“I feel like if you’re a musician, you should be able to do everything,” he said. Later he wrote and recorded songs with Tribe’s Q-Tip and the R&B star D’Angelo before moving south to L.A. By then he’d already established himself as a valuable utility player: After leaving Tony! Toni! Toné! under less-than-ideal circumstances - his brother, D’Wayne Wiggins, basically tried to replace him with Stokley Williams of Mint Condition, he said - Saadiq formed a short-lived supergroup called Lucy Pearl with Dawn Robinson of En Vogue and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest. That was precisely Saadiq’s goal, he said, when he decided a few years ago to try writing for the screen. For Raphael it’s opened the door for the other parts of his talent.” And it allows you to go other places, to explore different types of music. “It allows you, first of all, to keep your ego in check. “It’s actually a blessing when the things you do for others go a little bit further than what you do,” said Edmonds, also known as Babyface. 24).Īnd though his successful production gigs and his forays into film and television led him to put off his solo stuff, the experience only broadened his skill set, according to Saadiq’s friend Kenny Edmonds, another important soul musician who alternates his own records with work for other artists. In truth, Saadiq’s reemergence feels well timed to a moment when his signature blend of live instruments and mechanized grooves seems to be echoing in music by adventurous young R&B acts like Blood Orange and the Los Angeles-based King (both of which will join Solange for a show at the Bowl on Sept. “I’ve never been late for an album, and I’ve been making albums since ’88,” he said, referring to the year of his debut with Tony! Toni! Toné!, the trio he formed with a brother and a cousin after he returned to his native Oakland following his stint with Prince. Kicked back in the studio’s dimly lighted control room, Saadiq acknowledged that his fans have been waiting longer than usual for a set of new tunes. 6 concert at the Hollywood Bowl, where he’ll open for the soul singer Maxwell. Now, following a long stretch of behind-the-scenes work, he’s inching back to center stage with a solo album he’s finishing up - his first since “Stone Rollin’” in 2011 - and an Oct.
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He just wrapped his second season scoring Issa Rae’s hit HBO series “Insecure.” And moviegoers recently heard his music in “Step,” the acclaimed documentary about a girls’ dance team in Baltimore, which featured Cynthia Erivo’s performance of Saadiq’s original song “Jump.”
Last year he co-produced and played on Solange’s Grammy-winning “A Seat at the Table” album.