Raphael Saadiq - A Man of Many Talents

Raphael Saadiq was born Charlie Ray Wiggins on May 14th 1966 in Oakland, California. He has been hailed as a standard bearer for "old school" R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! And has also turned his talents to production where he has worked with such artists as Joss Stone, D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige, and John Legend.
Saadiq began his professional career as the lead vocalist and bass player in the rhythm and blues trio Tony! Toni! Toné! He used the name Raphael Wiggins while in Tony! Toni! Toné!, where he was joined by his brother Dwayne Wiggins, and his cousin Timothy Christian. The trio went on to become major R&B superstars throughout the late-1980s and 1990s. However, after the 1996 album entitled 'House of Music', which did produce several hits, they didn't quite duplicate their previous success, and decided to go their separate ways.

He adopted the name of Raphael Saadiq in the mid-1990s. 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. As he confirmed by telling noted R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning 'Blues & Soul' 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 and it peaked at a very respectable #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 while reaching #2 on the R&B chart. In 1997, Saadiq hooked up with EPMD for the tune "Da Joint". Two years later, he teamed up with Q-Tip for another minor hit, "Get Involved", which was featured on the animated TV series, ‘The PJs’.

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In 1999, Saadiq's next big project became the R&B supergroup Lucy Pearl. The self-titled album was recorded with Dawn Robinson (En Vogue) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest). The group only lasted for one album.

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2000 saw him collaborate with D'Angelo on the song "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". This song 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.

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He released his first solo album 'Instant Vintage' in 2002 and this earned him 5 Grammy nominations. He also formed his own record label Pookie Entertainment in this year with follow up album Ray Ray released two years later along with a 2 disc live album 'All The Hits AT The House of Blues' coming out on the label. As well as these releases 2004 also found Saadiq back on production duties with a remix of the song "Crooked Nigga Too" by the late Tupac Shakur which is featured on the album ‘Loyal To The Game’.

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In 2007 Saadiq produced ‘Introducing Joss Stone’, the third album by much hyped British soul singer Joss Stone and also found Saadiq break into acting playing the role of Anthony Hayes in Disturbia, a film directed by D.J. Caruso and described as "a tense, subtle thriller" that's an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window staring Shia LaBeouf.

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The critically acclaimed album, ‘The Way I See It’ was released on Columbia Records in September, 2008, featuring artists Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone and Jay-Z, and received three Grammy Award 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. It was also voted Best Album on iTunes of 2008. Another new label surfaced called Velma Records, with Raphael promising "people can express themselves like I did with 'The Way I See It'... where they can dream something up and just go with it".

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Not content with singing, production, record labels and acting last year Saadiq announced the creation of a video game development company called IllFonic. The first video game in development is titled Ghetto Golf, and is expected to be released late this year.