Babyface has weighed in on the debate over who should be crowned the King of R&B.
In an interview with Bevy Smith, host of SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, earlier this week, the legendary music producer was asked for his thoughts on the artist that deserved the title the most.
“It’s interesting. When you say king, what makes you king? Is it how many hits that you have or is it how many people you touch?” he asked. “You know, how many people that you give that feeling to where when they think of home, they think of R&B, and that you take them and you make them feel good. R&B’s a really hard one to figure out like a king of, even when we picked the King of Pop. And when Michael (Jackson) picked the King of Pop… it was overwhelming with the hits that he had and the songs that he had.”
Babyface, real name Kenneth Edmonds, went on to note that Usher and Chris Brown were probably in contention, though he indicated R. Kelly would have had a chance at the height of his music career, prior to his scandalous personal life and conviction on racketeering and sex offender charges.
And while he has a “connection” with Usher as a result of their work together, he refused to offer a final answer on the topic.
“It’s really hard to say because today the audiences are so different from each other, it’s not like everybody is on the same page as they were with Michael Jackson back in the day. So, it’s a little harder,” the 63-year-old continued. “I will not name a king. I will not call one, because I love all the artists and if I was gonna lean, I would obviously lean towards Usher because, you know, it’s connection. But it’s unfair for me to just do that.”