It was the winter of 1996 and Tony! Toni! Toné! was on the verge of falling apart. A few months before, as the group was set to release their best, and ultimately last, album House of Music, they were fighting with one another in the way that only family can: mean and vicious. Assigned by Vibe magazine to write a feature on the trio, the publicist told me that lead singer and bassist Raphael Saadiq (Wiggins) wanted to be interviewed separately from his older brother and group founder D’Wayne Wiggins, who was also the lead guitarist, and their (play) cousin and drummerTimothy Christian Riley.

With a quick tongue and spiteful spirit, Saadiq was the one with the most attitude during the interviews as he ragged his band-mates and label. One minute he was being snippy, the next he was the victim as he explained why one of the best songs on the advance (“Blind Man”) had been removed from the album; supposedly Wiggins and Riley didn’t think it was fair that he had more songs than them. In 2002, Saadiq re-recorded the song, making a less impressive version for his solo album Instant Vintage.

Whereas Prince dropped the ball, a young music executive named Ed Eckstine signed them to Wing Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, in 1987. “They seemed to be inspired by both live instruments and turntable culture,” Eckstine explained nine years later. “With the growth of hip hop, we were beginning to see the death of black bands. I grew up on Earth, Wind & Fire and the Commodores, so I didn’t want to see soul music become a wasteland.”

Funny enough, considering that all three members, especially Saadiq, would later show that they had skills in the studio, Eckstine didn’t trust the group to produce themselves and hired Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy (Club Nouveau, En Vogue) to handle the production chores on Why? Eckstine explained, “They had just fallen out with their group, Club Nouveau (“Lean on Me”), and were looking for a production deal. Every young producer has a brother or cousin who wants a record deal, but when I asked them who they wanted to work with, the answer was Tony! Toni! Toné!”

Their first single “Little Walter,” combined the flavor of a late-night jam in some neon-lit Oakland nightclub (Ivy’s or the Downstairs) and a Sunday morning gospel wailed at Union Baptist Church. Fusing genres with the smoothness of Ray Charles or Sly Stone throughout their eight years as a recording unit, Tony! Toni! Toné! merged the turntablism of hip-hop, ‘70s pop and Motown lushness into their updated Bay Area sound. However, as Tony! Toni! Toné! grew more successful and ambitious, their charismatic lead singer Saadiq began bopping with more swag as his genius for songwriting and production became more pronounced.

http://www.soulhead.com/2015/08/04/sleptonsoul-dwayne-wiggins-eyes-never-lie-by-michael-a-gonzales/#more-31431