{"id":18673,"date":"2023-10-06T08:37:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T13:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18673"},"modified":"2023-10-06T08:37:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T13:37:25","slug":"tony-toni-tone-say-reuniting-after-25-years-feels-good-and-theyre-working-on-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18673","title":{"rendered":"Tony! Toni! Ton\u00e9! say reuniting after 25 years \u2018Feels Good\u2019 \u2014 and they\u2019re working on something new"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 D\u2019Wayne Wiggins and Timothy Christian Riley didn\u2019t realize that Raphael Saadiq<\/u><\/a> was planting the seeds for a Tony! Toni! Ton\u00e9! reunion when he arranged a photoshoot earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe said a few times before, so we never paid that much attention to it until this fool put up a big-ass billboard in Oakland, and I had to see it through social media,\u201d said vocalist and bass guitarist Wiggins, who wondered if the image was Photoshopped. \u201cI thought someone was playing tricks, morphing our picture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saadiq, the lead singer and guitarist of the beloved R&B group, gathered the trio together, free of any outside influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t tell any of the managers or team or anybody because I just wanted it to be us. \u2026 I wanted to be in a room where the only power structure was one, two and three,\u201d said Saadiq of his bandmates who are also family: Wiggins is his brother and Riley is their cousin. \u201cWe have to be us first before we could talk to anybody because that\u2019s what happened the last time.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Cut to last month, when Tony! Toni! Ton\u00e9! kicked off their Raphael Saddiq Revisits Tony! Toni! Tone! Just Me And You Tour 2023, the first road trip featuring the three original members in nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really cool, like rehearsals and the actual shows, just playing together again on a stage,\u201d said Riley, who plays drums and keyboard. \u201cA lot of times, we do production and studio work. But just actually being together, you feel the energy, you feel the love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not all: the Tonyies, as they call themselves, are currently planning a new project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be another album \u2026 but I thought we need to really hone in on what we\u2019re doing for touring and then go home and then take like two days off, and then start on the album,\u201d said Saadiq, who once served as a member of Prince\u2019s touring band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got a lot of material and now we just want to make sure that we put out the right energy through our music,\u201d added Wiggins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blending R&B, jazz and traces of gospel, the Oakland, California, natives burst onto the music scene with their 1988 debut album, \u201cWho?\u201d with songs like \u201cBaby Doll\u201d and \u201cLittle Walter.\u201d But it was their 1990 New Jack Swing-infused<\/u><\/a> \u201cFeels Good\u201d record that gave the group mainstream success, peaking at No. 9 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They released two more studio projects together, with party hits like \u201cLet\u2019s Get Down,\u201d featuring DJ Quik, and timeless slow jams including \u201cWhatever You Want,\u201d \u201cIt Never Rains (In Southern California),\u201d \u201c(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow\u201d and \u201cAnniversary,\u201d a standard in the Black music romance canon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted a song like \u2018Chestnuts\u2019 like Nat King Cole, something that everybody played at some point, and \u2018Anniversary\u2019 was that type of song. I knew the subject matter wasn\u2019t one that I thought was dated, but you couldn\u2019t tell me that it was going to be this type of song,\u201d said Saadiq. \u201cWhen it comes on and couples grab each other, we know that it took on a whole different life that we couldn\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blood relatives also couldn\u2019t predict how their success would affect their relationship. The Tonyies went their separate ways after their fourth album, 1996\u2019s platinum-selling \u201cHouse of Music.\u201d Fame, finances, miscommunication and creative differences were unsustainable for the group. However, Saadiq is hesitant to use the word \u201cbreakup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t call them and go, \u2018I quit! I\u2019m mad at you guys!\u2019 It wasn\u2019t even like that. We\u2019d been around each other our whole life,\u201d said Saadiq. \u201cWhat everybody saw as a breakup wasn\u2019t really a breakup; we just noticed that we weren\u2019t making music at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiggins and Riley toured under the group\u2019s name between 1998 and 2018, with Amar Khalil taking over lead singing duties. Riley played on tracks for artists like Will Smith<\/u><\/a> and Alicia Keys,<\/u><\/a> and still collaborated with Saadiq on various songs. Wiggins also produced and helped grow young artists who would become some of today\u2019s brightest young stars, including Zendaya<\/u><\/a>, H.E.R.<\/u><\/a>, Kehlani<\/u><\/a>, and even Destiny\u2019s Child.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saadiq achieved remarkable solo success<\/u><\/a> with five solo studio albums, fashioning hits like \u201cAsk of You,\u201d \u201cBe Here\u201d featuring D\u2019Angelo, \u201cGet Involved\u201d with Q-Tip and \u201cLove That Girl.\u201d He produced big records like Erykah Badu\u2019s<\/u><\/a> \u201cLove of My Life\u201d and two of D\u2019Angelo\u2019s biggest songs, \u201cLady\u201d and \u201cUntitled (How Does It Feel),\u201d and also worked with Whitney Houston,<\/u><\/a>Mary J. Blige,<\/u><\/a> and TLC. In 2000, he joined En Vogue\u2019s Dawn Robinson and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest to form the supergroup Lucy Pearl, resulting in the popular song \u201cDance Tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saadiq and Riley, both 57, and Wiggins, 62, have put the past behind them and are relishing in their reunion. The family members vow not to let outside influences like managers, record executives and the entertainment business as a whole drive them apart again, realizing that time \u2014 at least in the professional sense \u2014 is no longer a luxury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been really cool to hear younger kids sample our music and make new songs with our music,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIt\u2019s like it lives on and you have a whole new generation that actually knows about you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saadiq agrees and is trying to live in the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did always feel the love from our peers and fans and people just in general \u2014 it felt really good,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it feels different now \u2014 we feel the love. We can actually step outside of who we are, and then actually smell the roses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raphael Saadiq\u2019s brother and Tony! Toni! Ton\u00e9 bandmate D\u2019Wayne Wiggins has helped develop numerous major artists, including Beyonc\u00e9<\/u><\/a> and her Destiny\u2019s Child groupmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Saadiq is one of the few producers who\u2019s worked with both Knowles sisters.<\/u><\/a> He executive produced Solange\u2019s critically acclaimed \u201cA Seat at the Table\u201d<\/u><\/a> album, and was involved in Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cRenaissance\u201d project,<\/u><\/a> helping write and produce \u201cPURE\/HONEY\u201d and the Grammy-winning \u201cCUFF IT\u201d (its funky guitar rhythm was originally created for a potential Tony! Toni! Ton\u00e9 song, he has said).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you watch her work, you could get tired. I mean, she\u2019s probably the hardest working person in showbiz. \u2026 She knows what she wants visually, she knows what kind of sound she wants,\u201d said Saadiq, who has also earned Oscar and Emmy nods for his film and TV work. \u201cShe\u2019s like a power performer. And you just know when you hand something to somebody like Beyonc\u00e9, she\u2019s going to take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from her pop star aesthetics and Beyonc\u00e9 as a business, Saadiq praised how she approaches music. He remembers a younger Beyonc\u00e9 asking to hear some of the music he was working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was doing \u2018Instant Vintage\u2019 and I was in a different room from her in the studio. And she saw me in the hallway and said, \u2018Can I hear what you working on?\u2019\u201d Saadiq recalled, saying that wasn\u2019t common between artists. \u201cSo, I think she\u2019s very insightful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 D\u2019Wayne Wiggins and Timothy Christian Riley didn\u2019t realize that Raphael Saadiq was planting the seeds for a Tony! Toni! Ton\u00e9! reunion when he arranged a photoshoot earlier this year. \u201cHe said a few times before, so we never paid that much attention to it until this fool put up a big-ass billboard in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[23059,6032,8773,23061,23064,23060,1422,23063,23062,23056],"class_list":["post-18673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-dewayne-wiggins","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-photo","tag-rafael-sadik","tag-reunion","tag-singer","tag-tag","tag-timothy-christian-riley","tag-tony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18675,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18673\/revisions\/18675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}