raphael Saadiq single-coil pickups. The model was designed with help from fellow musician Eric Gales, and aesthetically inspired by Saadiq\'s debut album, Instant Vintage.[40]
Discography
See also: Raphael Saadiq production discography and Tony! Toni! Toné! discography
Solo albums Instant Vintage (2002)
Ray Ray (2004)
The Way I See It (2008)
Stone Rollin\' (2011)
Jimmy Lee (2019)With Tony! Toni! Toné! Who? (1988)
The Revival (1990)
Sons of Soul (1993)
House of Music (1996)With Lucy Pearl Lucy Pearl (2000)Singles \"Ask of You\" (1995)
\"Can\'t Get Enough\" (Duet with Willie Max, 1998)
\"Get Involved\" (Duet with Q-Tip, 1999)
\"Be Here\" (Duet with D\'Angelo, 2002)
\"Still Ray\" (2002)
\"Love That Girl\" (2008)
\"Never Give You Up\" (With Stevie Wonder & CJ Hilton, 2009)
\"100 Yard Dash\" (2009)
\"Staying In Love\" (2009)
\"Something Keeps Calling\" (2019)Guest Vocals
Title Year Artist Album
\"Midnight\"[41] 1993 A Tribe Called Quest Midnight Marauders
\"Stressed Out (Remix)\" 1996 ATCQ, Faith Evans —
\"What They Do\"[42] The Roots Illadelph Halflife
\"Jus Mee & U\"[43] 1997 Luniz Lunitik Muzik
\"Something Bout Yo offerness\"[44] 1999 Snoop Dogg No Limit Top Dogg
\"Well\"[45] 2000 DJ Quik Balance & Options
\"Just a Man\"[46][47] 2001 — Baby Boy soundtrack
2002 Devin the Dude Just Tryin\' ta Live
\"Leave This Morning\" 2003 Nappy Roots Wooden Leather
\"Glow\" Kelis Tasty
\"Take Me\"[48] 2004 Teedra Moses Complex Simplicity
\"Harvest for the World\"[49] Kelvin Wooton Isley Brothers: Taken to the Next Phase
\"Ask of You\"[50] 2005 Mashonda January Joy
\"I Found My Everything\"[51] Mary J. Blige The Breakthrough
\"Walk These Streets\"[52] Warren G In the Mid-Nite Hour
\"Show Me the Way\"[53] Earth, Wind and Fire Illumination
\"Coming Home\"[54] Bizarre Hannicap Circus
\"We Get Down\"[55] 2006 Hi-Tek, Mos Def, Bootsy Collins Hi-Teknology²: The Chip
\"Waste of Time\"[56] 2008 Snoop Dogg Ego Trippin\'
\"Show You the World\"[57] The Grouch Show You the World
\"We Fight/We Love\"[58] Q-Tip The Renaissance
\"What Dudes Do\"[59] 2009 Chali 2na Fish Outta Water
\"Without You\"[60] Dwele Dwele
\"All the Money in the World\"[61] 2010 Rick Ross Teflon Don
\"Heart Attack\"[62] 2011 — Abduction (OST)
\"Balmain Jeans\"[63] 2014 Kid Cudi KiD CuDi presents SATELLITE FLIGHT: The journey to Mother Moon
\"Soul Food\"[64] Big K.R.I.T. Cadillactica
\"Gonna Miss You\"[65] 2016 Rapsody Crown
\"Hero\" Dame D.O.L.L.A. The Letter O
\"Apple of My Eye\"[66] 2017 Rick Ross Rather You Than Me
\"Bullets in the Street and Blood\"[67] Cody Chestnutt My Love Divine Degree
\"Soul Sista Remix\"[68] 2019 Bilal Queen & Slim (soundtrack)
\"If It\'s Good\"[69] 2020 — Insecure: Season 4
\"The Sun\"[70] KYLE, Bryson Tiller See You When I Am Famous
\"Season Ticket Holder\"[71] Rick Ross, D. Wade, Wale —
\"GOAT Spirit\"[72] 2021 Dame D.O.L.L.A. Different on Levels the LORD Allowed
\"No Wish\"[73] 2023 Black Milk, Phonte Everybody Good?
\"Crash\"[74] 2025 No ID, Saba, Kelly Rowland From the Private Collection
AwardsAcademy Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2018 Mighty River (with Mary J. Blige & Taura Stinson) Best Original Song NominatedBET Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2009 Raphael Saadiq BET Centric Award NominatedGolden Globe Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2018 Mighty River (with Mary J. Blige) Best Original Song Nominated
2021 Tigress & Tweed (with Andra Day) NominatedPrimetime Emmy Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2021 Lovecraft Country (with Laura Karpman) Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series NominatedGrammy Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
1994 \"Anniversary\" Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Nominated
Best R&B Song Nominated
2001 \"Dance Tonight\" Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal Nominated
\"Untitled (How Does It Feel)\" (performed by D\'Angelo) Best R&B Song Nominated
2003 \"Be Here\" (with D\'Angelo) Best Urban/Alternative Performance Nominated
Best R&B Song Nominated
\"Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)\" (as songwriter) Won
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media Nominated
Instant Vintage Best R&B Album Nominated
2005 \"Show Me the Way\" (with Earth, Wind & Fire) Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Nominated
2007 \"I Found My Everything\" (with Mary J. Blige) Best Traditional R&B Performance Nominated
2009 \"Never Give You Up\" (feat. Stevie Wonder and CJ Hilton) Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Nominated
The Way I See It Best R&B Album Nominated
\"Love That Girl\" Best Traditional R&B Performance Nominated
2012 \"Good Man\" Best Traditional R&B Performance Nominated
2021 Donda (as producer) Album of the Year Nominated
2023 Renaissance (as songwriter & producer) Album of the Year Nominated
\"Cuff It\" Best R&B Song Won
2025 Cowboy Carter (as songwriter) Album of the Year Won
\"Texas Hold \'Em\" Record of the Year Nominated
Song of the Year Nominated
Best Country Song NominatedSoul Train Music Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
2009 Raphael Saadiq Best Male R&B/Soul Artist Nominated
2011 Raphael Saadiq Centric Award Won
2016 \"Cranes In The Sky\" The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter\'s Award Wonimothy Christian Riley (born December 10, 1965) is an American drummer, keyboardist, and singer best known for being a member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!.
Early lifeRiley was born on December 10, 1965[1] in Oakland, California where he attended Castlemont High School. He is the cousin of D\'wayne Wiggins and Raphael Saadiq. He sang in choir at school and played drums at church.
Early career and Tony! Toni! Toné!Due to Riley having an interest in music, he was chosen by his cousins to be in their band and he continued to play drums in church even after achieving fame. The group has 14 Billboard-charting R&B singles, including five number one hits, three Top Ten pop singles, one gold album, two platinum albums and one double platinum album. They sold over six million albums during their career together.[2] In 2006, Tony! Toni! Toné! was included in the New Jack Reunion Tour lineup.[3] The group has toured internationally since 1998 and continues to perform on tours today. Riley described this atmosphere of constant jamming in Rolling Stone as \"like in the neighborhood, there was always competitions. I mean, it would be like school talent shows, and you\'d come home from school, and there would be like five or six drummers in their houses playing. Everyone just played, and you had to stay on top of it,\".[4]
MusicRiley worked on songs for the album, House of Music, independently before recording them together as a group. Eventually, Raphael Saadiq left the band and was replaced by Amir Khalil. He and the other group members worked on songwriting and production for other recording artists during the band\'s hiatus, including D\'Angelo, En Vogue, Karyn White, Tevin Campbell, and A Tribe Called Quest.[5][6]
Film and TVRiley appeared on Saturday Night Live with the rest of Tony! Toni! Toné! in 1993. He served as a contributor to the soundtrack of High School High, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Pose, Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice, House Party 2, Jason\'s Lyric, and Insecure.[7]
Current projectsRiley continues to be active as the percussionist of Tony! Toni! Toné![8]
References

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