RAPHAEL SAADIQ (Charles Ray Wiggins) was born in Oakland, California on May 14, 1966. He experienced the deaths of several siblings during his childhood, but says that he does not want these tragedies to be reflected in his music. He is quoted as saying, “I did it to kinda show people you can have some real tough things happen in your life, but you don’t have to wear it on your sleeve.”
He chose the name Raphael when he tried out for Sheila E.’s backing band on Prince’s Parade Tour. After returning from the tour, he became the lead vocalist and bassist in the dance trio “Tony! Toni! Tone!” as Raphael Wiggins. The other two members of the group were his brother Dwayne Wiggin and his cousin Timothy Christian. He adopted the last name “Saadiq”, meaning “man of his world” in Arabic, in order to distinguish himself from his brother. The trio broke up in 1996, and his next group, Lucy Pearl, lasted only long enough to release one album. He joined forces with musicians such as Q-Tip, EPMD, The Ummah, and Jay Dee. He received 5 grammy nominations for his first solo album, Instant Vintage, in 2002. He released two albums on his own record label, Pookie Entertainment. (His other label was celled Velma Records.) His third solo album, The Way I See It, was released in 2008 with Columbia Records. Music from this album is featured in many motion pictures and he is currently touring in order to promote it.
As a producer, he produced songs of many artists including Joss Stone, D’Angelo, TLC, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, and Otis & Shug.
His fourth studio album, Stone Rollin’, was released in 2011 with Columbia Records. It features numerous musicians and reached number four on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and also obtained position on the US Billboard 200 along with many international charts.
