Toni and her sisters (Traci, Trina, Towanda and Tamar) formed the group The Braxtons in the late 1980's. The group signed with Arista Records in 1990 and released one single called "The good life" which flopped. The Braxtons got a second chance when Arista let them audition for a new record label called LaFace Records. During the audition Toni was noticed by producer Kenneth "Babyface" Rogers who made it clear that he wanted to do a solo project with Toni alone. She was the first female artist signed to the label and two singles were recorded.

Toni's debut LP simply entitles "Toni Braxton" was realeased in 1993. The album earned many awards and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Toni's second album entitled "Secrets" was released in 1996. This is what she said about the album: "The motivation for this album was to include a little bit of everything. Our aim was to come up with material that would have a familiar 'feel' to the people who bought the first album without being musically redundant. For the first time Toni was also  co-executive producer and co-wrote two of the songs.

Following the success of her two albums which sold more than 26 million copies worldwide Toni went into a dispute with her label (LaFace), demanding more money. It was reported that Toni receieved far less per sold album than most artists of her status would. She stated that if the demands were not met she would no longer be recording for the label. In January, 1998 Toni filed for bankruptcy in the U.S Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.

Music industry pundits believe that the core reason she filed was so the bankruptcy court would void her existing agreement with her record label. LaFace countersued for breach of contract. A bankruptcy judge ruled in Braxton's favor by denying the dismissal of the claim (as filed by her record label). Braxton has said of the lawsuit: "I can't talk about the suit, but I love those guys very much. It's just business."

In early 1999, Toni and LaFace resolved their legal conflict. Issued with a brand new contract worth a reported $25 million Toni continued recording for the label. In april of 2000 her third album "The Heat" was released.

On April 21st, 2001 Toni married Kerry Lewis (from the group Mint Condition) whom she had met back in 1997. While gearing up for the release of her fourth studio album, Toni discovered she was pregnant with her second child. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to promote the album properly, she unsuccessfully lobbied to get the label to postpone its release until after she was to give birth. Subsequently, "More Than A Woman" was released as planned and received very little promotion from the label or Toni herself, due to a complicated pregnancy that confined her to bed rest. Toni accused the company of being unwilling to compromise and punishing her from not putting her career over family.

On december 2, 2002 Toni gave birth to her first child, a son named Denim Cole Braxton-Lewis.

In April 2003, Braxton abruptly left Arista Records, having been there for fourteen years, and immediately signed with Blackground Records, headed by Barry Hankerson, her manager at the time. The change of scenery, however, did not ultimately help her recording career. As had been the case during her final years at Arista, Toni's fifth album, "Libra" was released with scant promotion and accumulated poor sales.. 


Right before "Libra" was released Toni gave birth to her second son, Diezel Ky Braxton-Lewis. In 2006 he was diagnosed with autism.

Early 2007, Toni filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Barry Hankerson for $10 million, alleging "fraud, deception and double dealing" in the matter of mismanaging and destroying her relationship with Arista Records. According to Toni, Hankerson placed his own personal financial interests ahead of hers during the management of her recording career by using "underhanded double-talk" to compromise and destroy her relationship with Arista Records to lure her to his Blackground label. It was also announced that Toni would be parting ways with Blackground Records after just one album. The suit has been settled