The Twilite Tone

The Twilite Tone is the primary stage name of Anthony Khan, a Grammy-nominated producer, musician, vocalist, and DJ from Chicago who has been deeply involved with his city's hip-hop and house scenes since the late 1980s. A longtime associate of Common, he produced much of the rapper's work throughout the 1990s, and subsequently worked with artists such as Kanye West, John Legend, Gorillaz, and My Brightest Diamond. He made his full-length solo debut with 2020's The Clearing, an exuberant blend of synth-funk, instrumental hip-hop, fractured house, and sci-fi themes. Anthony Khan was born in Chicago in 1971. His cousin is jazz bassist Richard Davis, and his uncle, Hassan Khan, was briefly married to Chaka Khan in the early 1970s. He learned to play trumpet and percussion while in grade school, and was a drum leader in high school band. At the end of the 1980s, he began working with producer Ernest Dion Wilson (later known as No I.D.) and rapper Lonnie Rashid Lynn (Common), forming the hip-hop trio C.D.R. Khan and Wilson also produced house tracks together as 1015. As the Twilite Tone, Khan produced nearly all of Common's 1992 debut Can I Borrow a Dollar? (released when the rapper was known as Common Sense). Khan's first recorded appearance as a vocalist was on Common's 1993 B-side "Can-I-Bust." He additionally contributed to Common's subsequent albums Resurrection (1994) and One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997), going by the pseudonym Ynot. He produced a rap track titled "Get the Doe Theme" in 1999, and remained busy as a DJ, mixing a promotional CD for The Fader Magazine in 2002. After relocating to New York, Khan produced two tracks on Wu-Tang Clan rapper U-God's 2009 album Dopium. Khan released a few dance singles as Great Weekend; a left-field house EP titled Mean Machine, credited to Great Weekend Presents the Twilite Tone, was released by UNO in late 2011. He co-produced and co-wrote tracks on Kanye West's 2012 GOOD Music compilation Cruel Summer (including the Grammy-nominated, double platinum-certified single "Mercy"), Big Sean's 2013 album Hall of Fame, and John Legend's Grammy-nominated full-length Love in the Future, additionally contributing to "Nosetalgia," the Kendrick Lamar-featuring track on Pusha T's My Name Is My Name. In 2015, the Twilite Tone produced "Put the Guns Down," an anti-violence track featuring verses by several Chicago rappers, including Common, Noname, Saba, and G Herbo. He also released a single on Ubiquity titled Special High, in tribute to the 1980s funk studio project Twilight. The Twilite Tone's 12" single "Taxi Cab Confessions" was released in 2016. Khan co-produced every song on Gorillaz's 2017 album Humanz, including the Grammy-nominated single "Andromeda" (featuring DRAM). He also co-produced My Brightest Diamond's 2018 full-length A Million and One. In 2020, the Twilite Tone signed to Stones Throw and released his genre-blurring debut solo album, The Clearing.
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