Hey, Camp Kids!
You know who went to summer camp when he was about your age? Kenneth Brian Edmonds—or, despite his 55 years of age, more commonly known as Babyface. There’s bound to be hundreds, thousands, millions, maybe billions of fans of this ten-time Grammy-winning, American R&B singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer.
The talented Mr. Edmonds, or Kenneth, went to CYO Camp Rancho Framasa in
Brown County, Indiana for his summer camp days. CYO Camp Rancho Framasa boasts a beautiful bounty of land on the summer camp site. Kenneth spent his days at camp hiking the woods, appreciating nature, and having fun!
He had a pretty normal childhood. Brought up with five siblings (all of them brothers), he maintained a shyness in his youth for which his songwriting was a major source of emotional expression and quickly became a healthy outlet for him from an early age.
Tragically, when he was about fifteen, Kenneth and the rest of his brothers lost their father to lung cancer. With no one else to raise the six kids but their mother, Kenneth found the determination he needed to turn his simple means of self-expression into a musical career.
He played with other performers such as Bootsy Collins who was the one to give Kenneth his nickname, Babyface, for the “cute” boyish face that stayed with him through his teens. He also played guitar in the group Manchild and then became the keyboardist for a group that called themselves The Deele. Both groups were known rather well for the hits they had.
As Kenneth shaped his solo career, he has also produced and wrote lots of music for so many artists that I can’t actually list them all in this Blog post. To name just a few, there’s Carole King, Al Green, Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton, and Paula Abdul.
Most recently, Kenneth is working on a new album of duets with his longtime friend Toni Braxton. The album is supposed to come out some time this month.
Till next time, R&B buffs!
- John