By Bianca Sierra

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

D’Wayne Patrice Wiggins (February 14, 1961 – March 7, 2025) was an American singer, guitarist, and record producer best known as the founding member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!

Wiggins was born in Oakland, California; specifically in the Lower Bottoms neighborhood of West Oakland. He was raised in East Oakland, where he attended Castlemont High School.

Wiggins was the founding member of Tony! Toni! Toné! The group has 14 Billboard-charting R&B singles, including five number one hits, three Top Ten pop singles, one gold album, two platinum albums and one double platinum album. They sold over six million albums during their career together. In 2006, Tony! Toni! Toné! was included in the New Jack Reunion Tour line-up. The group has toured internationally since 1998 and continues to perform on tours today.

Wiggins established Grass Roots Entertainment located in his West Oakland recording studio, “House of Music”. Also in 1995, D’Wayne Wiggins developed and signed Destiny’s Child to Grass Roots Entertainment. The group went on to become a powerhouse of female performers and the best-selling girl group of all time. He worked with the group through three albums, which have collectively sold more than 15 million copies. He also worked with artist Keyshia Cole, who resided in the “House of Music” from 1999 to 2001. Cole was mentored and received guidance from Wiggins during that time and went on to sign with A&M Records. He also worked with Laurneá of Arrested Development on her release Laurnea II and collaborated with Jody Watley. His “House of Music” was patronized by artists such as Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, India.Arie, Keyshia Cole, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Money and producer Scott Storch.

In 2003, Wiggins went into the studio to work with platinum artist Alicia Keys. The title track single, Diary, made Top Ten on the Billboard charts as well as the album going platinum and winning four Grammy Awards in 2005. D’Wayne Wiggins co-produced another track on the album and performed the sitar, If I Was Your Woman, winning him a Grammy for production.

Up until his death, Wiggins continued to tour as bandleader of Tony! Toni! Toné!. In 2023, Wiggins would reunite with fellow members Raphael Saadiq and Timothy Christian Riley for the Just Me and You Tour.

On March 5, 2025, Tony! Tony! Toné! revealed on Instagram that Wiggins was experiencing medical complications and that he was “working through it one day at a time”. He died from bladder cancer at his home in Oakland two days later, on March 7, at the age of 64.