Get the latest gossip

D’Wayne Wiggins, Co-Founding Member of Tony! Toni! Toné!, Dead at 64

D'Wayne Wiggins is dead. The Tony! Toni! Toné! member was 64.

Wiggins is the co-founder of the 1980s/90s soul funk/R&B trio that also featured his half-brother, Raphael Saadiq, on bass and vocals and cousin Timothy Christian Riley on drums/keyboards. After signing with Wing Records, the group released their debut album, Who?, in 1988, which featured the hit single, “Little Walter,” a prime example of the band’s signature mixture of funk, soul, R&B and gospel that rode the wave of the mid-1980s New Jack Swing revolution spearheaded by producers Teddy Riley and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and groups including Guy, Blackstreet and Keith Sweat. Wiggins is also credited with helping to develop and shape the early career of Destiny’s Child, who recorded several tracks produced by him before they signed with Columbia Records, as well as being one of the major promoters of Oakland’s grimy, relentless late ’90s “hyphy” hip-hop offshoot thanks to his vocal work on fellow East Bay native Too $hort’s 1992 singles “Hoochie” and 1999’s “How Does It Feel.” He also lent his elegant guitar playing to “BabyLet’sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin’Crazy” from another East Bay group, The Coup, on their 2006 Pick a Bigger Weapon album.

Get the Android app