After captivating 4 million viewers during his and Teddy Riley’s Instagram Live battle, Babyface will return to the social media platform this Mother’s Day (May 10) to play the famed soundtrack from the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale, which he wrote and produced.
“There were so many people on Instagram Live that wanted to hear music from the Waiting to Exhale [soundtrack] and so I thought this would be great, Mother’s Day, to play the Waiting to Exhale album, to tell stories, tell how it all happened and talk about the artists,” the legendary producer said during a virtual interview with “The View.” “Because that was half the fun of it all in doing the Instagram Live was being able to tell stories and tell things people were so interested in that, so I thought it would be fun to do as well.”
The seven-times-platinum soundtrack features appearances from Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, TLC, Brandy, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Faith Evans, Patti LaBelle, SWV and Mary J. Blige. The album reigned at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks and peaked on the Top R&B Albums chart for seven weeks.
Besides his upcoming live-streamed special, Babyface is also gearing up to drop a new album, which will be his first full-length release since 2015’s Return of the Tender Lover.
“I write things all the time, but I don’t ever feel like putting it out. I’m always like, ‘Nah, that’s not it, that’s not it.’ So I’m the worst with that,” he shared with “The View” co-hosts. “I have tons of things, and I feel like it’s time for new music.”
Furthermore, Babyface also revealed his experience with contracting COVID-19. Earlier this month, the 62-year-old artist announced that he and his family were recovering from the novel disease.
“I started to get a scratchy throat… [Then] fever came, body aches, chills — everything hit me at once. [My] temperature was like 101,” he said. “That lasted for about six days, it was just constant.”
Babyface explained he’d holed himself up in self-isolation in his studio when he began feeling ill.
“It took about 10 days to actually get the [Coronavirus] test back, so I was in the studio for about 17 days before I could go back home,” he said. “I have some friends that got really sick… some people that actually passed away. It’s real, and you don’t know how it’s gonna hit you.”
In response to his epic Verzuz battle with Riley, Babyface said he overcame his nerves and enjoyed the experience.
“Battling with music isn’t necessarily my kind of thing to begin with, but my partner L.A. Reid called me and said, ‘You should do this,’” he shared. “It was for the celebration of Black music and the excellence of it all. It was a good thing to do, it was a lot of fun.”
Catch Babyface’s entire interview below.