Saturday, August 25, 2012

Raphael Saadiq

Charles Ray Wiggins was born in Oakland, California. His early life was marked by tragedy, he experienced the deaths of several of his siblings as a young child.

Saadiq states that he does not want his music to be reflective of the tragedies he experienced, saying that "And through all of that I was making records, but it wasn't coming out in the music. 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."
I think this is impressive.

He has been playing the bass guitar since the age of 6, and first began singing at age 9 in a local gospel group. Later, he joined a group called The Gospel Humminbirds. He and D'Angelo were occasional members of The Ummah, a music production collective, composed of members Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla. He came a long way to build a successful music career. Saadiq's critically acclaimed album, The Way I See It released a few years ago featuring artists like Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone and Jay-Z, received three Grammy Award Nominations and was voted best album on iTunes.

His fourth and latest album, Stone Rollin finds Saadiq on bass, keyboard, guitar, percussion and drums. Throughout, his falsetto remains supernatural and his songwriting successfully summons the ghosts of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. Saadiq is a classicist of the best kind, one who not only carries on tradition but expands it. Give him your love on his website.

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