Billboard Salute: Quotes

Every once in a great while, a business relationship turns into a true partnership, and our association with LaFace is exactly that. If you ask me what they bring to the table professionally, I'd say it's a few things. It is a great intuitive sense about music that very few people in this world have-but each of them do, and they come together seamlessly, always for the good of the artist. It's also an aesthetic, a sense of style, that coats everything they touch and makes it better. And they are gentlemen. They are gentlemen in every honorable, trustworthy sense of the word. It is a partnership that I benefit from greatly, and I know the rest of my team around the world does too, directly or indirectly.
-Rudi Gassner,
president and CEO, BMG Entertainment International


I was honored that Babyface and L.A. Reid came to me from the beginning. It was their dream to have their own company, and I wanted to help that dream become reality. I remember vividly being at the opening ceremony in Atlanta to celebrate the birth of LaFace and saying that if there was a company that could become the Motown of the '90s, it would be LaFace Records. That has turned out to be true. With artists like Toni Braxton, OutKast, Usher, TLC and Goodie Mob, they have found, nurtured and maintained artists with worldwide impact and domination of the various charts. These acts stand for the best in contemporary urban music and have become the foundation for all of pop music today. They have achieved something that is very unique and very special over the last decade, which also bodes extremely well for the next decade. Yes, they have made hit records, but they have also developed stars who will span the foreseeable future.
-Clive Davis


It's hard to imagine being in business with anyone for whom I have more respect than Antonio and Kenny. They blend creativity with business acumen, and the results speak for themselves. Over the last 10 years, they have proven that nice guys can win, and they deserve every bit of the success they've achieved.
-Strauss Zelnick
president/CEO
BMG Entertainment,
North America



I first met L.A. Reid and Kenny Edmonds near the end of the 1981 Superfest tour, when we played the Black Expo in Indianapolis. At the time, they were in an Ohio group called The Deele. When I came off stage after the set, we ran into each other. We talked for a while about music, and you could just see it in their eyes. Whatever it is, they had it. When I was studying in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, she once told me, "If one insists on using the word "genius,' it should be used to describe someone who has achieved the highest point of sensation, feeling, believing, attachment and knowledge." That definition absolutely applies to L.A. and Kenny. They are geniuses at their craft-total producers-and giants in their field. I'm so proud to be able to call them colleagues and friends, and I wish them all the luck there is to have in the 20th century.
-Quincy Jones


LaFace's imprint on the music world is indelible. Kenny and L.A. both possess tremendous creative instincts, building one of the most successful companies in an era where
producer-driven ventures have not always met with success. I've known them through many phases of their careers-as artists, musicians and now as innovative entrepreneurs. Through it all, they've always maintained one important quality: They're both truly great human beings. Their incredible record of accomplishment is certain to inspire future generations of artists, writers, executives and producers for years to come.
-Sylvia Rhone