Raphael Saadiq Wiki: 5 Facts To Know About The 'Ask of You' Singer

Hopefully, you have watched “Mudbound” which stars the Queen of R&B, Mary J. Blige. She’s not the only R&B artist who has contributed to the film though. You probably grew up listening to Tony! Toni! Tone! One of their band members was Charles Ray Wiggins whose stage name was and still is Raphael Saadiq. Saadiq is the singer of “Mighty River,” a song in the film. He managed to scoop an Oscar 2018 nomination for the song, and it seems that the R&B star who has worked with some of the best artists in the world is capturing the attention of people again. The 51-year-old Saadiq was born in Oakland, California and was the second youngest of his 14 siblings. Saadiq mastered the bass guitar when he was six and he began singing when he was nine in a local gospel group. When he was 12, Saadiq joined a group known as “The Gospel Hummingbirds.” Days before his 18th birthday in 1984, Saadiq heard about tryouts in San Francisco and went to the auditions. He chose the name “Raphael” and won the auditions to have a spot at Sheila E’s backing band on Prince’s Parade Tour. From that moment, Saadiq was touring the world, and his first destination was Tokyo where he went to sing “Erotic City.” They were in huge venues and had the biggest sound systems of that time. Saadiq said that his life was all about basses on the road with a bunch of models hanging around the band for almost two years. That was his university. Some of his projects are “The Way I See It”, “Instant Vintage”, “Ask of You”, and “Ray Ray.” Saadiq has performed with a band known as Stone Rollin’ and made a decent net worth.

The singer hit the studio alongside Mary J. Blige to write and record the amazing song for “Mudbound.” The film is all about two World War II veterans who are in a controversial friendship. Saadiq had not seen the film and his fellow singer, Blige, was telling him that the song wasn’t fitting perfectly. However, with the help of writing partner, Taura Stinson, they harnessed the theme. Saadiq stated that he was super excited to work with Mary J. Blige and Taura Stinson and felt blessed. Before the Oscar 2018, Saadiq had been nominated for a Golden Globe, Phoenix Film Critics Society Award, and the Soul Train Award. For the past few years, Saadiq has put his talent as a singer on films and television in Hollywood and has even created songs for the Netflix film, “Step Sisters.” He works really hard and Saadiq deserves the Oscar 2018 award.

While growing up, Saadiq witnessed some of his siblings dying. Just when he was seven, Saadiq saw his brother get murdered. Another brother overdosed on heroin and it took his life. Still, another brother to Saadiq took his life just because he couldn’t deal with heroin addiction. So many problems and bad luck in the family left Saadiq stressed out, and when he thought that the series of tragedies had come to an end, they took another route. Saadiq’s sister died as a result of a car crash after a police chase in a residential neighborhood. Saadiq tries to make his music not reflective of the tragedies he went through in life. He always wanted to show his fans that he could be having the terrible things happening in his life but not wear them on his sleeve.

Raphael Saadiq’s voice can be heard in the “Apple of My Eye,” by Rick Ross, and he is the man who taught his fans that it didn’t rain in Southern California. Well. It does but only enough rain to ‘grow cactus.’ In 2000, Saadiq had a dance song “dance tonight” that was soothing to the ears of whoever wanted to listen to it and danced to the tune, and now, he is still showing up collaborating with some of the singers and rappers in the game. Despite all this, Saadiq is perhaps the most underappreciated sigher of all time. You can hardly hear his name being mentioned among the great artists. In fact, Ja Rule’s Wikipedia is more in-depth than Saadiq’s!

Rivers have been significant in the art of music for Raphael Saadiq. The singer said that he grew up in church and usually, they sang a lot of negro spiritual songs. When he was in high school he would sing the classical negro spirituals and read about Jordan River. He would hear people sing “The Jordan River” and he was also a fan of Neil Young, who happened to use the word river. Saadiq stated that he always wanted a song that spoke about the river and Al Green’s fans had that song, “Take Me to the River,” which Saadiq loved so much. That’s why he had to make something about the river with Mary and Taura, and they actually looked at him in a funny way when he suggested that.

Raphael Saadiq has a net worth of $16 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The singer has made most of his net worth by being a singer working on projects like “The Way I See It,” “Ask of You,” “Instant Vintage,” and “Ray Ray” and has also performed with Stone Rollin’.

Saadiq has been around for a long while and he deserves to be awarded for his input on “Mudbound. Hopefully, he will win the Oscar in 2018.