Singer and smooth jazz songwriter Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds says it's time for him to focus on his long-term career as a recording artist. The 48-year-old Babyface's new album, Playlist, focuses on his singing and guitar-playing abilities as he covers tunes made famous by pop singer-songwriters of the '70s and '80s.

Though the Grammy winner has written dozens of top-charting and best-selling songs for young R&B and pop artists, he says that he is moving into another phase of his career as a musician and wants to create music that outlives trends. It's a bit of a contrast from the music of his last album, 2005's Grown & Sexy, which featured the contemporary urban hit "There She Goes."

While "There She Goes" was a hit for him, Babyface says he's now looking to cement his pop audience: "If I do want to just go out and perform, if I want to one day just go and sit in Vegas and perform then you don't ... 'There She Goes' (laughs), a bunch of those aren't gonna necessarily keep people coming in. There's a part audience that you want to be able to reach, and I've kinda like done those songs in the past that connect to them, so anything that I do new, it should connect as well."

The first single from Playlist is "Fire And Rain."


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