Boyz II Men lead singer Wanya Morris shares the story of how their biggest hit with Babyface “I’ll Make Love To You” Almost Didn’t Happen.
If you asked singer-songwriter Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds how he ended up writing 125 Top 10 hits, 45 #1 R&B hits, 16 #1 pop hits, and contributing to more than 800 million records sold and over 800 billion streams he will tell you that he doesn’t even remember writing all of those songs. The only thing he knows for sure is that he loves music and it was the one pure thing he knew that he could do and he did it with all of his heart. “Do it from the heart, you always do it from the heart. That’s the main thing that keeps you going and I don’t know where and when I wrote all them damn songs – I don’t, I can’t really tell you,” he shared in a room filled with his musical peers, admirers, and the next generation of musicians that he inspired.”
The special occasion was the 2024 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards held this past Thursday in Beverly Hills, California. There, legendary singer-songwriter Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds received the 2024 BMI Icon Award. Having 63 BMI awards throughout his career, Babyface cemented himself in music history books as one of our time’s most sought-after songwriters and producers. He was celebrated alongside BMI 2024 Champion Award Winner SZA, Fred Jerkins III, LunchMoney Lewis, Donnell “Don P” Prince, and many more.
BMI Assistant VP of Creative, Wardell Malloy, whose pride and joy in life is the experience of working with and nurturing amazing talent shared that his favorite Babyface song is Sunshine. “It’s not about the singing for me, it’s about the B side. For me what I look for in an artist is timeless talent. I’m not really a trendy kind of guy. I like talent that’s going to be around for a very, very long time… Who’s more deserving of a songwriter award than Babyface? His catalog speaks for itself, not only as an artist but stuff that he’s done for other artists. It’s time, it’s perfect timing,” said Malloy.
And perfect timing it is. This year he won his 13th Grammy for “The Best R&B Song” when he co-produced and co-wrote the mega-hit “Snooze” alongside SZA. His latest single “As a matter of fact” just hit #1 on the Billboard Adult R&B Airplay chart. Throughout his career which has spanned nearly five decades he has been consistent, devoted to his craft, and continues to create music that establishes emotion and connection. He has distinguished himself and his mark is indelible.
As BMI’s President and CEO Mike O’Neill explained to the audience “Let me talk about radio for example. You know what it takes to have a million performances on radio? It’s amazing! Babyface has 19 songs with over a million performances on radio. He’s got 4 songs with 2 million performances on radio. 7 with 3 million performances and his song “I’ll make love to you” has over 4 million performances. When you think about this, only 31 songs that they’re accumulated 32 million performances. I want to put that in some context for you – a radio station would have to play these 31 songs back to back, 24 hours a day with no commercials for over 3 centuries to hit that number. It’s amazing! Crazy stats.” He broke it down to them in layman’s terms so they would understand the scope, relevance, and power of Babyface’s impact.
He will always be known for writing hits for some of the greatest-selling artists of all time like Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Little Wayne, Beyonce, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Bruno Mars, Mary J. Blige, and Jay-Z to name a few. On the red carpet, Wayna Morris of Boys II Men shared a story about how their biggest hit Babyface wrote for them “I’ll Make Love To You” almost didn’t happen – that’s if Boys II Men had the final say so. Morris described the experience of working with Babyface as amazing before spilling the beans, the long story made short, about how their biggest hit with him almost never happened. “Oh my goodness! We didn’t want to do it [I’ll Make Love To You] because we thought that it was just like “End Of the Road” and the record company told us “You do what we tell you to do, this is the record!” And we actually did it then lo and behold it was the record. So we apologized to our label.”
“I’ll Make Love To You” spent 14 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 and ranked on Billboard’s Greatest All-Time chart. It was also the third-best-performing song in the 1990s on Billboard. But his success, career milestones, and highlights were, and still are far from over. He has won 13 Grammys and is the only producer to win Producer of the year 4x’s. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Apollo Theater just inducted him into their Walk of Fame and honored him with their inaugural Legacy Award. BMI has showered Babyface with accolades over the years having given him a staggering 63 BMI songwriting awards. BMI has also named him top songwriter of the year seven times and in 2006 honored him and LA Reid as Icons as the co-founders of LaFace Records.
R&B singers Mario and Tamar Braxton performed for the crowd before Babyface took the stage to accept his award. Everyone jumped to their feet as Mario sang Tevin Campbell’s hit single “Can We Talk” and Tamar sang Karyn White’s “Superwoman” – both songs written and produced by Babyface himself. But it was Babyface’s performance of “Whip Appeal” that brought everyone to their feet as they raced towards the stage to watch the icon entertain them up close and personal. He danced and grooved on that stage as they held up their cellphones to video record the live performance. The reels, IG stories, and video footage of his BMI Icon Award performance spread across various social media platforms like wildfire – it’s a fire they may never be able to put out.
For more information on Babyface, follow him on IG @babyface.
*Cover Photo Credit: Getty Images
