The Philly-based rapper premieres her new single and talks growing up, glowing up, and going bi-coastal
Hanging to Maryland’s easternmost edge, Delaware is a tiny state whose draw is comprised of sleepy beaches and corporate tax breaks. Somewhere in between warm sand and cold industrial parks, rapper and DJ baby.com kickstarted a life that is taking her to shiny Los Angeles. It was a destiny initiated by adventuresome imagination, ride-or-die friendship, and organic interest in the undercurrent of it all: music. With a few singles under her belt, baby.com prepares to launch her long-awaited extended mixtape and more audacious visuals fit for a 2003-era MTV. As her move to L.A. emerges on the horizon, Baby takes time out to reflect on her journey to becoming a doll who’s equal parts strong and sweet.
“When I was younger, younger, like, elementary school, my parents were really against MTV and BET and things like that,” Baby says of her childhood. She instead absorbed the sounds of gospel, soul, and Anthony Hamilton. As the story goes, gaining her own access to the internet at 14-year-old proved to be a game-changer. Ciara and Mariah Carey, as well as mainstream rappers like Lil Wayne, quickly entered Baby’s repertoire, but she also had her ear to the underground thanks to the teenage grapevine. “My best friend at the time’s older brother was just old enough that he could drive us around and he put me onto a lot of mixtape music type-stuff,” she recalls.
As Baby progressed through high school, she was a self-professed wild child whose musical tastes adapted accordingly. Electronic dance music was the soundtrack to house parties and clubs in nearby Philadelphia alike. Yet, growing up in small town Smyrna balanced out long nights with wholesome days. “I guess at the time I didn’t really appreciate it as much, but now looking back I really do appreciate living in the rural area where I did because I had to make my own fun,” Baby explains. A favorite pastime of her close-knit group of friends was frequenting the local pet store, which on one occasion resulted in them raising a flock of ducklings. “We would do things that I don’t think I would have done if I had lived anywhere else,” she remarks.
Baby ultimately branched out to Newark to study political science at the University of Delaware. College was a transformative time made easier by being well-versed in carving out her own place. Curving football tailgates for dorm parties with her good friends, Baby came into her own as she embarked on a longstanding DJ career. Her boyfriend at the time, DJ Peen Ness, downloaded VirtualDJ onto her computer, which served as a medium for fun experimentation in her free time. Baby’s first music project eventually required her to put a name to the emerging artist inside of her. “I was like I need a name, but I really couldn’t think of anything,” she says of this pivotal moment. “Then one day I was just sitting down and baby.com pops into my head. It’s super relatable. I am very much a baby when I want to be, and everyone tells me I look 12.”
As baby.com the DJ started to pop off, she quickly outgrew the downsides of living in a more homespun state. “University of Delaware is a primarily white institution, so there weren’t a lot of parties out there that I was invited to DJ at,” she explains. Baby fled the sceneless scene and took up residence in West Philadelphia. She looks back at the past few years fondly as she recalls DJing with Ness. The pair found their niche in “playing things that wouldn’t really make sense with each other.” Baby’s early interest in electronic music was folding seamlessly into her love of hip-hop. More broadly, she also cites a rosier time in rap as inspiration for her sets. “There was Playboi Carti and all these different things like Made in MadeinTYO and Lil Yachty…it was such a fun time in music, and it made DJing really easy.”
Baby’s journey from behind the booth to center stage was not only a long time coming, but exceptionally graceful. While she has been formally rapping for one year, her earliest bars can be traced back to the start of college. She describes composing “something in between a poem and a rap,” but ultimately did not have the resources to see it through to becoming a complete song. As she grew older, she started to give it another shot by rapping over beats on YouTube. “I was a little nervous to show people,” Baby admits. “But when I recorded myself on GarageBand and showed my friends, they were like girl you’ve got to take this serious, and that’s all I really needed – a little push from the people around me.”
A major break came last summer when Baby linked with her engineer, nev ver. “Once I found him, we really just meshed so well from our first studio meeting and [he] continued on to be one of my best friends,” she says. nev ver was ultimately the missing piece that helped translate Baby’s raw talent into real tracks. His knowledge of music provided a solid foundation for making a name for herself behind the microphone and, as Baby puts it, “after that, it was really just a wrap.” While many other DIY artists tend to struggle with the face-to-face side of things, emerging from the studio provided an awakening. After a long period spent thinking that being a DJ was her endgame, Baby experienced a change of heart, stating, “when I performed for the first time, I was like oh, wait, no, I was a little wrong. Rapping and being in front of crowds and performing is truly my destiny.”
Becoming a people person was a skill in which Baby had invested. She admits that she used to feel self-conscious with introductions due to fear that she would be perceived as “weird and crazy” if she acted her “whole normal self.” Overcoming this fear of judgment ultimately came from within. “If I accept myself, then there’s no way that other people won’t accept me, and if for some reason they still don’t that’s fine,” she explains. “You just move on because we weren’t meant to be.” This confidence allowed Baby to make a mark on Philly by hosting events and throwing a monthly party called Pretty Girls Like Trap, but also by performing her singles like “Sourpatch” (prod. Djbangoutbeatz), “One Thing” (prod. Oogiemane), “Ou Ou” (prod. 2 Piece), and, most recently “Poppin Bitch.”
Lighthearted beats and an unbothered attitude define Baby’s aura as she offers an empowering take on an early 2000s princess. Baby especially takes pride in spearheading her own creative direction. Her visuals begin to solidify during the writing process as she envisions which scenes—and perhaps most importantly, which of her best friends—will accompany each bar. While the video for “Ou Ou” takes on a bit darker edge, it retains the hypnotic aesthetic elements employed in Baby’s past work. “I like to draw people in with color schemes and being bright, but on the regular day-to-day I’m probably in all black,” she notes. Overall, this juxtaposition is at the heart of who Baby is, and who she will continue to be. “I can be sweet and nice and all of those things, but I can definitely switch it up and it’s all very genuine, every minute of it.”
Baby’s last days in Philly are shaping up to be unforgettable. Currently, she is preparing for the final installment of Pretty Girls Like Trap and a mixtape release party that will be close to her heart. She is not one to gloss over her journey, stating, “this project is something that I want to be able to show people before I leave because the support I’ve received from my friends here is beyond belief.” In terms of what can be anticipated on her mixtape, Baby describes a mix of “twerking songs, and some songs that sound like they could have come out when I was in middle school.” As a six-year veteran of retail, she highly anticipates working on the evolution of her sound by going full-force into music both night and day.
While moving across the country is nothing short of intimidating, Baby remains calm by balancing herself on the cusp of new adventures. “It’s kind of amazing how much time has been playing itself out right now and how everything seems to be lining up…it’s exciting, and I’m ready.”
Stream baby.com’s brand new single “POPPIN’ BITCH” below