For weeks people have been flocking to virtual DJ sets, all of the ‘Club Rona’ digital afterparties, and going up for some of the music industry’s heavy-hitting producers and songwriters in the “#Verzuz” battles.
From O.G. producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, who started the online #Verzuz battle, to Neyo and Johntá Austin going back-to-back with hits, music fans were barely able to handle the anticipation of the impending showdown between music legends Teddy Riley and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmunds.
But oh how the saints shed real tears when the battle sounded more like one record scratch after the next. Riley, the father of new jack swing music, said he was not about to just press play on these folks! Oh no, that well-aged tenderoni said he was going to put on a show with a whole crew while Grammy-adorned Babyface sat in his studio.
For an hour on Saturday, April 18, hundreds of thousands of fans and celebrities endured the audio issues, the multitude of pauses, mic feedback and more as Riley tried his best to secure a win.
“Teddy, stop performing, stop performing, Teddy. Put the mic down, pick ya iPhone up and just play off your phone. Stop performing,” said comedian Lil Duval in a video.
Even living legend Toni Braxton jumped in, saying, “Teddy is discombobulated,” and “Now Teddy you know Face set up isn’t messing up your sound,” as the superproducer attempted to place the blame on his opponent, who was having zero issues playing his music for fans.
Desperately wanting it all to end, singer Tyrese commented during the live meltdown, “throw in the tile.” He was so caught up in the rapture of the foiled battle that he clearly missed that the word he was looking for was “towel.”
Oh, but it was other folks on social who had the last word.
“When doing too much goes wrong!”
“All I know is BabyFace ain’t recovered from Da Rona for alldat ghetto mess😩😭”
“ALL TEDDY HAD TO DO WAS PLAY HIS MUSIC IN HIS PERSONAL STUDIO OR Car LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!”
