Babyface
Full Name: Kenneth Brian Edmonds
Born: April 10, 1959
Birthplace: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Occupation: Actor, Singer, Songwriter, and Producer
Profile: Received 11 Grammy Awards. Best known for
Put Your Heart on the Line.
Website: https://www.babyfacemusic.com/
Number of Quotes: 45
Adele ultimately did well in such a large way because she affects everybody, and the way that she writes seems to
be popular music, not because of her skin color but because she writes great music, and it's popular in that way.
But a lot of the old fans are listening to a lot of the younger music. So I gotta keep moving forward, and they'll move forward too.
Collaboration is about trust. If you don’t trust the person you’re working with, it’s not going to work.
From a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone on his creative process.
I could easily not be the person that people know.
I don't claim to be a great vocalist, but I know how to work my voice with its limitations. My talent is I know how
to work what I have. It might not always be a picture-perfect performance, but what we look for is the emotion.
I don't go to that many Broadway shows, so I can't really say anything.
I don't necessarily want people to know all my intimate feelings about Tracey.
I enjoy music that is commercial. I think that in order for music to be heard in a lot of different
situations, you have to always consider that. Commercial music, for the most part, is popular music, and you always
have to keep that in mind. It's not so much financial as making sure it gets the shot and is heard on the radio.
I kind of just stumbled into producing. It was more that I was a writer, and the only way you were going to get your songs done was to do them yourself.
I like people, and I like listening to them because something that'll happen out of that conversation could be the title or the subject of the song.
I still write the same way and have the same perspective.
I think it's not really difficult to write about love. We've been saying the same thing over and over for so many years. But it depends on how
honest it is and how good you make it feel. You can say I love you
in a trillion ways, and it can always sound different or feel different.
I think that in order for music to be heard in a lot of different situations you have to always consider that.
I think that whenever there's a good script we try to make that happen, but it's all based off of a
good story, a good script, but I don't believe you should do it just because it's African-American.
I usually prepare a track and then I work with the artist when it's time to do the vocals.
I was always falling in love at a very young age - kindergarten is when I can remember. There was always a crush. And
when I was in sixth grade, I started picking up guitar, so I started wanting to write about it and sing about it.
I was always too afraid to slow dance. But I do remember watching people slow dance. I
was the guy on the sidelines. At the school dance, I was usually in the band, playing.
I would say that I've been lucky. Being blessed and not really ever giving up.
I'm continuing to produce and will start a new record soon, as well.
If my life depended on being a social-media person in terms of talking myself up, I probably would be in trouble because - not that I
wouldn't be able to step up to it - but I wouldn't love it. I wouldn't want to be that person; that wouldn't be my natural thing.
It might be a huge hit, it might not; but you learn something doing it.
It's about finding great artists and being part of their careers.
It's like spicy food - sometimes you have to tone it down so more people can enjoy it.
Love hurts the most when you really love. Sometimes you think you're in love, and then you find out that you're not
because you're not really hurting. But when it's real love, then it's gonna hurt. It's supposed to hurt because it's real.
Lyrics can be important, but ultimately, what pulls people in on a song is melody and the tracks and the way music feels.
Melody is king. If the melody isn’t there, nothing else matters.
On songwriting, quoted in Billboard (2015).
Michael Jackson, he used to chase relevancy all the time. He always wanted to go a little bigger and better and keep that audience. There was never a point
where Michael was going to feel like, I've got to play the Nokia, and that's all I'm going to pull in is the Nokia.
That would not have been acceptable.
Music is the one thing that can cross all boundaries. It doesn’t care about race, religion, or politics.
From a 2017 TED Talk on the universality of music.
Music was what I always wanted to do and I was one of the lucky few to achieve my ambition and earn a living from it for which I'm very grateful.
R&B is the one thing that has influenced every kind of music. Every artist that there is, from those that are sung the most to Adele -
you know, she was so influenced by so many R&B artists and soul music - it's clear in her writing that that's where it comes from.
Some people can sing, and they can sing sing, but Brandy can not only sing sing, but she has a voice and a tone that is unlike any other.
The blessing of being able to write music and let music speak for itself is you let the
melodies and let the lyrics and the groove talk to people instead of me talking to people.
The first song I wrote was called Here I Go Falling In Love
I wrote it in the sixth grade.
The Internet is a whole new world opening up.
The most exciting thing for all of us is movies and movie stars.
The one thing about The Weeknd is that he's gone between the world of trap music and pop music
and blended them together, so it makes it interesting in that way. That's what I like about him.
The reality is, some people don't want you to change or go anywhere different.
The whole idea is whatever you do, have fun with it; try to make sure that it's quality and something you don't mind putting your name on.
The whole process of this record was an education for me as a musician.
There are people that bring artists to me to look at it and it's a question of whether I like their
music and their look and if I think there's something they have that makes them different and commercial.
There's artists that I'm working with on a new label of mine. Foxy Nova and Supa Nova.
Unfortunately, a lot of executives aren't like producers, and can't hear the diamond in the rough.
When I was in top 40 bands, I always had to learn new material and new styles.
You can find a diamond in the rough a lot of times.
You have to stay hungry. The moment you think you've made it, you stop growing.
Advice to aspiring artists, The Guardian (2018).
Last on Earth
