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Dynastic Thoughts: D'Wayne Wiggins

Yesterday, I met with the prolific and talented D'Wayne Wiggins , who's probably best known as the guy in Tony Toni Tone not named Raphael Saadiq. Though he's a big fat rock star, D'Wayne has remained a humble, community-minded individual. He showed me his studio/office complex near Lake Merritt in the O, which he plans to turn into the Tony School of Music, a place to develop young talent--like his son's boy band Pop Lyfe.

D'Wayne's other Potentially Huge Idea is to turn Maxwell's Lounge --just about the only black-owned club still standing in Oakland's downtown--into a "Sound Stage," with live Internet streaming and both local and national acts performing. He sees the medium-capacity venue as becoming the Oakland equivalent of the Roxy in L.A. The first artist Wiggins is bringing out to test this concept is Van Hunt, the Grammy-winning soul/R&B singer, who performs April 1st. Should be a hot show--no foolin'. Ticket info is here.