Saadiq: straight to the source

“It’s not retro if you came from it.” Raphael Saadiq was on the phone a few weeks back, explaining why his Motown-sound-celebrating new album The Way I See It isn’t really a leap. One would be tempted to believe a guy with such a varied and illustrious track record. Saadiq, born Charlie Ray Wiggins in 1966, got his start as part of late-’80s, early-’90s R&B/new jack swing band Tony! Toni! Toné!, alongside his brother Dwayne Wiggins and cousin Timothy Christian. He went on to become one of the most respected producers in R&B and hip-hop, making tracks for everyone from A Tribe Called Quest to D’Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu and Mary J. Blige. More recently, he produced British soul starlet Joss Stone’s entire 2007 album Introducing Joss Stone. Along the way, he founded late-’90s supergroup Lucy Pearl, with A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad and En Vogue’s Dawn Robinson, and released three strong solo albums. But this is different. This time Saadiq pulled out all the stops, did away with half-measures and contemporary references (except for the Jay-Z cameo on the Oh Girl bonus remix at album’s end) and went straight to the source. The Way I See It could easily be mistaken for a collection of lost Smokey Robinson tracks. Yet Saadiq insists it was business as usual. “I’ve always gone back,” said the man who called his multi-Grammy-nominated 2002 solo debut Instant Vintage. “I never made a record that didn’t go back. I just went back so noticeably this time. ”In other words, it’s not so much an artistic divergence as a look within. For Saadiq, turning to soul music’s past meant sharing an integral part of his own, and of his present. “It’s the music I keep ordering up, my whole life,” he said. “From every format – cassette, CD or digital download – it’s the music I always ride to in my car.“When I got up this morning, I listened to Aretha Franklin, Spanish Harlem. It’s sunny outside and I find myself smiling and jamming to Spanish Harlem. It’s what moves me. I just wanted to show people what’s really behind me, what I really do, better than anything you ever heard me do.”Though the album’s throwback sound may be a surprise to listeners, it was anything but for the singer-songwriter-producer, who knew he had it in him all along.“It’s like that kid outside playing with his friends,” he said, “who wants everyone to think he’s cool, and don’t tell everyone he’s really a math genius. I’ve been playing music, hitting here, there, doing this, doing that. But I can really jump in a suit and a skinny tie and go all the way there.“I’ve always had this dream that I should have been born way sooner and been (surrounded by) those other musicians instead of being with the musicians I’m with today.” SOURCE:THE GAZETTE