ArtistInfo

Babyface

key, voc,
Singer of R&B/Soul and Hip-Hop/Rap
A.k.a. Kenneth Brian Edmonds Kenneth Edmonds

R'n'B singer, songwriter, producer, label executive. (Note: when appearing with L.A. Reid, please use L.A. & Babyface) Born 10th April 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Brother of Kevon Edmonds and Melvin Edmonds, ex-husband to Tracey E. Edmonds (1992 - 2005). He has written and/or produced over 26 No.1 R&B hits and won 11 Grammy Awards. Bootsy Collins tagged him ''Babyface'' because of his cute face while he was still a teen. He was a guitarist with Manchild (9) in the late 1970s and a keyboardist with Deele till the late 1980s, a group that included his later partner L.A. Reid with whom he would build one of the most succesfull writing and producing duos of r'n'b, L.A. & Babyface. In 1986 he started his solo career and up to 2014 he had released 10 albums. He was one of the basic figures that created the new jack swing sound, producing Bobby Brown, Karyn White, Pebbles, Paula Abdul and Sheena Easton co-founding LaFace Records in 1989, with the label's early artists TLC, Usher, Toni Braxton becoming huge stars. He helped forming Az Yet and in the 1990s he produced Madonna, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton and a long series of others and in the next decades he produced Lil Wayne, Ariana Grande, even Barbra Streisand. In 1988 he duetted with Karyn White for "Love Saw It" that was included in "Karyn White" album, in 1992 he duetted with Toni Braxton for "Give U My Heart" that was included in the soundtrack of "Boomerang". In 1994 he duetted with Jon B for the single "Someone To Love" that was included in the soundtrack "Bad Boys" and in the same year he duetted with Lisa Stansfield for "Dream Away" that was included in the soundtrack of "Pagemaster", the same year he duetted with El DeBarge for the single " Where Is My Love?" that was included in the album "Heart, Mind & Soul". In 1995 he was guest of Quincy Jones along with Barry White, Portrait and Tamia for the single "Slow Jams" that was included in "Q's Jook Joint", in 1996 he had Shalamar and LL Cool J as his guests in his single "This Is For The Lover In You". In 1997 he duetted with Jay-Z and Foxy Brown for the single "Sunshine", in 1998 he duetted with Des'ree for the cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" that was included in the soundtrack "Hav Plenty" and in 2000 he duetted with Gwyneth Paltrow for a cover of Temptations's "Just My Imagination" that was included in the soundtrack "Duets". In 2001 he had Snoop Dogg as guest for "Baby's Mama" that was included in his solo album "Face To Face", in 2005 he contributed to the Luther Vandross tribute album "So Amazing", covering Brenda Russell (2)'s "If Only For One Night" (a hit for Luther Vandross in 1995). In 2007 he released the cover album "Playlist" paying tribute to some of his favourite classics (written by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, James Taylor (2), Dan Fogelberg, Jim Croce, Dave Loggins and David Gates). In 2009 he duetted with Michael Jackson for "You Are My Life" that was included in the album "Invincible". In 2014 he released a whole duet album with Toni Braxton and in the same year he recorded a cover of "Evergreen" as a duet with Barbra Streisand for her album "Partners"

Instruments

• Keyboards
• Vocals
• Backing Vocals
• Guitar
• Acoustic guitar

Genres

• R&B/Soul
• Hip-Hop/Rap
• Electronic
• Pop

Plays With