D'Wayne Wiggins, a founding member of the great Oakland R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, has passed away. In an Instagram statement, Wiggins' family announces that he passed away this morning, surrounded by family, after a battle with bladder cancer. Wiggins was 64.
D'Wayne Wiggins was born and raised in Oakland, and he started playing guitar as a child. Wiggins and his brother Raphael Saadiq founded Tony! Toni! Toné! in the mid-'80s with Wiggins on guitar and vocals, Saadiq on bass and vocals, and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley on drums, keyboards, and backing vocals. They signed to Wing Records and co-produced their 1988 debut album Who? with new jack swing masterminds Foster & McElroy. The trio's debut single "Little Walter" was a #1 R&B hit, and the LP went gold. The group produced most of their 1990 sophomore LP The Revival themselves, combining classic soul harmonies with hip-hop and dance beats. That album went platinum and sent four singles to #1 on the R&B charts. "Feels Good" crossed over and reached #9 on the Hot 100.
Over the next few years, Tony! Toni! Toné! contributed the the soundtracks of movies like Boyz N The Hood and Poetic Justice, and they reached their peak with the 1993 album Sons Of Soul, a huge commercial and critical success. That LP went double platinum, and two singles, "If I Had No Loot" and "Anniversary," went top-10 on the Hot 100. In 1995, Wiggins signed a very young Destiny's Child to his Grass Roots Entertainment and produced many of their early tracks. He also established the House Of Music studio in Oakland and collaborated with Keyshia Cole early in her career.
Tony! Toni! Toné! broke up after the release of their 1996 album House Of Music, and Wiggins released the solo album Eyes Never Lie in 2000. He remained active in the Bay Area, working on records from artists like Too Short and Messy Marv, as well as bigger pop artists like Nelly and Christina Aguilera. Wiggins also served as bandleader on DL Hughley's short-lived Comedy Central talk show Weekends At The DL in the mid-'00s.
Without Raphael Saadiq, Tony! Toni! Toné! reunited to guest on Alicia Keys' The Diary Of Alicia Keys in 2003. The group continued to tour, and Saadiq rejoined them in 2023. Below, check out some of Wiggins' work with Tony! Toni! Toné!
