1986–1999: Tony! Toni! Toné! and The Ummah 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. 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!" 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 In 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. 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. The song was ranked #4 on
Rolling Stone's "End of Year Critics & Readers Poll" of the
top singles of 2000. 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 In 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, 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''. , 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". 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 music In 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 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. 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. "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." 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." Critic
Jim Derogatis called it "a stone cold gas of a party disc." 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. 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'". live on the restored first
electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. 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". 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. 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!". In 2022, Saadiq collaborated on multiple songs from
Brent Faiyaz's album
Wasteland, which debuted at number two on the
Billboard 200 chart. 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. == Equipment ==