Days after drawing more than half a million music fans to Instagram Live for their “Verzuz” battle, Teddy Riley and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds explained how it all came together and what went through their minds as they brought back classic R&B.
The music legends spoke remotely with Trevor Noah Thursday night for an interview on Comedy Central’s The Daily Social Distancing Show — the virtual version of The Daily Show.
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Babyface said he spent a lot of time preparing for the music battle and even consulted his longtime collaborator, Antonio “L.A.” Reid, on what songs to play.
“A lot of the stuff we did, I did it with L.A. It didn’t seem right to come in here without L.A.,” Babyface explained.
“The most important thing was you wanted it to feel good. It wasn’t so much about wanting to beat each other, that was part of the fun of it, but it was really about what’s going to feel good,” he added.
The two battled it out Monday night, after technical difficulties forced them to cut short Saturday’s scheduled match-up.
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Riley said he enjoyed going hit-for-hit, but when Babyface played The Deele’s “Two Occasions,” he got nervous.
“I was like, ‘oh man, I started out wrong,'” Riley said he thought when he heard the chart-topping slow jam.
Noah brought up the massive technical problems that forced the two Grammy winners to pull the plug on Saturday’s battle, prompting the rematch. Then the late-night host asked if they plan to spend more time on Instagram Live after drawing such a huge audience.
“I don’t know. I’m just rolling with the waves… this is something new to us,” Riley said. “We’re technical guys, for sure, but with Instagram, it’s like another world.”
Babyface added, “We made history. At a time when people were needing music and needing love, we were able to deliver that. Look at what we did Teddy.”