Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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When Babyface hops on a Zoom call in September, hes just wrapping up New York Fashion Week.
The fact that theyre sitting there listening to guidance from me, its kind of crazy.
And yet, he still has more to offer.
Thinking back over his accomplishments, theres not any one song, album, or collaboration that sticks out.
Rather, its the longevity of them all, rediscovered and immortalized again and again.
Most unexpected collaboration
I think when I first worked with Barbra Streisand.
That was not a person that I thought Id go in the studio with.
I ran into her at a dinner party at someones house, I thinkCarole Bayer Sagers.
I was just surprised that she was even listening to anything like that.
She said to me, Id love to work with you one day.
I thought it was lip service.
Had it been done under a different group, it wouldve been a much bigger song.
With Boyz II Men, it could have been aNo.
Az Yet just didnt catch on.
I dont know that it’s possible for you to find anybody that sings like him.
When I was initially writing the chorus, it was written for another artist.
When she came in and did it, it was magical.
And that was definitely one of those situations.
Also, I would say End of the Road with Boyz II Men.
They were one of the first groups that we worked with.
But it was written for them and when they started singing it youknewwhy it was written for them.
There was no way that I could have kept that song.
But there was also no way we had any idea of what they could bring to the table.
I dont thinktheyknew what they could bring to the table on it.
It was all brand new.
They werent doing music like that at that point.
And none of us saw that coming.
Favorite Whitney Houston vocal
Its between Exhale (Shoop Shoop) and Im Your Baby Tonight.
She made everybody want to sing shoop shoop.
Thats what made it all special.
Sometimes youre nervous cause you hope that the artist is as good as you think they are.
But Whitney was amazing.
She was great fun and she sounded even better than what we imagined.
It made the process so much easier.
It was easy to do it because she wasnt…
I guess we were just kind of vibing at that particular point and it wasnt a task.
And she just killed it.
Favorite Boyz II Men arrangement
It was a song that really wasnt that popular.
It was a silly little song called Girl in the Life Magazine.
I liked the harmonies.
It was fun to do it, but we probably shouldnt have saidLifemagazine, it should have beenVibemagazine.
Biggest difference in his songwriting approach from then to now
Approach then, I wrote by myself.
I asked the singers what they were thinking and we wrote those ideas out together.
Well, we have Summer Walker out there proving that wrong.
Theres other ways to get there, and so that gives a certain amount of independence.
They can make those decisions themselves because theyre in the drivers seat.
I think thats an amazing thing for every artist.
That wasnt a possibility ever before.
Im encouraged by that, and Im encouraged by the fact that everybody has their own voice.
I think that music has changed.
I dont think everybody thinks that it all has to be exactly the same.
There are different artists that got their vibe and they stick with it.
Im taking my daughter to go see Giveon tonight.
Its a learning experience all the time.
And it turned into this kind of gospel thing.
It wasnt like I had it all in my head.
It just came together as I put the chords together trying to tell the story.
And I actually wrote it myself.
I gavePebblesco-writing credit because I heard her say the phrase.
It was done separately.
Mariahs producer was Walter Afanasieff at the time and did most of her stuff and Whitneys was David Foster.
It was a little bit of work to get to that point.
That was just making it look like they sung together.
Favorite album to produce
I would sayWaiting to Exhalewould be that.
Because the film wasnt done, I was doing it as the movie was being made.
It was amazing because he never turned anything down.
We never got that rumble.
That was the moment where we was like,Wait a minute, we might have something here.
Biggest secret to his career longevity
I dont know.
I think keeping an open mind and listening and dont think that youre right all the time.
Then Id learned how to make it feel good to me.
R&B is definitely different today.
When you send a young artist in the studio today, they always sing behind the beat now.
Its a natural thing that they do.
I think songs today are more conversations than they are songs.
You mad and so you cant get no madder on the bridge, you already mad.
