Song:Never Give You Up
Album:The Way I See It
Raphael Saadiq is probably best known as part of the very successful group Tony! Toni! Tone!. He has had solo success. But he seems more comfortable writing and producing for others. He has been very successful in that role. He was born Charles Wiggins May 14, 1966 in Oakland, CA the second youngest of 14 siblings. One of his brothers was murdered. Another died of heroin addiction. Another committed suicide due to heroin. And a sister died in a police chase. Saadiq played in gospel groups as a teen. He found out that Sheila E was auditioning backup musicians while touring with Prince. The next thing he knows he's touring the world as her bassist. Upon his return he started Tony! Toni! Tone! with his brother Dwayne Wiggins and cousin Timothy Christian. It was during this time he changed his name to Raphael Saadiq. He did not convert to Muslim. He just liked the sound of the name. Saadiq went solo in 1995 and scored a top 20 hit with Ask Of You from the Higher Learning soundtrack. After Tony! Toni! Tone! split up in 1997, Saadiq formed Lucy Pearl with Dawn Robinson of En Vogue and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest. They recorded one very successful album and then split up. After Saadiq produced D'Angelo's monster hit Untitled, he started his own record company. Since 2002, Saadiq has released four albums and he has a new album coming this year. Never Give You Up is from the 2008 album The Way I See It featuring vocals by CJ Hilton and a Stevie Wonder harmonica solo. Hilton released a couple of 2011 singles on RCA that went nowhere. The single charted but as I said, he seems to prefer staying in the background writing and producing for others. D'Angelo is his most successful production. Most recently he produced the Mary J. Blige song Mighty River for the 2017 film Mudbound and it was nominated for an Oscar. I expect him to tour when his new album is released. Here's a video for Never Give You Up by Raphael Saadiq featuring Stevie Wonder and CJ Hilton.
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