PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS… TONEX
Gospel artist Tonex releases eclectic new disc.
Presented by Electronic Urban Report.
Recording artist Tonex (pronounced tone-nay) remains a genre mystery, wrapped in a puzzle, inside an enigma. The singer released “Unspoken,” his Battery Records debut disc just last month and is still uncategorized and undeniably eclectic.
The album is laced with inspirational R&B-pop-alt rhythm tracks underneath motivation message driven lyrics. Describable in a mass of verbiage, but indefinable in traditional gospel sorting, is just what makes Tonex one of today’s most important artists.
The new disc comes on Sony’s newly formed RCA/Jive label group imprint Battery after much label shuffling and record company controversy for Tonex.
His fame grew in 2004 (he’d been recording since 1994) when his double CD “Out The Box” debuted at #1, snagged six Stellar Awards, and garnered the most critical acclaim, but that same year, the industry took its toll on the artist. He was sued by his then label, Verity Records – the gospel arm of Zomba Records, for one million dollars for breach of contract. That year, his father passed away and he divorced his wife. Frustrated, TON3X decided to retire from the gospel music industry. An attempt to reconcile with his label came in 2007, but the relationship was never fully repaired, and he split from the label just three months later.
Since then, the artist has gone through some souls searching and variations in spelling his name – though always pronounced the same.
“Tonex is a derivative of Anthony. Everybody called me ‘Tony’ in school, but I spelled it with an ‘e’. Then [R&B group] Tony Toni Tone came out, so I knew that wasn’t going to work whenever I decided to come out as an artist, so I added the ‘ex’. So the ‘x’ is silent; part of a French swing to it. I think there is a little ‘ex’ something in all of us,” he said. “There is something that…
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