Jazz drummer, producer and rapper Karriem Riggins was born in Detroit, Michigan on August 25, 1975. The son of keyboardist Emmanuel Riggins, he was exposed to music by watching his father perform with artists such as Grant Green. In the sixth grade, he played trumpet with the Kennedy Elementary school band. He studied with jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, also spending time studying the drums. By the time he was in eighth grade, he switched his attention full-time to the drums. While attending Southfield High School, he began producing hip-hop music, DJing, and performing in different bands. Karriem Riggins left school at the age of 17, joining Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead band. He relocated to New York in 1994 and joined Mulgrew Miller’s trio. He joined Roy Hargrove’s band in 1995, moving on to Ray Brown’s trio three years later. In 1996, Karriem Riggins met rappers Common and J Dilla. He produced and appeared on numerous Common and J Dilla albums as well as albums by Oscar Peterson, Daft Punk, Slum Village, Diana Kral, Madlib, Gilles Peterson, Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Kanye West and many others. He released Alone Together, his first album as a leader, in 2012. He followed that with 2017’s Headnod Suite, and Pardon My French (2020), which was released as Jahari Massamba Unit with Madlib. Karriem Riggins collaborated with Common and pianist Robert Glasper on the song “Letter to the Free”, the theme to the Netflix documentary 13th. The trio won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music & Lyrics.
