Timothy Christian Riley (born December 10, 1965) is an American drummer, keyboardist, and singer best known for being a member of the multiplatinum 1990s soul/R&B group

Tony! Toni! Toné! Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American R&B/Soul band from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s to mid-1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'Wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq (born Char ...

Early life

Riley was born on December 10, 1965 in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

where he attended

Castlemont High School Castlemont High School is a public high school in Oakland, California, United States, originally known as East Oakland High School. It is part of the Oakland Unified School District. The Castlemont name was selected by a vote of the students. ...

. He is the cousin of D'wayne Wiggins and

Raphael Saadiq Raphael Saadiq (; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to prominence as a vocalist and bassist for the R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, which he formed with h ...

. He sang in choir at school and played drums at church.

Early career and Tony! Toni! Toné!

Due to Riley having an interest in music, he was chosen by his cousins to be in their band and he continued to play drums in church even after achieving fame. 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 lineup. The group has toured internationally since 1998 and continues to perform on tours today. Riley described this atmosphere of constant jamming in Rolling Stone as "like in the neighborhood, there was always competitions. I mean, it would be like school talent shows, and you'd come home from school, and there would be like five or six drummers in their houses playing. Everyone just played, and you had to stay on top of it,".

Music

Riley worked on songs for the album, '' House of Music,'' independently before recording them together as a group. Eventually, Raphael Saadiq left the band and was replaced by Amir Khalil. He and the other group members worked on songwriting and production for other recording artists during the band's hiatus, including

D'Angelo Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...

En Vogue En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the singl ...

Karyn White Karyn Layvonne White (born October 14, 1965) is an American singer who was popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s. She is known for several hit singles including "Superwoman" (1988), " Secret Rendezvous" (1989), " The Way You Love Me" (19 ...

Tevin Campbell Tevin Jermod Campbell (born November 12, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He performed gospel in his local church from an early age. Following an audition for jazz musician Bobbi Humphrey in 1988, Campbell was signed to War ...

, and

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American Hip hop music, hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip< ...

Film and TV

Riley appeared on

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

with the rest of Tony! Toni! Toné! in 1993. He served as a contributor to the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of ''

High School High ''High School High'' is a 1996 American comedy film about an inner city high school in the Los Angeles, California area, starring Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere, Mekhi Phifer, Louise Fletcher, Malinda Williams, and Brian Hooks. It is a spoof of fi ...

'', ''

A Thin Line Between Love and Hate ''A Thin Line Between Love and Hate'' is a 1996 American comedy thriller film starring and directed by Martin Lawrence in his feature film directorial debut. It tells the story of Darnell Wright (Lawrence), a ladies' man who finds himself st ...

'', ''

Pose Human positions refer to the different physical configurations that the human body can take. There are several synonyms that refer to human positioning, often used interchangeably, but having specific nuances of meaning. *''Position'' is a gen ...

'', ''

Boyz n the Hood ''Boyz n the Hood'' is a 1991 American coming-of-age hood crime drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his feature directorial debut. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube (in his film debut), Morris Chestnut, and Laurence Fis ...

'', ''Poetic Justice'', ''

House Party 2 ''House Party 2'' is a 1991 American comedy film and the second installment of the House_Party_(franchise)#Films, ''House Party'' film series. Kid 'n Play, Full Force, Tisha Campbell, and Martin Lawrence reprise their roles from the first film ...

'', ''

Jason's Lyric ''Jason's Lyric'' is a 1994 American romance film, romantic psychological drama, psychological Drama (film and television), drama film, written by Bobby Smith Jr., directed by Doug McHenry, who co-produced the film with George Jackson (producer), ...

'', and ''

Insecure Insecure may refer to: * Lack of security, in an objective sense: ** Risk ** Data security ** Computer security * Food insecurity * Insecurity (emotion), lack of confidence or self esteem Media * ''Insecure'' (TV series), a television series on ...

.''

Current projects

Riley continues to be active as the percussionist of

References

External links

*
Tony Toni Tone

Electric Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Timothy Christian 1965 births Tony! Toni! Toné! American rhythm and blues musicians Living people Drummers from Oakland, California American musicians of Nigerian descent American male drummers American keyboardists Raphael Saadiq Background artists