Key Takeaways
- Bomani Jones called Babyface a "vastly overrated songwriter" while praising him as one of the greatest producers of all time.
- Jones argued that Babyface’s lyrics sound rushed and underwritten, even though his melodies and beats still hold up.
- He first aired the take on The Right Time, where he compared Babyface unfavorably with Teddy Riley and described the songs as "one draft only."
Bomani Jones is drawing a hard line between Babyface the producer and Babyface the writer, and only one of them is getting his nod of approval.
Appearing on Complex's Worst Take with Keith McPherson in an episode published Monday (September 28), Jones offered up an opinion he knows he'll get booed for.
"Babyface is a vastly overrated songwriter," Jones said. "The idea that he is one of the greatest songwriters of all time, to me, is preposterous. The idea that he is one of the greatest producers of all time, I am down for."
McPherson did not let it slide. "Okay, that's out of left field, to use a sports reference," he said. "Why you shooting at Babyface? Why is he catching strays off the rip? What did Babyface do to you?"
Jones' complaint comes down to pace. He hears a catalog of hits that sound like they were finished too quickly, with the lyrics as the weak link.
"But you be listening to them songs, all that sound like he in a hurry," Jones said. "Like, you ain't take a little more time to come up with something better."
"People really get mad at me when I say this about Babyface," he continued. "And then I'll be pointing out some of that Simple Simon shit he be saying. They be like, damn, okay, well maybe you had a point."
Jones hosts The Right Time, a Wave Sports and Entertainment podcast, and the Complex series is built around takes that get their guests jeered.
The Babyface argument first surfaced on his own show. In the September 22 episode "ATLiens at 30: The Album That Made OutKast Legends," recorded with DJ Wally Sparks, Jones called the LaFace legend "the single most overrated songwriter who ever lived," while allowing that the melodies and the beats hold up.
He measured Babyface against Teddy Riley in that conversation, arguing the New Jack Swing producer's work on Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" was out of reach. The songs, Jones said there, sound like "one draft only."
