“Most artists would be depressed if their project didn’t work because a lack of label support,” Rich says. “But because I had been there before, what I did was channel those frustrations and misunderstandings I had into a new record. Creativity is what brings me sanity.” — Tony Rich in 2008, in an interview with Hidden Beach Recordings.
How much is Tony Rich worth?
| Net Worth: | $10 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Singer |
| Date of Birth: | November 19, 1971 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 1.75 m |
About The Tony Rich Project
Singer-songwriter Antonio Jeffries, also known as Tony Rich and The Tony Rich Project, has a $10 million estimated net worth. The Tony Rich Project, while having a name that suggests otherwise, is essentially only one man, a singer-songwriter by the name of Tony Rich.
Earlier Years
After being referred by the production team Tim & Bob, Tony Rich started working for LaFace Records as a songwriter and producer in the early 1990s. He wrote songs for Toni Braxton, Boyz II Men, TLC, and Johnny Gill during this time, among others. He eventually climbed the corporate ladder and was offered a recording deal by Eddie Farrell, the label’s then-Vice President of A&R. His first single, “Nobody Knows,” was released in November 1995 and finally peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 100 Songs chart. The first single and album from Tony’s debut album, Words, both achieved platinum status in the United States and sold over a million copies each. Words later won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.
Future Career
Two years after his debut, he released a follow-up album called Birdseye, but no major singles came from it. Tony Rich released four albums with LaFace between 1996 and 2006, however beyond that point, he left the company citing “a lack of label support,” and joined Hidden Beach Recordings. Despite not yet being able to match the commercial and critical success of Tony Rich Project’s debut single and album, he continues to work in the music industry while occasionally taking breaks. A New Understanding of Peace, a spiritual, meditative album with his instrumentation and spoken word poetry by vocalist Sheila Evans, was released in 2006; he wrote the music for it and played guitar on it. He reappeared in 2008 with the Hidden Beach imprint and has since put out two albums there: Exist in 2008 and Speak Me in 2013.
Multi-Talented
Tony is a musician, a producer of music, and a singer. He performs a variety of instruments, including the mandolin, guitar, and keyboards. In addition, he paints, takes pictures, and writes. Tony wrote a number of short stories and poems that represent his views on life, love, spirituality, and other subjects before his 2008 album Exist was released. Both the book and Exist benefited from his usage of it.
Tony has dabbled in acting as well. In the 1997 period piece Hoodlum, starring Laurence Fishburne as 1930s crime boss Bumpy Johnson, he played bandleader Duke Ellington.
“Exist”
Tony Rich sings with a voice so angelic that you can almost imagine him playing a harp while perched on a cloud. Tony continues a tradition that he started back in 1995 with the publication of his debut single, “Nobody Knows:” by delivering sweet, romantic songs that are both gentle and strong at the same time on his most recent album, Exist, which was released in the United States on September 23, 2008. Too many contemporary R&B artists have either forgotten or never realized that there is a difference between seductive and romantic, as Tony reminds us on songs like “Part the Waves” and “It Would Be a Sin,”
Tony Rich doesn’t conflate romance and sex in his lyrics like some other musicians do. A vocalist may be sexual in their songs almost anywhere, but being genuinely romantic is a whole other ballgame. And with his fifth album, Tony (excluding a 2005 greatest hits collection) demonstrates what real love is. Take the aforementioned as an example “He sings about how much a man needs his woman in the song “It Would Be A Sin,” saying, “I’m your king my love until the end of time, I’ll defend you… What would this world be like without you, I’m so delighted you’re here? Without your rule, such suffering “His singing.
On “According To You,” Tony also thanks his partner for accepting him despite his quirks: “I’ve heard friends say they love The Kid, then criticize my crazy ways/You accept me for who I am, and you love everything I say,” he sings. Tony doesn’t thank her for dressing sexily, having a job, or being good in bed. I am a treasure, but only to you, not to others.
But just because Tony is sexily romantic doesn’t imply that he can’t also be sophisticatedly seductive in his music. He sings of a romantic encounter in the extremely sexual song “Sugar Hill,”: “All of a sudden, we were so close, magical kiss, it was surreal, sweetest taste, like a sugar hill.” Overall, Exist is about the concept of being in love as much as it is about actual love. Tony Rich strikes me as a hopeless romantic—the kind of traditional man who would cover a puddle with his jacket so that his wife might cross it. Although Tony’s voice is very beautiful, there are a few tracks when his head is so high in the clouds that the songs are a little hard to hear.
Encaustic, The Tony Rich Project’s most recent offering, was made available in October 2017. Tony Rich’s net worth is projected to reach $10 million as of 2023.
On November 19, 1971, Tony Rich was born in Detroit, Michigan. He was born Antonio Jeffries.
