The Teddy Riley vs. Babyface Instagram Battle Managed To Be Too Much And Too Little All At Once!

TheRoot.com, By Zack Linly, Posted April 23rd 2020

Over 400,000 people tuned in Saturday night for what was supposed to be the much anticipated Instagram battle between two music giants but ended up being an awkward, clumsy, cringe-worthy non-spectacle that ended in the whole thing being called on account of clusterfuck and postponed….again.

The live battle between Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Teddy Riley, which was originally planned for April 12 but was postponed due to Babyface’s COVID-19 diagnosis, was a whole mess from the start. First of all, Riley must have misunderstood the assignment because the man who gave us Blackstreet and Guy also gave us audio-fail induced headaches after becoming the picture-perfect example of “doing too much.” While Babyface was appropriately just one man sitting in a studio with his phone, Riley looked like he was set up for a whole ass concert complete with stage, live drummer, multiple microphones and sound crew. And “sound” was pretty much all we got as a cacophony of echoing and reverb mixed with low audio replay filled Riley’s first three rounds of competition.

Riley eventually attempted to put everything on pause and have fans come back in a half-hour but Babyface suggested postponing the whole thing for another day.

“Tonight was really special … it’s only right that we postpone this thing and do it at a time when there aren’t any technical difficulties and everybody can hear the music the way it needs to be heard,” Babyface said via Instagram video.