October 31, 2000

His Greatest Hits

Babyface has more in common with the likes of Puffy than most people know...

8 / 10 The multi-award-winning, multimillion-unit selling Babyface has more in common with Sean 'Puffy' Combs and Jermaine Dupri than most people are to believe, but Babyface has never really been looked at in quite the same way. But he is a superstar.

Sure, there is that respect thing that Dupri and Combs crave, but, in terms of recognition for Babyface's solo career, it has always played second fiddle to his production and songwriting accomplishments. As one half of the award-winning writing duo LaFace, with Antonio 'LA' Reid, Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds became one of the most successful songwriters in R&B history. And LaFace was the sort of team that Combs and Dupri looked up to when they were nobodies.

Babyface & LA's knack for producing hits credible enough to be deemed R&B without alienating a pop audience has blessed the careers of Madonna, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Paula Abdul, Boyz II Men, TLC and, of course, Whitney Houston - but this collection contains 'Face's solo work, culled from his seven (yes, seven!) solo albums.

As usual, love is the theme that strings everything together; 'Whip Appeal' , 'For The Cool In You' and 'Never Keeping Secrets' are bound to bring back memories of that wicked tune you smooched to in a rave, even if you never thought much about who sang it. But it's collaborations with the likes of LL Cool J ('This Is For The Lover In You'), Eric Clapton ('Change The World') and the legendary Stevie Wonder ('How Long How Come') that really illustrate Babyface's musical versatility and talent.

Adenike Adenitire