R.I.P. D'Wayne Wiggins, co-founder of Tony! Toni! Toné!
In later life, Wiggins often focused on mentoring younger talent, working with both Beyoncé and Zendaya in their early careers.
D’Wayne Wiggins has died. As a founding member of influential R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, Wiggins had numerous hits and platinum albums throughout the 1980s and ’90s, importing a blend of funk and soul influences into the world of R&B, to both critical and chart success. Even after Tony! Toni! Toné! broke up in 1998, after the release of their critically lauded House Of Music, Wiggins continued to have major impacts on the world of music—most notably via his early support of Destiny’s Child and mentorship of other young artists. Wiggins’ death was announced today by his family members on social media; he was 64.
Born and raised in Oakland (where he’d also die, six decades later), Wiggins was brought up on the music of blues and soul, incorporating elements of artists like Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, James Brown, and more into his musical lexicon. In his twenties, and after a long history of jamming together, Wiggins began working professionally with his brother Charles (who would later change his name to Raphael Saadiq) and cousin, Timothy Christian Riley, in a band that would combine those musical interests with the sound of modern R&B. Adopting the name Tony! Toni! Toné!, initially as a joke, the group released their first album, Who?, in 1988. Although not a smash success, the album laid out the template that Tony! Toni! Toné!’s music would follow for the next ten years: A synthesizing of old-school R&B singing with production that incorporated the sounds of hip-hop and new jack swing. The band followed the album with three more, hitting commercial peaks with The Revival—which launched numerous singles like “Feels Good” and “It Never Rains (In Southern California)”—and Sons Of Soul.