The Revival is arguably a new jack swing album – “Feels Good” is a must-have on any new jack playlist – but they were taking the existing marriage of R&B and hip-hop and adding an even deeper soul element, reaching back to ‘70s sonic roots. They developed a signature blues, soul, gospel and funk hybrid, rolled up in modern R&B and hip-hop fusion. They were not there for catchy, formulaic R&B. They announced both their musical background and intentions with their album titles: The Revival, Sons of Soul, House of Music. The trio started taking the reins on writing and production on their sophomore effort, and the Tonys as we now know them showed up. Their first album was a modest success, achieving gold status from the RIAA, but wasn’t a standout. Having been properly trained, educated and tested in blues, soul, gospel, and funk, the three formed Tony! Toni! Toné!. But he, brother Dwayne and cousin Timothy Christian received their formal Tony! Toni! Toné! training on the road: Raphael and Christian toured as part of Sheila E’s band on Prince’s Parade Tour and Dwayne with gospel great Tramaine Hawkins. Exposure to Motown and Stax by his blues singer father led him to the bass and served as inspiration for his future style.
Like almost every black musician and/or producer of note in his peer group, Saadiq developed and honed his musical chops in the church. This set both groups apart, establishing them early on as serious soul acts, and making them forerunners of the neo soul sound to come in the late ‘90s. They – and a few years later Mint Condition – were standouts as live musicians in an R&B landscape turning to sample-based production. TONY! TONI! TONÉ!ĭuring the birth and rise of New Jack Swing and then the subsequent evolution to Hip-Hop Soul, Tony! Toni! Toné! was one of the last of a dying R&B breed: the band. Let’s explore the iterations through which “Ray Ray” has blessed us over the years. Perhaps he transcends a simple R&B conversation as a self-identified Son of Soul (the difference between R&B and Soul is a topic for another day), but however you want to categorize him, he is not widely-enough acknowledged for how he’s kept us jamming, constantly, for three decades. But that’d be a misnomer, as he’s still had his hand in some of the most influential music for the current generation. Saadiq has become like a stealth superhero of soul for the last several years of his career, moving to the background as more writer/composer/musician, so the impulse for many might be to label him as an “old school” artist. Ironically, one name that seldom appeared in the convo belongs to one of the most consistent and prolific presences in soul and R&B music for the last 30 years: Raphael Saadiq. While a consensus was never reached, the heated discussion illustrated how much the definitions and ideas of R&B and R&B stars varies between age groups.
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