Raphael Saadiq is gearing up for a reunion of his ’80s band, Tony! Toni! Toné!. The group is gearing up for a tour and are working on a new album.
Saadiq spoke with Vulture and revealed that the album would likely come out after their tour. He also revealed that a song that was originally planned for Tony! Toni! Toné!’s album ended up going to Beyoncé.
The song? “Cuff It” from Bey’s seventh album, Renaissance.
“That record was going to be a Tonyies record,” Saadiq said, “the part that just sounds like [mimics the ‘Cuff It’ guitar riff]. But I gave it to a friend of mine and said, ‘I got this record. I was going to do it, but what about Beyoncé?’ She’s one of those people where if she’s feeling it, she’s going 100 percent in. I said, ‘It’s going to move people. It’s going to work, I’m telling you.’ I think she just put it away. From what I heard, The-Dream eventually found it. And he was like, ‘What is that?!”’ I already knew it was one of them joints. I always said, if you drop the right music on an artist, it could go, but I’m glad she has so many eyeballs on her, you know what I mean? You can’t really trick people, it’s got to be good.”
The song has since gone on to be a fan-favorite of Beyoncé‘s, earning a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance at the beginning of this year. It has also gone viral on TikTok, sparking dance challenges, and pulling in streams to bring it up to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.