T.O.N.E.-z is an American musician, rapper, and actor most known for his Emmy nomination for the theme song to FX Network drama series “Justified,” produced by Gangstagrass, in the original main title theme music in 2010. The aforementioned theme song, “Long Hard Times to Come,” has gained 1.5 million views on YouTube. The music video was featured on the season 1 DVD of “Justified,” which sold over 1,000,000 units.
T.O.N.E.-z previously used the alias Style and signed with Select Records, whose acts included the likes of Chubb Rock, Kid N’ Play and M.O.P. His first release was entitled “In Tone We Trust,” additionally releasing two singles, “The Assassinator” and “What a Brother Know”. After splitting with the record company, he dropped the Style moniker and officially took the name T.O.N.E before morphing into T.O.N.E-z.
Crossing over into acting, the rapper had a recurring character in season 4 of “Justified,” portraying a henchman named Barnes for villain Limehouse, played by veteran actor Mykelti Williamson. T.O.N.E.-z’s September 2014 feature length album would feature a collaboration with “Justified” season 5 actress Alicia Witt called “My Baby Girl,” a real life account of T.O.N.E.-z and then-girlfriend’s miscarriage.
Along with Gangstagrass, T.O.N.E.-z has accumulated roughly 332,536 in combined single sales as well as 64,859 in combined album and EP sales. They have gone on to have music featured on the biggest networks from MTV (“Buckwild”) to Fox (“Bones”) to The History Channel (trailer of “Appalachian Outlaws”) and on UFC on FOX.