Kenny Edmonds, Toni Braxton: Rhythm and blues, with life's bruises

1/11

Beefs, brawls, fights, feuds -- call them what you will. These things happen. See some of the most infamous here, varying from rap artists and pop queens to country crooners and rock stars.

By Christy Khoshaba (Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Clear Channel / Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images / C Flanigan/FilmMagic /Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times / Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images / Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

2/11

In 2002, John called Madonna’s theme song for the spy film “Die Another Day” “the worst Bond tune ever.” A decade passed, and in 2012, both John and Madonna were nominated for original song at the Golden Globes. John claimed Madonna had “no ... chance” of winning. John’s husband, David Furnish, also made that known on Facebook. Around the same time, John called out Madonna once more, saying, “Make sure you lip-synch good” at the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Ultimately, Madonna delivered an impressive performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, and she won the Golden Globe for original song over John. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images / Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

3/11

After the 2013 Grammy nominations, everyone knew Bieber didn’t earn any nods or an invitation to perform at the ceremony. And the shutterbugs behind TMZ made that crystal-clear when they happened to ask the Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney for his thoughts on the Bieber-less news. “He’s rich, right?” Carney began. “Grammys are for music, not for money ... and he’s making a lot of money. He should be happy, I guess.” Alas, Bieber was not happy. He took to Twitter to express his disgust, saying that Carney needed to be “slapped around.” In the end, Bieber’s fans had the final say (don’t they always?!), when they likened Carney’s Twitter to feed to a “virtual Claire’s accessories.” Classy. (Janette Pellegrini/Getty Images / Ali Haider / EPA)

4/11

Sometimes a joke just doesn’t translate. Ask pop vixen Katy Perry, who nonchalantly described herself as “the fatter version of Amy Winehouse and the skinnier version of Lily Allen” in 2008. Naturally, Allen didn’t approve. She was quick to publicly point out that Perry does not even write her own songs. And then there was this: “I have Katy Perry’s number, someone did me a favor,” Allen said. “I’m just waiting for her to open her mouth one more time then it hits Facebook.” Both mouths remained mum after the threat. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times / Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times )

5/11

When Cyrus made it known that Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor inspired her “Wrecking Ball” video seen ‘round the world, O’Connor wanted nothing to do with it. O’Connor wrote an open letter on her website advising Cyrus to stop “pimping” herself and start relying on her talent. Cyrus then fueled the fire when she said O’Connor’s mental issues were like those of Amanda Bynes. That’s when O’Connor penned another letter to Cyrus, claiming Cyrus would eventually become mentally ill. (Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images (left); Los Angeles Times)

6/11

Does a smiley face make things better? Not so much. Dark-haired heartthrob of the British group One Direction, Zayn Malik called the Wanted’s Max George a “geek,” only to have George tweet the response: “Psy and me getting messy #geekandproud.” Well, Malik didn’t stop there. “The first step is totally acceptance. #geekoftheweek. You display just how much of a wannabe you are. :),” Malik wrote. George then chimed in saying, “That’s not very nice. I was just starting to like you and your RnB hits.” And their tweets went back and forth like this, with both teams taking stabs at the opposite side’s attitude, vocal ability and hair. Not the hair, come on! (Tim Whitby/Getty Images / Fred Duval/Getty Images)

7/11

Bashing on reality shows is a no-no, as country crooner Eric Church found out. He once said, “Honestly, if Blake ... and Cee Lo ... turn around in a red chair, you got a deal? That’s crazy. If I was concerned about my legacy, there’s no ... way I would ever sit there...” That did not go over well with “Voice” judge Shelton and “Nashville Star” contestant Lambert. Both took to Twitter. Shelton quipped that he wished he’d “misunderstood this,” while Lambert sarcastically thanked Church for calling her a “real artist.” Adding, “[You’re] welcome for the tour in 2012.” (Ed Rode/AP Photo / Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images )

8/11

Lots of back-and-forth exchanges occurred between these two. It all started when Eminem claimed his single “Superman” was about his romantic relationship with Carey. For evidence, Em also released voicemails that were supposedly left by Carey while he was on tour in 2005. It didn’t take long before Carey slammed down what she considered a lie, both on “Larry King Live” as well as in her track “Obsessed.” That’s when Eminem shot back on his song “Bagpipes From Baghdad.” And things continued this way, with help from Carey’s husband, Nick Cannon, who offered to get physical with Eminem. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times / Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images)

9/11

Sometimes feuds can spill over into personal territory. That’s what happened between Brown and Drake one night outside a New York City nightclub when the pair’s entourages got into a brawl over Rihanna, Chris Brown’s ex-girlfriend. Drake denied being in the altercation; Brown tweeted a photo of his injured chin. Regardless of whatever went on that night, the rappers have buried the hatchet. They’ve collaborated on musical tracks since the incident. (Katy Winn/ AP Photo / Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)

10/11

Both Rock and Lee have married the same woman (Pamela Anderson), so that’s the first point of contention. Second point of contention: Rock and Lee’s physical brawl at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Rock lashed out at Lee, and the pair both ended up in a fistfight. “This was unavoidable,” Rock said. “I had to do what I had to do because this was a long time coming. You know, I came back from the bathroom, and he was sitting right there. It was even more disrespectful after everything he’s said [about Rock and Anderson]. I was like that’s enough. That’s it.” Anderson eventually settled with Rick Salomon -- after she divorced and then remarried him. (Joerg Koch/AFP/Getty Images / Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times)

11/11

Stand up for what you believe in -- that’s what the Dixie Chicks’ lead vocalist Maines did when she shut down Keith’s song “Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue.” She believed the track was “ignorant, and [made] country music sound ignorant.” Keith took things to another level when he rebutted, not with words, but with a doctored image of Maines alongside Saddam Hussein. Shortly after, Maines made a subtle statement when she wore a T-shirt emblazoned with an improvised cuss word aimed at “TK” at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2003. Ouch. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for SiriusXM / Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

By Mikael Wood

Feb. 8, 2014 10 AM PT

Toni Braxton and Kenny Edmonds have history together as soul-music hit makers, which in the record industry is usually reason enough to rejoin forces.

In the 1990s he wrote and produced large chunks of her first two albums, both blockbusters with combined sales of more than 16 million copies; the discs spawned five top 10 singles, including “You’re Makin’ Me High” and “Breathe Again,” and earned three Grammy Awards for female R&B vocal performance.

So although their careers later diverged — Braxton took up with other collaborators and began acting, while Edmonds (known as Babyface) made his own records and helped create huge songs for everyone from Eric Clapton to Beyoncé — the pair “always thought about working together again,” Edmonds said recently.

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“But we needed an idea,” he went on, “something more than, ‘Ooh, if we get together and make an album, it’ll be hot.’”

They found inspiration in real life. On “Love, Marriage & Divorce,” their strong new duo album, Braxton and Babyface ponder the vagaries of grown-up romance in unflinching, sometimes brutal detail. Both divorced, the stars pulled from their own experiences for songs that dig beneath did-me-wrong drama and slick sex talk.

Yet as true to themselves as they sought to keep the music, the result also feels designed to serve an often-neglected audience: middle-aged R&B fans.

“Toni and Kenny are really singing their truth on this album,” said Stephen Hill, an executive at BET. “They understand where they are in their lives and what they’ve been through, and I think they’re aiming this record toward people who’ve grown with them.”

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For Braxton, 46, the prospect of getting personal — and of teaming again with Edmonds — led her to reverse a decision she’d made last year to quit music after several coolly received albums in which, she said, she felt decreasingly involved.

“I wasn’t using my voice — I was using the voice others told me to use,” she said. Dressed in a black off-the-shoulder sweater, the singer was seated with Edmonds, 54, during a break from shooting “Braxton Family Values,” the We TV reality series she stars in with her four sisters and their mother. (Before she entered reality TV, Braxton appeared in films including “Kingdom Come” and played Belle on Broadway in “Beauty and the Beast.”)

“When you’re making one album after the next, like she was, sometimes you get to the point where you’re just trying to make a hit, as opposed to really saying anything,” Edmonds said. “She didn’t know how to get back to it.”

“It was a dark period,” said Braxton, who famously filed for bankruptcy in 1998 and again in 2010. “But Kenny was the person who snapped me out of it. He said, ‘Toni, you’re forgetting you’re an artist. Stop being a business manager and tell people your story.’”

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The album, released Tuesday, sets frank reflections against the soft-edged arrangements for which Babyface is known. In “The D Word” he describes dropping divorce papers on his wife’s doorstep, while Braxton curtly dismisses a well-to-do lover in the shimmering “I’d Rather Be Broke.” (“Than with you” are the next three words in the song’s chorus.)

Some of the songs, Braxton said, were born from casual conversations. “We’d go in the studio and he’d just let me vent,” she recalled. “Then the next day he’d say, ‘That thing you were taking about — let’s write about that.’”

As an example she pointed to “I Wish,” a disarmingly pretty piano ballad with lyrics that Braxton said had been inspired by things she’d heard her mother tell her father during her parents’ divorce.

“I hope she gives you a disease so that you will see,” she sings, “Not enough to make you die/ But only make you cry like you did to me.”

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“I might’ve opened up Toni a little bit too much,” Edmonds said with a laugh.

“He did!” Braxton said. “The monster’s out now, baby.”

Both singers acknowledged that the subject matter on “Love, Marriage & Divorce” — not to mention its plush textures and unhurried tempos — distinguish the project from, say, “Talk Dirty,” the boisterous single by Jason Derulo that last week topped Billboard’s R&B chart.

“Labels are into selling as many records as they can, and for the most part they tend to go younger,” said Edmonds, in a position to know: Beyond his work with Braxton, the producer spent time last year on “Yours Truly,” the hit debut by 20-year-old Ariana Grande.

“There’s nothing for the 35-and-older crowd,” Braxton added with characteristic bluntness.

Yet it’s not just youth that the record industry is after, Edmonds insisted — it’s the quick-fix promise of whatever’s next. “We’re living in a fast-food society,” he said, one without much room for the kind of long-term ideals artists used to live by.

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BET’s Hill said that commercial expectations for an album such as this one “have to be adjusted just like Toni and Kenny adjusted [their songwriting perspective]. It’s not about what the record sells in the first week, because more mature folks have other things to do than look at iTunes every day.”

Indeed, Braxton and Babyface — and their label, Motown Records — appear to be playing a long game with the album’s promotion: “Hurt You,” the lead single, hit radio last August, and the two have tentative plans to tour together in June. (Babyface is to perform his own show Feb. 16 at the Grove of Anaheim, and Braxton is scheduled to play the Nokia Theatre on Feb. 28.)

How precisely those joint concerts will go down hasn’t been decided. But the negotiations sound as if they could be the basis of a song for an album sequel.

“I think I should go first, then him, and then I’ll come back out at the end,” Braxton said. “But he wants to go first too.”

“I don’t want to follow her!” Edmonds exclaimed. “Have you seen Toni Braxton fans?”

“What about Babyface fans?” she replied. “He sings all his songs, then all the songs he’s written for everyone else. I get jealous sometimes.” Braxton turned to her partner. “What’s the last Beyoncé song you did? ‘Best Thing I Never Had’? I was so upset. I called him up, said, ‘Kenny, congratulations, great song. Why’d you give it to her?’”

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Kenny Edmonds, Toni Braxton: Rhythm and blues, with life’s bruises

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