The highly anticipated Instagram Live battle between Teddy Riley and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds went down on Saturday (April 18) — sort of. As thousands of people tuned in at 9 p.m. EST, it was quickly apparent things weren’t going to go as planned.
For starters, there was no sound. And while Babyface was relaxed, holed up in his studio, Riley looked like he was getting ready to recreate Essence Fest.
For nearly a half-hour, the two veteran artists struggled to execute the battle while over 400,000 people watched. All viewers could hear on Riley’s side was playback and echoes whenever it was his turn to play a song.
Needless to say, it was a flop. Ageist jokes flew with many people blaming Edmonds’ and Riley’s ages (62 and 53, respectively) for their technical difficulties. By 10 p.m. EST, it was clear the audio wasn’t operating correctly, so they stopped and instructed viewers to come back in 30 minutes — despite the audience’s objections.
Shortly after 10:30 p.m. EST, Babyface suggested it’d be better to postpone the battle.
“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,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, Twitter erupted with hilarious memes and seemingly endless jokes and “Teddy” quickly became a trending topic.
Check out some of the best reactions below.
Well, let’s be honest here. Instagram is not the best platform to do any versus battles lol. Streaming live can be difficult, especially when it lags. Twitch is better for something like this.
Yea because Rza audio was fucked up against Premo but they made it thru.
you can clearly see who’s the more confident in his musics greatness. the one who is chilling just playing music how you’re supposed to. teddy got a whole concert set up going with several mics & he just looked pathetic and insecure. just sit down and play the music.
I didn’t see it, but I wish I had. Although it wasn’t the best experience, I would still appreciate that something like this happened.
Who the hell is teddy riley
Blackstreet
One hit wonder from black street
Naw he’s way more than that. He made blackstreet and has produced for some of the biggest names in the history of music
You don’t know music teddy produced major r&b, rap and pop hits. Just because you don’t know someone personally or their work. Gotta give him credit for what he has done.
Donkey of the day right here.
You need to google the list of records he has produced. He did not assemble up and coming beat-makers and put his name on their work like the “best hiphop producer ever.”
Nigga, Teddy Riley invented new jack swing. If it wasn’t for him, there wouldn’t be 90s R&B, nor would people even know about Pharrell and the Neptunes. So basically, you get rid of Teddy and pop music is fundamentally altered for the last 20-30 years.
Put his age aside and doesn’t Babyface look damn yummy? I’d pucker up my bootyhole for him even if he had the Coronavirus. Tell Babyface to slide in a nigga DM’s 😉
All content provision, yet lack fundamental organizational skills…
Simple solution pre record. People on tv and cable channels figured this out years ago duh. You record the event on Friday. Promote it for a week and then release on the next Friday or Sat. That way this doesn’t happened you save the artist the shame of this happening to them and you save the viewers time from being wasted. Also if it’s done this way you could throw in some put together commercials for the artist if they have something new dropping. You can’t play events like this out live too many factors involved, this is not sports when things get chaotic in sports it makes for great tv entertaining. With a event like this chaotic is not good it causes confusion and frustration. I put some accountability on Babyface and Teddy also, but the event organizer need to start being more proactive with these battles.
They have to do this again dammit, one on one. Then someone get Quincy Jones vs Jam & Lewis.