By Phillip D. Johnson
“Hurt You,” Produced By Babyface And Co-written With Toni, Their First Duet Single, Hits Radio & iTunes
With an all-time total of 16 Grammy Awards® between them, multi-platinum superstars Toni Braxton and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds have teamed up for their first album of duets together, LOVE, MARRIAGE & DIVORCE, arriving in stores December 3rd on Motown Records. The album celebrates the strong bond that has been in place between the two artists ever since their duet on her smash 1992 debut, “Give U My Heart,” which was co-written and co-produced by Babyface (from the Boomerang movie soundtrack).
10-time Grammy Award®-winning recording artist Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds (www.Babyfacemusic.com ) singer, songwriter, producer, philanthropist, and record label owner, has been revolutionizing the contemporary pop/Urban music landscape since 1989; and is the recipient of numerous awards, including Soul Train Music Awards, BMI Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and American Music Awards. He received the third BET Walk of Fame Award (following previous honorees Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston), and was named BET’s Entertainer Of The Year at the First Annual BET Awards Ceremony. His charitable work has garnered him the Essence Award For Excellence, The City of Hope Award, and Variety magazine’s “Top of the Town” Honoree Award. He has donated over $100,000 to the VH-1 Save the Music program, and contributes to a host of worthwhile organizations, including the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). In 2008, Edmonds and longtime partner L.A. Reid co-wrote and co-produced Stand Up To Cancer’s “Just Stand Up” with heavyweights Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Leona Lewis, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, and Sheryl Crow. The song served as the backbone of a multi-network breast cancer awareness special broadcast. Edmonds and Reid were subsequently honored by the Noble Awards for their contribution to Stand Up To Cancer.
The distinctive, sultry voice of six-time Grammy Award®-winning recording artist Toni Braxton (www.tonibraxton.com ), singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist, have been celebrated internationally ever since she was first introduced to the world by Babyface and L.A. Reid in 1992. Her self-titled debut album released the next year was a 10 million-selling phenomenon that generated Toni’s first Grammys® in 1994, for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal (“Another Sad Love Song“). The album’s longevity led her to win her second Best Female R&B Vocal Grammy® the following year (for “Breathe Again“). Her second album, Secrets finally arrived in ’96, and history repeated itself with 15 million worldwide sales. At the Grammy Awards® in 1997, she became only the second woman in history (beside Dionne Warwick) to win Best Female Pop Vocal (“Un-break My Heart“) and Best Female R&B Vocal (“You’re Makin’ Me High“) in the same year. She returned to the Grammy® podium in 2001, to claim another Best Female R&B Vocal award (“He Wasn’t Man Enough,” from the double-platinum album The Heat).
Into the 2000s, Braxton embarked on an acting career, starring in Broadway musical roles in Beauty and the Beast and Aida, and a dramatic turn in the Lifetime movie Twist of Faith. Raising her two sons Denim and Diezel, she balances her career demands with the high priorities of family, heath, public service, and charity work, particularly with the two diseases that have impacted her family directly: She is living with Lupus and her youngest child is living with Autism. Early detection and intervention has helped both Braxtons to be role models on how to live normal lives with these conditions. Braxton is also a proud spokesperson for Autism Speaks.
The first single from the album, “Hurt You,” is presently getting radio play and is available at iTunes now. “Hurt You” was co-written by the duo (with Daryl Simmons and Antonio Dixon), and produced by Babyface, who also handled all guitar, drums, and keyboard programming on the track and was recorded and mixed by Paul Boutin at Brandon’s Way Recording in Los Angeles.
For Babyface, LOVE, MARRIAGE & DIVORCE will be his first new studio album in six years, since Playlist (released 2007), a Top 10 hit on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart based on the strength of his Top 10 AC version of James Taylor’s “Fire & Rain.” For Braxton, LOVE, MARRIAGE & DIVORCE will be her first new studio album in three years, since Pulse (2010), the #1 R&B album containing the hit single “Yesterday” featuring Trey Songz.
Both Toni Braxton and Babyface are active touring artists. Braxton is currently in the middle of an extensive East Coast tour, with upcoming shows remaining in Lincoln, RI (8/23), Atlantic City (8/24), Westbury, NY (8/25), St. Petersburg, FL (8/28), Miami (8/29), and Atlanta (8/31). Babyface has upcoming shows slated for Dallas (on 8/31) and Henderson, NV (10/11).