Raphael Saadiq

Raphael Saadiq Teased A Tony! Toni! Toné! 2023 Reunion Tour And Fans Are Incredibly Overjoyed

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Raphael Saadiq 2021
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Raphael Saadiq is having a productive year so far, taking a prominent hand in producing Beyoncé’s 2022 triumph Renaissance (and should have shared in an Album Of The Year victory, according to most people) and Daniel Caesar’s forthcoming Never Enough, including Caesar’s February single “Do You Like Me?”

Incidentally, Saadiq shared news yesterday, March 22, that people are liking a lot.

The two-time Grammy winner (and 18-time nominee) — and one-time Oscar nominee for his musical contributions to Mudbound, and he’s also composed for smash series like Insecure, Lovecraft Country, or the newly premiered Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur, if you needed any more proof that the phrase multi-hyphenate was coined on the back of him — announced the Just Me And You Tour is scheduled for this year.

The photo features him sitting alongside his brother, D’wayne Wiggins, and his cousin, Timothy Christian Riley, which teases, “Raphael Saadiq Revisits Tony! Toni! Toné!”

The Instagram post was flooded with comments. John Legend wrote, “Ok I’m there!” Questlove chimed in with, “Man y’all Better Stop Playin Wit My Emotions—this better be REAL.” Bun B, Joe Budden, Lena Waithe, and Keri Hilson also expressed their bewildered excitement.

Identical billboards were spotted around Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California, and Saadiq posted to his Instagram Story, “For more info about Tour Dates Text Me Now @ (310) 861-2685.”

Tony! Toni! Toné! last put out an album in 1996 with House Of Music before their 1998 split. In June 2019, Saadiq foreshadowed a reunion while on Sway’s Universe and doubled down on it with NME that August.

“I’ve been working on new Tonys music for about 15 years,” he told NME. “I just felt like we should do something, a few songs, maybe seven or eight of them and then do a few shows. So I’m not gonna be back-back because I have way too many things going on, but as far as doing a tour and an EP or something, I’m down for that. I’d actually like to perform the very last record we did together, House Of Music. We never toured that record, so if everyone is up for it, I’d like to do that and put out three new records.”

Oh, they’re up for it.

See some of the best reactions below.

Daniel Caesar Shows The Ugly Side Of Love In His Heated ‘Do You Like Me?’ Video

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Sometimes, loving someone is easier than liking them. Daniel Caesar addresses that complicated conundrum in his new single “Do You Like Me?” The 2023 Juno Awards nominee produced the romantic, slow-burning track with Raphael Saadiq and Dylan Wiggins, and the Machine Operated-directed video arrived today, February 1 — just in time to soundtrack myriad messy Valentine’s Day situations.

In the video, Caesar walks into an apartment as a woman is burning a photo of them together. They immediately launch into a heated argument, subtitled in Portuguese. She questions Caesar over where he’s been and demands an explanation. Caesar doesn’t understand why she’s so upset because he was just working, but she isn’t buying it.

Based on the song’s lyrics, the couple has questions looming larger than Caesar’s whereabouts. “Do you like the way I talk to you?” Caesar sings in his signature smooth high register. “Do I titillate your mind?”

By the time the woman storms upstairs, Caesar gets straight to the point: “Do you really like me? / Yeah, we’re still young, but for how many moons?” He wants to find true love despite the risk, and he owns up to his past shortcomings (“At first I was f*cking your friend / But I wanted you”) with hope that he can still have it all in the future (“Will you have my kids? You better / I wanna be in love again”).

The video progresses to the bedroom, where Caesar is still pleading his case. The couple seems to be at an impasse, and Caesar is left alone — looking very tortured by whatever is running through his mind — while she’s in the shower.

“Do You Like Me?” follows “Please Do Not Lean” featuring Badbadnotgood from last April. It marked his first solo release since 2019’s CASE STUDY 01. “Please Do Not Lean” is nominated for Traditional R&B/Soul Recording Of The Year at March’s Junos. All in all, momentum is (hopefully) building toward Caesar’s highly anticipated third studio album.

Watch the video for “Do You Like Me?” above.

Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance’ Album Is Said To Be Heavy On Both Country And Dance Tunes

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Classifying Beyonce’s massive discography of music into any specific genre is a mostly fruitless exercise (which didn’t stop us from trying in 2020) because the versatile star is constantly evolving and experimenting, refusing to be kept to just one box or genre. That musical dabbling will apparently continue on her upcoming new album Renaissance; Variety reports that the album will see Beyonce leaning more heavily into the country direction she flashed on her last full-length album Lemonade in 2016, as well as incorporating more “dance” music — although that’s a broad category which could figure in a lot of musical directions.

A source familiar with the album says that Bey has tapped Ryan Tedder, whose past contributions to her oeuvre included the angelic “Halo,” and neo-soul demigod Raphael Saadiq, who deserves far more credit for both his production work and his own extensive catalog. Since the surprise announcement for the album labeled the collection due on July 29 “Act 1,” that could be an indication that the album will either be released in parts or will be a “multi-disc” affair, in which case the songs could be organized by similar sounds.

In British Vogue‘s cover story about the album, editor-in-chief Edward Enninful describes being “transported back to the clubs of my youth,” which suggests a possible house, ball culture-inspired sound — which would be timely, since drag is enormous right now, with all kinds of artists tapping the sound of the underground subculture. It’s also big on television thanks to competition shows like Legendary on HBO Max. In any case, this is all just speculation until the album actually drops, but one thing is for sure: The Beyhive will be going crazy ’til then and Beyonce remains one of the biggest stars on the planet.