Babyface Outlasts Teddy Riley in Return to Verzuz Instagram Live Battle
Technical difficulties arose yet again, this time after an entertaining matchup.
After a full day’s worth of jokes, Teddy Riley and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds finally squared off on Instagram Live Monday. Riley and Babyface drew over 500,000 viewers, dueling for nearly an hour. At that point, neither producer was able to join each other’s session again.
As a bonus for fans, both Riley and Babyface continued to play their classic cuts on their own broadcasts. Per most of social media, Edmonds had already won the evening by the time he performed a live rendition of “When Can I See You.
BABYFACE!!!!!!!
Man just went acapella with just a guitar 🔥🔥🔥#throwinthetile #BabyfacevsTeddyRiley pic.twitter.com/UyccRXmYdL
— Nat (@malaikadiva) April 21, 2020
Teddy kept things competitive with classics from Blackstreet, Keith Sweat, Guy, Michael and Janet Jackson. As always, the two competitors shared stories from the eras that birthed their classics. View a full list of the tracks below.
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So this morning, Teddy Riley and Babyface went against each other on Instagram live over 500k viewers and all I can say is great music never dies. Not only did they bring back memories but they should that quality music is forever. I am not even going to pick one person pic.twitter.com/X66I42n74f— Nwaenie Nelson (@NwaenieN) April 21, 2020
READ: Teddy Riley Talks the History of New Jack Swing, Returning to Apollo & What Michael Jackson Taught Him About Music
Both Riley and Edmonds noted that Instagram said it was unable to re-join the two broadcasts. The number of viewers and the length of the broadcast was obviously a factor. However, Babyface’s own catalog, plus his work with Toni Braxton, Bobby Brown, and Tevin Campbell had Riley on the ropes.
READ: Teddy Riley Announces Beat Battle Rematch With Babyface
As always, reactions from featured artists led to some rewarding fun facts.
Tevin Campbell singing “Another Sad Love Song” would have been EPIC !! pic.twitter.com/E03tPLV9kw
— IG: JontaOHT (@jontaoht) April 21, 2020
After the connection failed with a few songs left on the board, Babyface closed things out with deep cuts from motion picture soundtracks.
The transition from Count on Me to When You Believe is amazing! Babyface remains one of my top favorite songwriters/producers! Genius! pic.twitter.com/AQ0ZXZApVe
— Stephen (@stevie7497_) April 21, 2020
A seamless transition from Whitney Houston and CeCe Winans’ “Count on Me” from the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack into Houston and Mariah Carey’s “When You Believe,” from the Prince of Egypt soundtrack solidified a win for Babyface.
