Raphael Saadiq Signs With Forward Artist Management

Raphael Saadiq has signed with Ahead Artist Administration, Billboard has realized solely. The brand new settlement with the Los Angeles-based agency follows within the wake of the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter-producer’s newest success: co-writing and co-producing Beyoncé’s first Sizzling 100 No. 1 nation single, “Texas Maintain ‘Em.”

Ahead Artist Administration head Tyler Childs tells Billboard, “Raphael is one-of-one. He’s been making historical past, creating a few of the greatest musical moments of the final 30 years. He continues to jot down and rewrite the playbook on what an elite artist, producer, songwriter and inventive is. The whole FAM crew is thrilled to help him and excited to get to work.”

Along with “Texas Maintain ‘Em,” Saadiq co-wrote and co-produced Beyoncé’s concurrently launched nation single “16 Carriages.” He additionally gained one of the best R&B tune Grammy final yr for Beyoncé’s “Cuff It,” which he co-wrote and produced for her most up-to-date album Renaissance. A founding member of seminal R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné! — which reunited in 2023 for a sold-out nationwide theater tour, its first in 25 years — Saadiq has labored with a various slate of celebrity artists throughout his prolonged profession. That roster contains Stevie Marvel, Whitney Houston, Usher, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige and Solange.

His newest venture as a solo artist was 2019’s Jimmy Lee. He additionally co-wrote the Academy Award-nominated tune “Mighty River,” from the movie Mudbound, with Blige and Tara Stinson. Saadiq is represented by Tim Mandelbaum of Fox Rothschild.

Ahead Artists’ Childs additionally manages RZA and The Wu-Tang Clan, who launched the first-ever hip-hop residency at The Theater at Virgin Inns Las Vegas final month with two extra dates scheduled for March 22-23. Further Ahead Artist purchasers embrace Benjamin Booker (managed by Jacob Greene), Tyler Cole and Sarah Cothran.

Previous to Ahead Artist Administration, Childs served as vp of A&R/inventive at Sony ATV Music Publishing. Whereas there, he labored with artists and songwriters comparable to Ilsey Juber (Panic on the Disco’s “Excessive Hopes,” Shawn Mendes’ “Mercy” and Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus’ “Nothing Breaks Like a Coronary heart”), Stroll the Moon (“Shut Up and Dance”), Think about Dragons (“No matter it Takes”) and Pitbull that includes Ne-Yo (“Time of Our Lives”). Different artists that Childs collaborated with embrace Clairo, James Blake and Tegan and Sara.