Babyface, Salt N Pepa, Talking Heads among 2021 Special Merit Grammy honorees

Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, and iconic music acts Salt-N-Pepa and The Talking Heads are among the artists to be honored during the Recording Academy’s 2021 Special Merit Awards.

The Recording Academy announced this year’s honorees, who will be recognized for their “outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.”

Eleven-time Grammy Award winner Edmonds will receive The Trustees Award for his “contributions in areas other than performers.” Amassing more than 500 million albums and singles sold throughout his 30-plus year career, the Indianapolis pop music mastermind played an instrumental role in the music industry as an artist, a producer, and co-owner of LaFace Records.

Simply known as Babyface, he’s helped shape the careers of dozens of pop, R&B and hip-hop artists, crafting hit songs for the likes of Toni Braxton, Usher, TLC, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Brandy, the Whispers, Boyz II Men, Monica, Celine Dion, Madonna and Eric Clapton, as well as helming the bestselling soundtrack for the 1995 blockbuster film “Waiting to Exhale.”

Salt-N-Pepa will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for blazing a trail for women in the hip-hop mainstream as one of the first all-female rap groups to emerge in the late 1980s. Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandra “Pepa” Denton and DJ Spinderella were pioneers of the groundbreaking group known for hits like “Push It,” “Shoop,” “Whattaman” and “Expression,” as well as their Grammy Award-winning hit record, “None of Your Business.”

Formed in New York City in 1975, Talking Heads helped to pioneer New Wave music by blending elements of punk, rock, art pop, funk, and world music with an avant-garde aesthetic. In 2002, 11 years after the David Byrne-fronted outfit disbanded, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

Late Tejano icon Selena, opera singer Marilyn Horne, hip-hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, and late jazz legend Lionel Hampton are the other 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award winners.

“As we welcome the new class of Special Merit Award honorees, it gives us a chance to reward and recognize the influence they’ve had in the music community regardless of genre,” Recording Academy Interim President/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said. “As a music creator and music lover, I am grateful that we are able to look back at our influences and see the impact that they have made on our community. In a year where music has helped keep us together, I look forward to honoring this iconic group of music creators.”

The 2021 Grammy Awards will air Jan. 31 on CBS.