Bebe Rexha
Every dream requires a hustle. Long before she became an inescapable pop presence and one of the industry’s most in-demand songwriters, Bebe Rexha began quietly hustling hard towards a career in music during her childhood in Brooklyn, NY.
“I never wanted to take the easy way, and I was always willing to hustle,” she declares. “I started grinding and writing songs back in high school. I was the girl that didn’t go to prom or my graduation, because I was too busy working with producers and making music. I’d feel at home singing over hip-hop beats and rolling with the boys. It’s where I still have the most fun, and it’s where my personality comes through.”
Following years of dedication and diligence, that grind paid off big time in 2013 after she penned “The Monster” in a Harlem studio. The single eventually became a worldwide hit for Eminem and Rihanna—going RIAA quadruple-platinum stateside. Bebe would write and feature on Cash Cash’s “Take Me Home,” an idea she envisioned back in her bedroom in New York. Relocating to Los Angeles, she’d go on to co-write and sing on Pitbull’s “This Is Not A Drill” in addition to writing Tinashe’s “All Hands On Deck.” Her 2015 debut EP, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up [Warner Bros. Records], boasted the singles “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You” and “I’m Gonna Show You Crazy,” which racked up over 52 million Spotify streams in only six months. That same year, she co-wrote and carried instantly recognizable hooks for the double-platinum “Hey Mama” by David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, and Afrojack as well as G-Eazy’s 2016 Billboard Hot 100 platinum smash “Me, Myself, & I.”