Teddy Riley,
Babyface Edmonds,
thank you so much for joining us on the show.
I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm flustered because
this is everything that I have ever grown up with,
have lived with, continue to live with,
I wanna jump straight into talking about
what happened the other night.
First of all it's thank you,
everyone's sitting at home,
we're trying to find ways to connect,
we're trying to find ways to
create a semblance of normal life.
You broke Instagram in a way
that it had never been broken before
having a versus battle.
How did you even begin to think of doing this together?
Who started the conversation and how did it come to be?
- Well, I stated on Instagram,
Timbaland was talking to Swizz and
the conversation kind of began of,
with L.A. and Babyface,
with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
and they were saying, "Nah, that can't happen,
I don't think Jam and Lewis would be down for it.
Maybe Babyface and L.A."
So, when they said that,
somebody sent a message and they said,
"How about Teddy Riley
battling Babyface
or Teddy Riley battling Babyface and L.A.?"
And that was the last I seen of it.
Then I get a call,
so that's--
You go. - So when I heard about it,
I didn't know about it to that extent.
And the whole idea of battling,
I wasn't necessarily for it.
Just a battle period. (laughing)
And I had to go battle Teddy to begin with.
And it was,
L.A. and Babyface because a lot of the stuff we did,
I did it with L.A. so it didn't seem right
to come in here without L.A.
'cause it was L.A. and Babyface.
And although there were some things
I might have done separate, but still.
So it became more of a thing.
I guess just commercially just sounded good
like Teddy Riley and Babyface so it was like that
but L.A. was there the whole way and it was fun
'cause like, you know, what's funny
is the preparation for it. - Yes.
- 'Cause you don't know, what's he gonna play?
(laughing)
- I got like a list of songs (mumbling).
(muffled speaking)
- Right and wrong okay and then I got my answer written
down right here and then he'd switch it up and I said
oh no, what am I gonna do now?
So, it was like, and it became a thing and just it,
the most important thing, he wanted it to feel good.
- Right.
- So it wasn't so much about beating each other.
That was part of the fun of it but it was really about
what's gonna feel good and so every time he'd play something
truly I was like a fan.
I was like, oh man, that's that one, I wish I wrote
and I think I wrote it,
I think he stole it from me actually.
(laughing)
- I said the same thing about two occasions when he put
that out first I said, oh God.
I done started out wrong.
- You know what I thought was amazing as well?
When this was announced on Instagram,
I remember thinking to myself man this is gonna be so
much fun for a generation.
I won't lie, I took for granted how much your music,
both of your music has connected so many generations,
you know because of sampling, because of remixes,
because of the feeling.
You've essentially imbued yourselves through multiple
generations of cultures.
I wonder if you yourselves were shocked to see not just
how many people were consuming what you were doing
but the vast range of people that had been influenced
by what you've created throughout your lives.
Like Babyface did you,
did you notice how young some of the people were
and just how the range, it spanned across time.
- I was shocked but I'm always shocked.
I think as a producer, writer,
it's always a great feeling when you see people
that like your music and if you see them singing
and everything but it's still when you know,
certain people come up to you and they say they know
you and they say they know particular songs it's like,
how would you know?
How could you possibly know?
From every age group and every ethnicity.
So, you don't know and
I think what happened there
was that yeah we were both blown away by the numbers
by who was trying to get in there but I think
ultimately what it meant is that people,
this is a time where you know, you need love
and you need to feel good and feeling good music
whether you're grooving or whether you're in the bedroom,
that's all feel good at this particular point
and we all want that so.
- You know what was interesting is that it felt like
you were battling but it had an element of battles
that we're, I guess maybe because battling
and hip hop are synonymous.
It didn't feel like the battles we know,
it felt more like comraderies.
It was like, you know, here's what I love that I created,
here's what I love that I created, here's something
that we feel shaped the culture and Teddy,
when I was watching you, there were truly moments
of joy on your face when Babyface would play a song
and then were moments of joy on his face when
you would play a song.
What was it like for you going down memory lane through
everything you've created and through everything he created?
- For me, I was singing all his songs. (laughing)
I was in the background, just,
here was I, I knew who I was with you know,
my kids mother at the same time 'cause we made "Let's Chill"
and I was trying to feed off of what he did
to make the songs that I made (laughing)
and that's how you know, "Let's Chill" came about
by the songs that I heard with the (mumbling)
that was before me and that was such a big influence like,
Keith Sweat reminded me, he said man, remember when
we was in the studio doing "Make It Last Forever"
and we was listening to the whole (mumbling) album
I swear to you and he said,
man why you didn't say that?
I said man, I totally, I was in a moment,
you gotta understand that I was up with Babyface like,
that's huge for me.
It's like working with Michael Jackson
and I have to say that with confidence because it was like
when I was young, I wasn't doing music like he was,
I was watching him.
It's almost like when I went to the Apollo to see
Michael Jackson for the Motown anniversary
and that's what I felt like you know.
All the people he worked with, I used to say,
dang, I wish I could work with them too.
You know and my dreams came true.
- That's amazing.
Babyface speaking of Michael Jackson,
you have one of the best effortless Michael Jackson
impersonations I've ever heard and as we're going through
the Instagram live you were telling these amazing stories
that connected us to the music and the stories
behind the music.
You know, you told the story of Michael Jackson and Madonna.
Did you ever do your Michael Jackson impression
for Michael Jackson, did he ever see you do that?
- Yes I did.
He said I sounded nothing like him.
"You don't sound like me Babyface."
He refused to call me Kenneth, said you can call me Kenny,
"no I'm gonna call you Babyface,
that's the name it should be that way, it's perfect."
Stop laughing Teddy, Teddy stop laughing.
(laughing)
- I used to try and impersonate him but
it's only when I'm trying to say what he's saying.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And I can only remember him saying,
"settle for nothing but great and
until you become great
the music is the star, until that music becomes star,
then you are"
- Wow.
- No he had some statements for sure.
- Yeah.
- Did he ever hit you with this is the one thing he
almost every time I'd sit with him he'd go,
"Babyface,
do you love music?"
I said yeah. - Wow.
- "No, no, do you love music?"
- He'd say yes, he did.
- Yes and that was his thing 'cause it was
he showed how he just loved, he really, really loved it.
It was in his, in every inch of his body
and it was a religious experience and so.
- Asking that question, just by asking that question
you know he loved music.
- Yeah.
- It felt like to me, you know, what you're saying
was a feeling we were all experiencing when watching this
Instagram live with the two of you was a feeling of love.
It was a love not just for the music but for the stories
that have been created with and around the music.
It was a love for each other as producers,
it was a love for each other as creators.
I wondered if you have ever done this before
where you've gone through your own catalog
in front of people and seen the way they react
to what you create because this was different
to like a concert.
This was a different to a tribute, this was a very
intimate experience where you yourself were saying,
this is what I love of what I've done.
This is a piece of me.
And I'll start with you Babyface because a lot of people
were intrigued by the songs you've chose.
Some people thought you would choose some of your more
number one hits, some people thought you would go with
some of the more main stream songs
but you went with songs that were deep cuts.
Is there a reason you chose what you did
and what did it feel like
to go through that journey with everyone?
- Well.
A lot of the choices were made based off of what
Teddy would play.
(laughing)
I sat with L.A. and we were going over everything
trying to figure out what's he gonna play, how's he gonna
play it and then we had to you know, be conservative
because at the same time 'cause I know he's coming
with the bangers towards the end.
The last rounds he's gonna come and he's gonna start
slapping me, I didn't know if I was gonna
make it through it, so.
The only thing that we could do is to thank,
it's not whether it's a top 10 or whether it's a number one
hit, it's does it feel good?
Does it talk to your heart?
You know, that's all you can go with you know and hope
that you're right, you know and that's the best you can do.
- And Teddy, on your side.
What was that like going through your catalog,
going through that experience with one of your icons
and your friends as, and playing it for everybody,
choosing your own music.
- Well the same.
That's why, you know, I asked Swizz can we do it this way
where he goes, I go first (laughing)
and he gonna play second 10 and that will give me a chance
to you know, it's like the NFL,
it'll give me a chance to come back.
'Cause people were like,
and I was like, I gotta stop looking at the phone.
It's like, you're down one. (laughing)
I was like, down one?
Okay.
♪ Make it last forever ♪
And it worked you know but I think it was a good,
that's why I kinda wanted to go off of him because
I wanted people to feel the experience so,
I kept playing the slow songs until I ran out,
until my mind ran out.
I didn't run out of slow songs,
I couldn't choose from this list fast enough
so that's how I went in deep and I was like,
somebody said wrong choice.
(laughing)
So, it was based off of what he played
but when it was the time I said dang, I haven't gotten into
"No Diggity", I haven't gotten into,
"Remember the Time" and a few songs they were like,
dang, he has so much more to play.
So, it's like, when you're in that moment,
you forget. - Right.
- There were a few fun moments
with the Instagram live itself.
Obviously the first one had technical difficulties,
the second one, you're doing something that Instagram
live wasn't really designed for, you're trying to get
the music right, you're trying to get your sound right.
Teddy, people were having fun talking about how you should
or shouldn't do what you're doing online.
Babyface, people were impressed at your technical ability,
everyone was just like man, this guy's not online
that much but he seems like he knows
everything about everything.
You were giving Teddy technical advice,
have you learned anything new the two of you
from what you've done?
Do you think you're gonna be online more or less?
- I don't know.
I'm just rolling with the waves you know.
I feel like we both are doing 'cause this is something new
to us and we're technical guys for sure.
- Right.
- But with Instagram it's like another world 'cause
you're talking about 15 to maybe 35,
on there so that's kinda,
we're kinda past that and you know coming on,
people appreciate us being on it.
- Mm-hmm.
- So, we're appreciated man.
Everything that we get, come our way I'm so appreciative.
- I'm with you, I think,
did I pick up anything new technical?
Well I better because you know,
I'm a little pretty stupid if I don't.
But I think that ultimately what came out of this is that,
it's so cool when you think about it
that Teddy and I, we made history.
- Yeah.
- In a time when people were needing music and needing love
we were able to deliver that and there was so many
people starving for it that,
that we couldn't get it to all of them
and that's an amazing thing, that's an amazing feeling.
So no matter what happens we can walk away,
together and look at what we did Teddy.
- Yeah.
- That's an amazing thing so I'm very happy about that.
Very proud of Teddy and while I'm here let me say that,
I've said it before but you know, I really look at Teddy
as one of the greatest producers of all time.
He came with New Jack Swinging, he changed the game.
He was a pioneer in those early days,
he came so hard and it did shake us when we saw
oh God, what's that, how we gonna do that?
I can't do that so, I'm just gonna do this
because there was no competing with what he did
so you just had to be ultimately you learned that
you had to be yourself and hopefully that worked.
But Teddy, kudos to you for having such an amazing career
and just being the producer and writer that you've been.
I'm very proud of you.
- Well thank you so much and I have to say my peace
especially with, see you guys didn't know when I left Gene
I wanted to get down with Babyface and L.A.
There was no way I could've gotten to them.
The only place I had a number on was Quincy
and he introduced me to Clarence Avant.
Introduced me to Clarence Avant I said, oh I'm getting
close to Babyface and L.A.,
maybe we can work together or I could work under them.
So, that tells you right there the respect that I have
for them and you know and they had LaFace I said, dang
maybe I could get signed to LaFace. (laughing)
- Wish we had known.
- Yeah I didn't know any executives.
I didn't know anyone after leaving, us departing.
I just knew what I had in my phone and it was Quincy
and he said I'm gonna send you to Clarence Avant's house
and that's how, it was just like a dream to me,
I said, dang I'm a get close to those guys
and I'm a get close to (glitching) Terry Lewis
'cause he was a part of their lives too.
So, that's my respect and I always say man,
you guys are amazing.
When you guys kind of just, when he went to the record
labels and you stayed writing I said dang,
maybe I could play L.A.
and work with Babyface.
I just had so many things in my head that was a dream to me
and finally a dream came true,
we worked on Bobby Brown together.
- Yeah.
I mean that was great in itself just to work together
'cause L.A. was, he was producing that with me
and that stuff was great and with L.A. it's so cool
because L.A. ended up with, moving on to become like,
one of the greatest executives.
- Yes.
- He's so underappreciated for what he actually did
from going to LaFace to Arista to Def Jam to Sony
and all the artists that he found from Rihanna
to Justin Bieber to bringing back Mariah Carey.
There's so many things that he did that as a executive,
he went out of and just kicked butt again.
So you know we can all be proud of what we've done
and what we've accomplished and the fact that we
all are here today because of each other.
- Yeah.
- That's an amazing way to put it and honestly,
the one thing I can say, I appreciated
and I was reminded of was just gratitude.
I think the one thing that struck me was not just
the amounts that you've given but the way it feels
like you have enjoyed everything you've received
so thank you to both of you.
I honestly hope you appreciate what you did for everybody,
it was one of the most amazing
experiences that I think a group of people have had together
on the internet for a really long time
and I hope it's not the last battle
'cause I know there's still a lot of songs
in that catalog so,
Babyface, Teddy Riley, thank you so much for your time today
and have a good one. - Thank you.
- Thank you for having us.