Teddy Riley Says Babyface’s Health Is The Reason The Verzuz Battle Was Postponed: “He’s Been Sick”

Teddy Riley clears up rumors that he got cold feet and dropped out of his battle against Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds.

Over the weekend, several DJs, musicians, and producers went head-to-head in battles over their music catalogs. Participants included the likes of T.Pain, who battled Lil Jon in SwizzBeatzand Timbalands’s Verzuz battle on Instagram live. Up next to duke it out was Riley and Edmonds, but the battle was postponed.

When rumors began to circle that Riley didn’t want any smoke, Swizz spoke out in his defense. “Nobody backed out FYI !!!,” said Swizz in an Instagram post after sharing the edited flyer for the battle, which read “Postponed to another date.”

The event has yet to be assigned a new date. But, in an effort to get to the bottom of the delay, #CharlamagneThaGod checked in with Riley on Instagram Live.

“Well, there’s no back out. Nobody’s backing out,” Riley said.” Babyface is moving forward. He’s not actually 100 percent. Ya know he’s been sick,” he added. “So, um. What it is, is uh, we kind of pulled back because we really want this done right. We don’t want the stops from Instagram. So that’s the main reason why. You know we both have the respect for each other, and that’s the one thing. That’s a plus, that’s my big brother. But, you know, Charleston New York, we don’t back down.”

As he continued, Riley also cleared up rumors about the battle being moved to a new platform. “It’s gonna go through IG,” he said, adding that he was hoping to have a mediator and the company he partners with to help facilitate the battle. “The thing about it is, this new system, it’s really for what we wanna do because I don’t think I want to go head up with him and us going back and forth. We need mediators,” said Riley. “I thought…the company that I’m a partner of- I thought that this is something that would be great for them to take this to another where they’re meditating, they’re coming in, or they can invite you in and say ‘Yo,  what you think,’ and you come on, and you know what I’m saying and say what you think. And then we go to the next person, or Snoop can say something. That’s what our system can do. You can also still get the comments, you’ll get the comments. You’ll get everything you get on Instagram.”

Which artists or music moguls do you want to see go head to head next?