D’Wayne Wiggins of Tony! Toni! Toné! Dead at 64

D'Wayne Wiggins, a celebrated guitarist and vocalist and all-around champion of musical talent in Oakland and beyond, is dead.

The founding Tony! Toni! Toné! member's death was announced in a family statement shared to social media on Friday. Revealed in the statement is that Wiggins, 64, had been privately battling cancer.

“With broken hearts, we share with you that our beloved D’Wayne passed away this morning surrounded by family and loved ones,” reads a statement attributed to the Wiggins family. “Over the past year, he has been privately and courageously battling bladder cancer. Through this fight, he remained committed and present for his family, his music, his fans and his community.”

The statement continued, “D’Wayne’s life was incomparable, and his music and service impacted millions around the world, including in his hometown of Oakland, California. He was a guitarist, producer, composer, philanthropist, mentor and founding member of Tony! Toni! Tone! He was deeply passionate about providing artist development and mentorship to emerging young musicians, helping to shape the early careers of many. For now, we ask that you continue to respect our privacy. We mourn with you, and are deeply grateful for your love and support.”

While many know Wiggins from his work with Tony! Toni! Toné!, whose discography boasts multiple platinum-certified albums, has also had a decades-spanning impact on several fellow artists through his Oakland-based Grass Roots Entertainment and House of Music studio. The first three studio albums from Destiny’s Child, for example, featured production and co-writing from Wiggins.

In 2000, Wiggins released his debut solo album, Eyes Never Lie, via Universal Motown. The 13-track project saw Wiggins enlisting Darius Rucker, Najee, and Carlos Santana.

A full-fledged Tony! Toni! Toné! the reunion tour came more recently, in 2023, the same year the group’s third album Sons of Soul turned 30. The album achieved double platinum status off the strength of five singles, including the Grammy-nominated “Anniversary.”

The group scored a second Grammy nomination in 2004 thanks to “Diary,” a song off Alicia Keys’ The Diary of Alicia Keys album, which counted Wiggins among its assembled producers alongside Timbaland, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and more.

“All of our songs start out with guitar, basically,” Wiggins said of the songwriting process behind the group's hits in a 2019 interview. “That’s how it stays classic R&B.”

In the same interview, he noted that the group—the classic lineup of which also featured his brother, Raphael Saadiq, and cousin Timothy Christian Riley—carried around a “hook book’ early in their career. In it, Wiggins said, he would jot down phrases and ideas as they came to him, citing “It Never Rains (in Southern California)” as an example of a song that started this way.

RIP.