Raphael Saadiq wasnt sure a Tony!
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rehearsing together for the first time in decades.
We definitely gonna do an album after this tour, Saadiq tells me during a short break.
Were working on it as we speak, in all these rooms.
But by 1997 the group had splintered, with Saadiq off to pursue his own career.
Over the years, Saadiq would occasionally give fans a few bread crumbs about an actual Tony!
reunion, but it never materialized.
Now new people get to rediscover us.
There have been false starts andteasesof a proper Tony!
What made now the perfect time to do it?For a long time I said I wouldnt.
Then I lost my dad five years ago, and my father was always asking me about it.
We have nieces and nephews whove never really seen us play.
And I dont feel like making another solo record right now.
Id actually been approaching the guys for maybe four or five years to hang out.
I was getting everybodys temperature.
Being back together, it felt like the energy was right.
The three of you havent performed together in over 25 years.
Has anything changed in the groups dynamic?The camaraderie is still amazing.
I wasnt surprised by what we would sound like.
Like, Tim is overplaying something on keyboards, and we go, Thats not on the record.
Hes like, Yes, it is.
Heknowsits not on the record.
Theres a lot of focus on this tour about letting people know where we came from.
Now were able to bring all that energy that we had from back in the day.
Its hard to even speak to it, because you dont know the feeling until you in it.
Ive become a fan of what we do in a different way.
We know we dont have to rush it.
I think when promoters look at that, theyre sort of happy because they can get them for less.
To be honest, I left cause I wanted a different trajectory for my career.
If I stayed, I would have been locked into one thing.
I never wanted to do one thing in the business.
I didnt want to get stuck in a group.
I also never liked the way Black groups were promoted.
you’ve got the option to see a 7-Eleven behind a group cause theres no backdrop.
Only a couple from our era, New Edition, Keith Sweat, get their due.
Some from that era dont.
DWayne and Tim continued touring under the group name after you left.
They even recorded a feature under the Tony!
moniker (Alicia Keyss Diary) without you.
How did you feel about that?I didnt judge Tim and DWayne.
They had to do what they had to do.
I never looked down on it.
I mean, I knew it wasnt at the level, because the three of us were still growing.
We could have been doing arenas like Frankie Beverly and Maze.
But Diary was great.
I wanted to do other things.
I didnt sit down and say, I want to be a producer, but thats what was next.
And yet the group continued to live on in pop culture.
You were referenced in bothRick and Mortyand the moviePopstar.Andy Samberg didnt reach out initially, we just saw it.
People were hitting me, telling me about it.
I love Andy andTim Meadows.
And then of course we were all overRick and Morty.
Its good to know that the name carries the brand.
The other reference I love is when Biggiesaid, Make me feel good like Tony!
People like hearing Tony three times.
It was always pretty crazy to say it three times!
It started as a joke, and then we started taking it seriously.
I didnt even know if we was going to make it at first.
I just knew I was good enough to play for somebody.
I was working at UPS.
He said, Well, just go play for the band, but dont tell her.
If you ever need a little money, I got you.
Three years later, we became the Tonyies and had a record out and was onArsenio Hall.
And my mother saw me on TV singing.
Thats when she found out I quit.
It was the only way I could tell her.
I dont think it was real to my mom until she heard people talking about us.
She didnt know Clive Davis or anything like that.
She just knew Oakland was rough and asked, What is it going to be for you?
What were those early Oakland shows like?We were playing at the Lucky Lion.
All the best bands went to the Lucky Lion.
It was likeFirst Avenuein Minneapolis, but smaller.
You didnt make no money.
We went up to different schools and put flyers on peoples cars.
The cops were all lined up ready to go if somebody got out of line.
We were staying at motels.
I hung out with Ice Cube a lot.
He said, You know what?
Im going to do movies one day.
I remember Salt-N-Pepa didnt want us to be there.
They wasnt being mean, they just didnt like that the set change was taking so long.
Some nights we would kill it, and most nights N.W.A would kill it.
It was always a battle with the groups.
Everybody had water guns.
Everybody was at the Waffle House.
Everybody was eating pizza after the show.
We were the only band, which didnt make sense to some folks on the tour.
But we were there because we had hot records and we could put asses in the seats.
I also think they needed somebody to get better insurance for the shows.
If it was all rappers, the insurance wouldve been out the sky.
Youre prepping a lot of songs for the Tony!
Do you have regrets about that song?No.
But the other day when we started rehearsing, somebody said something about 261.5 on the gram.
Do you think its the same forthe hookon My Ex-Girlfriend?Again, thats DWayne!
He came to the studio and said, I got this hook.
And I was like, I dont know, man.
But it sounded good.
The crazy thing, when we performed it, the girls were singing louder than everybody.
I only wanted to play bass.
My brother liked singing and being out front.
I just think I was marketable I had a high tenor voice, the label and producers liked that.
I sung a couple records and they were like, You got to sing more songs.
So I just mimicked everybody that I liked.
But its hard work to be a front man, to know exactly what you want.
But Ive always seen myself as that.
I was like that with DAngelo.
I could also be like,erase the floor, I got this.
One of the first big songs you ever worked on as a producer was DAngelos 1995 track Lady.
How did that come together?I had written it for the Tonyies.
But nobody really liked it.
So D and I hooked up and I played it for him on the guitar.
Then after that, I mean, D dont need no producing.
Thats how we worked.
It wasnt even work, really.
It was all fun.
D started playing keyboards on it, then Tim played piano on it.
Was it a similar feeling when you two did Untitled (How Does It Feel?)?Definitely.
I was like,Whatever.
I was with this girl.
So let me just knock on Ds door.
Hes like, Lets do something!
And he goes, Yeah, I got a damn joint.
Then we go downstairs, we do Untitled in maybe two hours, then I just walk out.
And then the next thing, I see the video.
Thats how it happened, it wasnt scheduled.
After the music video for the song dropped, it completely changed fans perception of DAngelo.
He became a sex symbol, which he did not adapt to well.
Did you two ever talk about that?Yeah.
Its the fame game.
You run with the football, somebody going to hit you.
For Untitled, somebody said to me, You know that song only hit because he was naked.
And I said, Trust me, he couldnt have been naked with a wack song.
The same thing that happened to Untitled could have happened for Tony!
onPillow.Everybody in the video is pretty much naked.But Ds was just way morehim!
Ours wasnt us; we had doubles on most of it.
Leon Ware told me its all timing with music, and how much youre willing to … Its what Im here to do.
Its like being an athlete.
You have to have your mind conditioned your spirits got to be right.
People think I could write a good song every day.
I write a lot of trash.
Out of two good songs, its probably about 15 not-so-good joints.
Did he ever tell you what he thought of the track?He loved that song so much.
That was basically it.
And there was people outside in the line practicing dance steps to A Love Bizarre.
I was nervous, but I knew the music.
I was a fan.
Sheila was definitely a legend already, the Escovedos were legendary people in our town.
That was my gear.
You had to wear it.
I had cars picking me up.
And theres models everywhere nothing but 12s walking up to me in the club.
Prince is introducing me.
Hes asking if Im okay, if theres enough girls here.
It was really beautiful to see somebody evolve from this little devil to this Jesus guy.
That feels like the greatest introduction to the music business ever.A lot of my studies are from watching Prince.
Thats something I could have never paid for.
I basically shadowed him when he didnt even know it.
The next time he paid me a compliment was when he heard Stone Rollin, in 2011.
He told me, I was up watching Jay Leno, and you came on.
I was looking at the TV saying, Ray Ray, you done snuck one on me.
I also opened up one of his shows in Copenhagen that same year.
Im singing and the crowd was just going nuts.
So it wasnt really me that amped the crowd up.
Speaking of compliments, Michael Jackson loved how you spoke aboutOff the Wall.
Did yall ever talk about recording something?We did, and it was funny when he called.
It was like, Michael wants to talk to you.
And Im like, Michael who?
I had met him before.
That was the hardest thing for me to do, to sequence that record.
We definitely wouldve ended up working together.
I wouldve loved to.
That was pretty much the only one.
Other than that, once its out of my hands, its out of my hands.
But I gave it to a friend of mine and said, I got this record.
I was going to do it, but what about Beyonce?
Shes one of those people where if shes feeling it, shes going 100 percent in.
I said, Its going to move people.
Its going to work, Im telling you.
I think she just put it away.
From what I heard, The-Dream eventually found it.
And he was like, What is that?!
I already knew it was one of them joints.
You cant really trick people, its got to be good.
I told her, Ive always knew we would work together at some point.
Like I said, its all about timing.
What I know about Solange is, she knows exactly what she wants.
It was amazing to see it withA Seat at the Table.
I was working withher, but I was watching how she thinks.
When it came out, people just kept geekin and telling me about it.
That feeling is just indescribable to me.
And everybody was pretty much busy doing their own thing.
So I was like, I should do it with Ali.
And we said, We should get us a girl.
Then we thought of Dawn.
The record was just coming together, I call a friend of mine to help write Dawns parts.
And I just rolled it out.
I just had my own label at the time, which ended up being a fucking disaster because of …
But as far as marketing and promo, he was really good at that.
And we made a great album, the fans loved it, and we had fun.
It was beautiful to watch.
Everybody shifted and grew.
But I dont know what happened too much with Dawn, I hope shes okay.
Me and Ali had a great friendship we still do because of that record.
And he started playing bass because he was hanging out with me; now hes an amazing bass player.
So a lot came out of it.
And like I said, I love Tribe.
I always brag about how onMidnight Marauders, Im the only R&B cat on that album.
Aint another R&B cat on that.
Lets talk about your solo work.
You found early success with 1995s Ask of You, which hit No.
2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts.
Yet it took another seven years for you to drop your own album, 2002sInstant Vintage.
Why was that?I was just enjoying the little money that I had.
And Im a fan of artists.
Anything thats going to keep me playing music, I dont want to be tainted by being an artist.
Its all negative.Hes the artist.
Hes never on time.
Oh, they dont know what they want.
I had to defy the odds.
I was like, Bullshit, I know exactly what I want and Im on time.
I had to go do something where people could see me in a different light.
I just wanted to prove I could show up.
Youve been in the music industry now for decades.
Were you ever scornful about what you witnessed?Definitely.
Its been happening since the beginning of the Tonyies.
Ive never had a go-to guy like L.A. Reid has Usher and Clive had Whitney.
We had one go-to person with Ed Eckstein on the Tonyies first record.
But weve been pretty much out here in these streets just making it happen on our own with records.
We knew touring always helped.
I want to see what your next record do.
So Ive always had that chip on my shoulder.
How do I catapult this to the next level?
Other artists began picking up on what Tony!
I dont knock anybodys creativity, because Id rather them be creating than outside accidentally shooting somebody.
So if theyre in the studio, Im cool with it.
I feel like if you put out gems and you let them sit, it becomes like a deposit.
One of my mentors isJohn McClain.
He actually brought Death Row to Interscope.
Except one song I did onInstant Vintage, Excuse Me.
Angie Stone was singing on it.
That was the only time I actually took a song back.
I just loved the beat.
I was in the middle of my album, and it fit perfectly.
Youve almost exclusively worked in the R&B space.
But this year you produced a song for Marcus Mumford.
How did he wind up in your orbit?He just called and said he wanted to work together.
He turned me onto one of the baddest acoustic guitars I could ever have.
When he came over, he played this record.
I was like, Wait, wait, whats that?
And hes like, Yeah, I got it here in L.A.
I think I bought four of those guitars.
Sounds like your phone is the secret line for everybody to bail them out of a musical jam.
Like Winston Wolf inPulp Fiction.I feel like people call me when they just want to do something more real.
And Im okay with being in that position.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
The piece has since been updated with the correct picture.
