![]() “I think everyone is a Babyface fan, even if they don’t know it,” says 27-year-old electronic-music producer Jam City. It’s also gone indie, with artists such as FKA twigs, Tinashe, Blood Orange and How to Dress Well nodding to his production. You only need to look at Frank Ocean, Drake or Miguel to hear Babyface 2.0. ![]() Not since the 90s has his influence been so prominent: it’s seeped into house music (Secondcity’s club smash I Wanna Feel samples Braxton’s You’re Making Me High, for example) and has become entwined with hip-hop as rappers take on R&B singing. His music has seeped into the culture of R&B, whether or not the people listening realise, and his style is once again informing the work of today’s producers. And as the 90s R&B revival continues, a new generation of fans has emerged. Now, eight years since his last studio album, Playlist, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is back with a new record, Return of the Tender Lover. Not everything he did was good, but the art of songwriting, the art of writing a ballad – he’s got it down pat.” ![]() “He started a whole genre in America of late-night R&B power ballads. “He’s the quiet-storm king,” says 1Xtra DJ Trevor Nelson, describing the genre that encompasses the tender side of R&B.
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