Here’s What You Missed In the Babyface Vs. Teddy Riley VERZUZ Battle

Alas, the long-awaited battle between two musical legends: Teddy Riley and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. The festivities followed this past Saturday’s epic fail, where Riley set up an elaborate stage only for him to have audio issues — the world could not hear what he was saying or playing!

With Swizz Beatz and Timbaland igniting a fire underneath these battles via IG Live, many in the music industry have been waiting for the ultimate, legendary matchup. Teddy Riley vs. Babyface was exactly that. This VERZUZ battle has been in the talks for a while, but it was delayed partly due to Baby testing positive for COVID-19.

On Monday evening, 500K+ viewers from all around the world tuned in for this re-match. While the third times a charm, it began with some technical difficulties, that left thousands of users unable to log in via iPhone. Luckily, they pulled it together and figured it out. Teddy showed up with a phone and earbuds, ready to go hit for hit with Babyface in the format we’ve all grown accustomed to.

20 rounds would ensue. After Teddy Riley dropped Heavy D & The Boyz “Is It Good To You,” neither Babyface nor Teddy Riley knew what round they were on and looked to the comments to try and figure it out. “Well, we’ll find out after this one,” suggested Babyface as he began to play “I’m Ready” by Tevin Campbell. At this point, there were 434,000 viewers, and the Live abruptly ended. “We were supposed to be able to go beyond an hour. It looks like that didn’t work,” Babyface informed us when he restarted his Live.

After Babyface dropped Bobby Brown’s “Rock Wit’cha,” Teddy Riley flipped the format for round two. “This is like football,” he said. Babyface then played Bobby Brown “On Our Own,”  revealing “that comes from studying you a little bit. A little Teddy.”

Both were able to fire off a few more rounds before Riley dropped out of the Live, due to even more technical difficulties. But To keep the crowd engaged, Babyface played The Boys “Dial My Heart.” Everyone in the comments then asked Babyface to play the guitar, to which he obliged.

Babyface then played the acoustic version of Eric Clapton, “Change The World,” before Instagram shut off for the second time. “He’s not able to join,” Baby said as he played,  “Another Sad Love Song” by Toni Braxton. From there, the crowd began to party hop, from Babyface to Teddy’s Live, in an attempt to resume the live, but at this point, Teddy Riley and Babyface have broken the internet!

To keep the crowd entertained, Teddy Riley played Michael Jackson, “Blood on the Dance Floor.” But, several attempts to bring Babyface into the Live failed with the same “unable to join” reason. To close out the night, Babyface went Live one more time to play Whitney Houston “Count On Me,” with a smooth transition into “When You Believe,” and Teddy Riley in his own live played Michael Jackson “Dangerous.”

Then, in an interesting turn of events, Teddy recapped the night on the phone with Dr. Dre. “What you guys are doing is not for me,” Dre said of the possibility to join the VERZUZ waves, adding that he had been going back and forth with Diddy about it. Nonetheless, it was special to hear Dre’s thoughts on tonight’s battle.

The night brought back nothing but nostalgia with classics like “Rump Shaker,” “Red Light Special,” “When Can I See you Again,” and “The Show,” which Teddy revealed that made when he was 17.

What was your favorite part of Last Night’s live?