Babyface (born on April 10, 1959) is the stage and recording name of R&B singer, songwriter and record producer Kenneth Edmonds from Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Born the fifth of six children, Edmonds began his musical excursions playing in local R&B bands around Indianapolis. During a stint in Bootsy Collins’ backing band, the singer earned the nickname “Babyface” for his childlike looks, however left soon after in 1977 to join the funk band Manchild who went on to release three albums together.
Around this time Edmonds met Antonio “L.A.” Reid and formed the urban funk outfit the Deele. The pair charted with a number of singles, however made more of a mark for their writing and producing for other artists with their label LaFace. The Deele split up in 1988 following the released of their third album, although continued to earn success with a string of hits with other artists including Bobby Brown’s “Every Little Step”, Sheena Easton’s “The Lover in Me” and Karyn White’s “The Way You Love Me”.
In an under-the-radar release, Edmonds issued his debut album “Lovers” in 1986, however it was his sophomore album “Tender Lover” where the singer’s solo success came to the fore. The album went double platinum and spawned the No. 1 single “It’s No Crime” and No. 2 single “Whip Appeal”. Edmonds subsequently worked and collaborated with some of the biggest artists around including Johnny Gill, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Aretha Franklin with his biggest chart success coming from Boyz II Men. Around this time Edmonds’ and Reid’s label LaFace had become synonymous with lucrative and up-and-coming artists such as OutKast, TLC and Usher.
With such esteem and critical acclaim Edmonds took a step back from his solo work in the early ‘90s, with his next album arriving in 1993 with the name “For the Cool in You” and proved an even bigger hit than “Tender Love”, going triple platinum and earning Babyface his first top-five pop hit with “When Can I see You Again” which also earned the singer his first performing Grammy for Best Male R&B vocal.
In the run-up to the new millennium Edmonds' success well and truly blossomed with his scoring and producing of the “Waiting to Exhale” soundtrack, his 1996 album “The Day”, and his production on Eric Clapton’s “Change the World”, which he won his third successive Grammy as Producer of the Year for.
With the success of “Waiting to Exhale” Edmond focussed his attention of films and created his own film production company with wife Tracey Edmonds, subsequently making their film production debut with “Soul Food” in 1997. Babyface’s next musical releases came in the form of the seasonal “Christmas with Babyface” and the compilation “A Collection of His Greatest Hits” – marking his move to Arista Records, where L.A. Reid was an executive.
Edmonds' subsequent releases and collaborations have included the albums “Face2Face” (2001) and “Grown & Sexy” (2005), as well as the soundtrack for the film “Josie & the Pussycats”, and work with the likes of Lil Wayne, Vanessa Willaims and Anthony Hamilton. All in all making Edmonds one of the most highly respected and flexible musicians and producers of the R&B genre.
Carly Pearce
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