Instant Vintage

Studio album by Raphael Saadiq

Released

June 11, 2002

Studio

Various

- Blakeslee Recording Company and Track Record Studio
- (North Hollywood, California)
- Cello Recording Studio, Larabee Sound Studio East, Larrabee West Recording Studio, and The Record Plant
- (Los Angeles, California)
- Darp Studios
- (Atlanta, Georgia)
- Enterprise Recording Studio and O'Henry Sound Studio
- (Burbank, California)
- Musty Attic Studio
- (Huntsville, Alabama)
- Tek Lab
- (Cincinnati, Ohio)
- The House of Blues
- (Encino, California)
- The Mint Recording Studio
- (Oakland, California)
- The Pookie Lab
- (Sacramento, California)

Genre

R&B, neo soul, soul, quiet storm

Length

76:17

Label

Universal

Producer

Raphael Saadiq, Jake & the Phatman, Timothy Christian Riley, Kelvin Wooten

Raphael Saadiq chronology

Instant Vintage
(2002)

Ray Ray
(2004)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Blender
Chicago Sun-Times
Entertainment Weekly	B
Los Angeles Times
Spin	7/10
USA Today
The Village Voice	A–

Instant Vintage is the 2002 debut album by American R&B singer and record producer Raphael Saadiq. It was his first full-length solo album after spending much of his post-Tony! Toni! Toné! career as a session player and producer. The record was a critical success but underperformed commercially, leading to Saadiq's departure from Universal Records.

After leaving the R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, Saadiq formed the group Lucy Pearl with Dawn Robinson and Ali Shaheed Muhammad while working as a producer and session player. He then began his career as a solo artist with Instant Vintage. The album was recorded in approximately seven months with producers Jake and the Phatman and Raymond Murray, among others. During the sessions, guest contributions were improvised by Angie Stone, T-Boz, Calvin Richardson, Hi-Tek, and Saadiq's older brother, Randy Wiggins. Saadiq also produced songs for other artists at the studio during this period, including Macy Gray, TLC, the Isley Brothers, Joi, and Kelly Price.

For Instant Vintage, Saadiq drew on R&B, soul, hip hop, funk, rock, jazz, and doo-wop sounds, the end result being described by him as "gospeldelic". He also recorded string and horn arrangements onto vinyl and scratched the recordings back into the final mix, such as on the opening track, "Doing What I Can". This song also incorporated voice recordings summarizing Saadiq's credits as a member of Tony! Toni! Toné! and Lucy Pearl. The closing track, "Skyy, Can You Feel Me", was written by him the night of the singer Aaliyah's death. Saadiq later told Billboard, "I was just feeling kind of 'angel-y' about her."

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Wikipedia