Dwayne Wiggins Has His Eyes Wide Open

03/21/2000 6:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(3/21/00, 6 p.m. ET) - Dwayne Wiggins's debut solo album, Eyes Never Lie, was scheduled for release on March 28, but has been pushed back to May 2. Wiggins says his solo effort -- as well as his brother's Lucy Pearl project and his cousin's solo ventures -- are all part of expressing the diversity of Tony! Toni! Tone! Lucy Pearl comprises Raphael Saadiq, Dawn Robinson (formerly of En Vogue), and Ali Shaheed (formerly of A Tribe Called Quest). Wiggins's cousin Timothy Christian, the third member of the Tonys, is currently working on music for film.

Wiggins talked to LAUNCH about the late Frank Sinatra's rendition of "Fly Me to the Moon," which he covers on his solo project. "Frank Sinatra was grand when he flipped something like that, but I thought me -- coming as a soul artist, you know, R & B or whatever they want to call it -- me to flip something like that is just the unexpected, and that's what my group Tony! Toni! Tone! has always been about: the unexpected."

The album features Grammy-winner Carlos Santana on the song "Move With Me"; saxophonist Najee on a remix of the project's first single, "What's Really Going On (Strange Fruit)"; Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish on a remake of Larry Graham's "Hair" titled "Music Is Power"; and comedian Jamie Foxx co-wrote and sings on the song "Let's Make A Baby."

Saadiq's Lucy Pearl album is also scheduled to drop in May. Wiggins says Tony! Toni! Tone! will probably drop a song around the holidays that will be "something to lift everybody's spirits." Wiggins said the music of Tony! Toni! Tone! "was from the heart," and added, "Our Tonys thing -- that's gonna be forever because our thing was much more than the music and the music industry. It's family and we did it from the heart."

-- Curtis Waller, New York

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