“Baby” by Aitch and Ashanti
“Baby” sticks firmly to the mold of what we’ve come to recognize as a standard rap-love song, being devoid of any type of innovation or originality. We are met with references to sex, wealth, the rapper being enamored with the addressee’s looks, blazi blah. And what the lyrics are most squarely focused on is not only the latter’s strong love for Aitch – as verified by the Ashanti sample – but also, ultimately, his love for her.
Aitch and Ashanti
Aitch, a rapper from Manchester, is 22 years old as of the dropping of this track on 10 March 2022. His official discography dates back to 2017, meaning that he became a professional musician quite early in life. He has experienced some notable success, such as two of the three EPs he has put out thus far scoring within the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart.
Meanwhile Ashanti, an established R&B singer from Long Island, has been in the game almost longer than Aitch has been alive.
Is “Baby” a Collaboration?
This is not a collaboration in a truest sense of the word (even though Ashanti has definitely lent her support). The singer actually showed her support for the song via her official Instagram account hours after the track officially came out.
Instead “Baby” relies heavily on the sampling of “Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)”, a single Ashanti dropped in 2003 which can be considered amongst her signature hits. That said, as of the track’s release date, none of the writers of that song are credited as authors of “Baby”. Instead, besides for Aitch, others who are currently acknowledged for penning this track are its producers, Berwyn, Crooza, Fred and Benji Gibson.
As of the writing of this post, it is being predicted that “Baby” will debut at number two on the UK Singles Chart.
The director of this track’s music video is Zain Alexander Shammas.
