 As a singer, producer, and songwriter,
Babyface was an inescapable presence in virtually every major facet of pop
music during the '90s. His own recordings helped rejuvenate the
R&B tradition of the smooth, sensitive, urban crooner and made him a staple of
urban contemporary radio. Yet their considerable success was eclipsed by his
songwriting and production work for other artists, which linked him with some of
the biggest stars and hit singles of the decade (and not just in the realm of
R&B). You'd be hard pressed to name a '90s hitmaker with a track record more
consistently successful and versatile than
Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds.
Kenneth Edmonds was born April 10, 1959, in Indianapolis and began playing
in local R&B bands as a teenager. He served a stint in
Bootsy Collins' backing unit (where he earned his nickname) and subsequently
joined the funk outfit
Manchild, which signed a record deal in 1977 and released three albums.
After their breakup,
Babyface and partner
Antonio "L.A." Reid formed an urban funk group called
the Deele in the early '80s, which scored a few sizable hits on the R&B
charts.
Babyface and
Reid began producing and writing for other artists on the side, landing hits
in
Pebbles' "Girlfriend" and
the Whispers' "Rock Steady"; following
the Deele's third album in 1988, the duo left to continue their outside
activities full-time, co-founding the LaFace label in 1989. Further hits
followed in
Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step,"
Sheena Easton's "The Lover in Me," and
Karyn White's "The Way You Love Me" and "Superwoman," all of which performed
well on both the pop and R&B charts.
Babyface had actually recorded a little-noticed solo album in 1986, titled
Lovers, but with his newfound success having marked him as one to watch, his
solo career now began in earnest. Released in 1989, Tender Lover caught fire,
spinning off four singles over the next year, including the R&B chart smashes
"It's No Crime" (number one) and "Whip Appeal" (number two; both also reached
the pop Top Ten); the album also went double platinum. Now firmly established as
a powerhouse,
Babyface went on to co-write hits for
Johnny Gill ("My, My, My," nominated for the Best R&B Song Grammy),
Whitney Houston ("I'm Your Baby Tonight"), and
Madonna ("Take a Bow"); his biggest success, however, came with
Boyz II Men, whose recording of "End of the Road" became one of the
longest-running number ones in pop history (the
Babyface-penned follow-up "I'll Make Love to You" was also pretty successful
in its own right). He was co-nominated for an Album of the Year Grammy for his
production on The Bodyguard soundtrack and went on to work with artists like
Celine Dion,
Mariah Carey,
Gladys Knight,
Aretha Franklin,
En Vogue, and
Mary J. Blige. As if that weren't enough, LaFace had become a highly
successful and lucrative imprint, breaking artists like
Toni Braxton,
TLC,
OutKast, and
Usher (often with input from
Reid and
Babyface).
It's no wonder
Babyface wound up taking a break from his own career as a singer during the
early '90s, releasing only a remix album, A Closer Look, in 1991. The proper
follow-up to Tender Lover didn't appear until 1993; even so, For the Cool in You
was an even bigger hit than its predecessor, going triple platinum and producing
Babyface's first Top Five pop hit, the change-of-pace acoustic guitar ballad
"When Can I See You Again" (which won him his first Grammy as a performer for
Best Male R&B Vocal). In 1995, he scored another major success with the Waiting
to Exhale soundtrack, not only producing it but scoring the film itself and
writing nearly all of its songs, including the
Whitney Houston smash "Exhale (Shoop, Shoop)." The same year, he won the
first of three consecutive Grammys as Producer of the Year. Successes just kept
coming in 1996; the guest-laden album The Day spawned another Top Ten pop/R&B
hit in "Every Time I Close My Eyes," and he solidified his crossover credentials
once and for all by winning a Grammy for Record of the Year as producer of
Eric Clapton's "Change the World."
Encouraged by the success of Waiting to Exhale,
Babyface and his wife, Tracey Edmonds, formed their own film production
company, which debuted in 1997 with the acclaimed urban family comedy/drama Soul
Food (Babyface,
naturally, masterminded the soundtrack). The next year, he contributed lyrics to
the animated musical The Prince of Egypt, which went uncredited on the
soundtrack album. With the movies taking up more of his time, his next musical
releases were quick one-offs: an MTV Unplugged album in 1997 and the seasonal
Christmas With Babyface the next year. His production and songwriting activities
continued, though he remained silent as a performer for a few years. In 2000,
Epic released the best-of compilation A Collection of His Greatest Hits, marking
the end of his tenure with the label; he had elected to move to Arista, where
L.A. Reid was now a high-ranking executive. In 2001,
Babyface released a new album, Face2Face, and also produced the punk-pop
soundtrack for the film Josie & the Pussycats. The back-to-basics Grown & Sexy
came in July 2005. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
Babyface for your next corporate or private event.
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