Tony! Toni! Tone! Has Done it Again

I have some actual entries in the works that will be posted over the next few days (hopefully), but yesterday I decided that I really need to dedicate some of my internet space to the genius of Tony! Toni! Tone!. I was supposed to be working on my dissertation chapter when I decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich. For whatever reason, the original three T's jam "The Blues" sneaked into my head, and after rocking out a bit in my kitchen, I surfed on over to youtube to find a clip. This, of course, led me to the Tonys' song, "Whatever You Want," by far my favorite (love) song by them--yes, I love it more than "It Never Rains in Southern California," "Me and You," or Saadiq's solo joint from the Higher Learning soundtrack, "Ask of You."

This little trip in memory lane of the internet superhighway made me think how much I really love T!T!T!, and I don't talk about them enough. The Wiggins brothers and their cousin, Timothy Christian Riley made great R&B music throughout the 90s, and are thoroughly under-rated. Snippets of their early, fun and brightly-colored music videos sometimes starring sorely missed funnyman Sinbad flash in my mind as I write this. The videos, combined with their quirky sound endeared them to my siblings and me. How can 4 kids under the age of 10 resist whistling along to the sonic quirkiness of "Born not to Know"? I remember when my stepdad brought their debut, Who? home. That and EU's "Da Butt," released maybe 6 months earlier if memory serves, are the two records that work as the soundtrack for the moment in my young life when I was enduring the rather rough transition of becoming part of a blended family. Back then, I resented my stepdad for being, well, my stepdad. But whenever he played "Little Walter" I forgot to be mad at him; had it not been for T!T!T!, I'm sure my memory lapses would have been less frequent.

I grew with T!T!T!. As my ears evolved, I began to appreciate their musicianship. Though history requires that they be dubbed a New Jack Swing group, as I re-listen to their records, I realize just how much of a mischaracterization that is. New Jack sounds like a quick fix compared T!T!T!'s deliberately and precisely crafted music. I suppose a drive-thru/slow food analogy would work here, but I think you get it.

The Tonys, of course, have moved on. Dwayne Wiggins had a brief solo career. Saadiq has written and/or produced mad jams for neo-soul's [ugh] finest including D'Angelo, Jill Scott, and Ms. Badu. He formed Lucy Pearl with Ali Shaheed Muhammed (of ATCQ) and Dawn Robinson (of En Vogue). (Outside of "Dance Tonight," I never got into them. I think I just wanted them all to stay in their original groups.) Had it not been for Leave it All Behind, Coultrain's debut, and Jay-Z's appearance on the "Oh Girl" remix, The Way I See it would have been my favorite album of 2008. That said, Saadiq's "The Big Easy" is my favorite Hurricane Katrina-inspired song.

But for me, none of that stuff touches T!T!T!. Perhaps that has to do with the role they played in my young life--their music conjures memories, feelings, things I can't get back to. Everything about T!T!T!--their outfits, their hair--was so fresh, original, and fun. I wish I could've preserved that somehow. A little bottle of T!T!T! sunshine, where it never rains.