Why the music legends are feuding.

Anita Baker, 65-year-old R&B legend, is currently in the middle of her “Songstress” tour, in honor of the 40^th anniversary of her solo debut album. When she announced that Kenneth Brian Edmonds, 64, a fellow R&B icon who’s best known by his stage name, Babyface, would join as an opening act, every Black auntie in the nation rejoiced and swiftly bought their tickets. But, after a show cancellation that enraged some on social media and a monthlong Twitter feud between Baker and Babyface’s fans, Baker announced on Tuesday that Babyface will no longer be opening for her as she completes the final nine stops of her tour, which ends in December.

The drama that got us here is long and winding, so it wouldn’t be surprising if you missed a step or two and are looking around like—How did we get here?! Isn’t this mess a little juvenile for people with so much, erm, lived experience?? Below: our best attempt at charting the feud between Baker and Babyface’s online stans that delivered unto us some timeless drama.

How did this get so out of hand so fast?! 

I blame the toy that Elon Musk, in toddler fashion, begged and threw a tantrum for and then played with so roughly it broke. Which is to say: Twitter.

Twitter caused two of the greatest R&B talents to feud with each other to the point of tour cancellations?! Maybe run this back to the top for me. 

The short answer is yes, though I wouldn’t necessarily say they’ve been fighting “with each other.” When it was announced last November that Babyface would join Baker’s “Songstress” tour, everything was hunky-dory. Baker showered Babyface with accolades, calling him “the legend” when she tweeted the announcement, and Babyface tweeted that he was “looking forward to sharing her stage” and was excited for “fun evenings filled with music & love”—and, well, that was wishful thinking.

Seems like everything was going well. So, what happened? 

Everything was going fine until the fourth stop on their tour, in Newark, New Jersey, on May 10. The show was delayed for two hours because of “technical difficulties,” which led to Babyface’s opening set getting cut so that Baker could do her full performance, as intended. A video taken by fan @prettyuhmazing shows the absolute dismay that swept across the audience as someone from the venue broke the news to them. When Babyface released a statement apologizing for his absence, in which he explained that he “was asked not to perform in order to give Ms. Baker her space and time to perform her show in its entirety,” fans online got incensed as well.

Some, like TMZ, initially interpreted Babyface’s wording as casting blame on Baker—an idea he refuted, telling the outlet in a later clarification that he has “too much love and respect” for Baker to ever “shade” her. Whatever his intentions, his statement caused a surge of online disapproval that burst the floodgates. The comments on Babyface’s announcement are full of fans showing him support and tsk-tsking Baker. Celebrities got in on the action, too. Actress and comedian Jackée Harry commented on Babyface’s Instagram statement saying he “deserve[s] better.” Comedian Loni Love also commented, saying, “I had hoped she and her team had improved for the better over the years.” Legendary singer Stephanie Mills responded to his statement on Twitter saying: “One would think as older artist[s] who are considered ‘Iconic’ and or ‘Legendary’ we would treat each other with respect and dignity.”

Like Loni Love, a few other people seized the chance to make a reference to Baker’s long-rumored history of being a diva. Actress and singer China McClain called Baker out on Twitter for being rude to McClain’s mother in a recent encounter, a tweet that sent McClain and Baker into a hostile back-and-forth. Plenty of people also cited Baker’s history of beefing with other stars, like Luther Vandross—

—Before we continue, should I be taking the fight that prompted this meltdown at face value? 

Well! I will admit that the wording of Babyface’s statement was easy to interpret (or misinterpret, as he’d say) as casting blame on Baker. There are other people in the comments who blame the venue for (allegedly) not letting people in until at least an hour after doors were supposed to open, and doing soundcheck after that—which is funny, because they later reported the technical difficulty had to do with video screens, not sound. But! Is there a universe in which Baker could have performed a slimmed-down set to make time for Babyface? Sure. However, was Babyface billed as an opening act, not a co-headliner, no matter how legendary he is in his own right (which is plenty, I assure you)? Yes. And, in a later tweet, Baker was adamant about that distinction.

And, generally, I think calling women difficult for making tough choices in less-than-suitable circumstances is a little old hat, don’t you think?

OK, that was one show, a month ago. What were the other shows like in between then and now, that things have gotten so bad? 

Great, actually? The tour stopped in New York on May 12 and both Babyface and Baker performed that night. They even shared a moment on stage that they both wrote fondly about on social media. They also both performed at the following stop in Maryland on May 14, which was the last stop before this announcement.

So … then … what happened to cause Babyface to leave the tour? 

Online happened! Unfortunately, plenty of fans on Twitter couldn’t let the initial incident go. They cited long-standing rumors, blaming Baker for an allegedly soured business deal with singer Maxwell—a story she said was untrue. They mentioned her feud with singer Luther Vandross, which she responded to by saying (I quote) “Mr. Vandross & I were one of the Most Successful R&B/Pop, Sold Out, Arena Concert Tours, of its Time…As, Successful Business Partners often do? We had disagreements. We also, had Joy.”

OK, sorry to interrupt, but why does she tweet like that?

I wish that I, too, were able to pretend that punctuation and grammar were disposable fictions. Alas, I cannot. Happy for her, though.

How bad did the Twitter slander get? 

Apparently very bad! In addition to blaming her for all of these rumored past tiffs, Babyface stans have brought up an old legal dispute between her and a contractor, and generally slandered her character, since the May 10 events went down. She kept engaging with Babyface’s fans, whom she dubbed “Kenny’s Crazies,” in self-defense, and accused them of cyberbullying. In her eventual announcement of Babyface’s exit from the tour, she mentions violent threats.

Did Babyface ever tell his fans to stop harassing her online? 

He did not! And it’s clear that, because of that, Baker places some of the onus on him. Which, then, judging by a tweet from two days ago, maybe turned into all of the onus? Baker responded to one troll by saying, “There is A White man, behind these Grown Black Men… harrassing Me &  Gaslighting, My Fans. Because he Cant take over, this Tour… sO? He wants to Destroy it. Kenny’s Crazy Narcissist @Babyface call off, your Boys.” (Who is this “white man”? Is he the “crazy narcissist,” or is that Babyface? I would love to know!) She also urged Babyface to tell his fans that he was a special support act for her tour, saying the “false narrative” brewing that he was a co-headliner is “creating unrealistic expectations and aggression.”

Did they have any beef before this?

I don’t know if I can call it beef, but there was a lawsuit! In 2006, it was reported that Babyface filed a breach-of-contract suit against Baker, claiming she owed over $250,000 for undelivered producer royalties from a collaboration of theirs and for—get this—canceled concert dates. However, Baker cleared the air, stating that it was Babyface’s reps who initiated the suit, and explaining that she won and they put it behind them years ago with no remaining hard feelings.

It’s … really interesting that Babyface and Anita Baker decided to tour together given the fact that they were once embroiled in a lawsuit. And, it didn’t work out, yet again? 

Interesting … now there’s a way to put it. And it’s even more interesting when you remember that both Baker and Babyface are in their mid-60s, which, to be honest, is sort of admirable. I, too, hope to still be iconic enough to have haters in my mid-60s, and bored enough to egg on their Twitter slander on the same online platform that is now hosting Tucker Carlson’s show.

But yes, all of this brings us to Baker’s announcement on Tuesday that, “after silently enduring cyber bullying/verbal abuse and threats of violence,” she will finish out the tour on her own, without Babyface. As a note to how serious the Twitter beef might have gotten, Baker says this decision was made “in the interest of personal safety.” This decision is wild considering not only the history, but the fact that Babyface recently experienced a bout of good publicity when his NPR Tiny Desk concert went viral. Truly strange times, for him!

Are things still cool between them? 

They … say so? In Babyface’s own statement about the ousting, he says “it’s unfortunate and disheartening to see how things have played out via social media,” which some would say he maybe could have done more to mitigate. But he closes out the short statement by saying he has “nothing but love & respect for Anita,” and offers well wishes for the rest of the tour. However, I personally don’t see how things could be truly OK between them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go text my aunties and see how they’re holding up.