Andrez Babii

Miami, Florida-based rapper, songwriter, and producer Andrez Babii fuses elements of Latin pop, hip-hop, cumbia, and reggaeton into a distinctive sound. Fellow Floridian and late rapper/producer XXXTentacion supplied his initial major opportunity by re-recording Babii’s debut single “Sway” in 2018, whose 300 million streams earned the primary composer his first platinum writing credit. The following year Babii both wrote and featured on the streaming hit “Telenovela” by Supreme Patty. He has released a modest number of singles, among them the flamenco-tinged hip-hop track “Amante” in 2018 and the 2020 success “Tricky.” He maintains an ongoing partnership with rapper/producer NFA, jointly authoring and performing the charting singles “Dale” and “Castigo.”

Raised in South Florida, Babii received his earliest musical guidance from his father, a church pastor and musician. He mastered drums, piano, guitar, and bass, performing these instruments each Sunday during services. In high school he developed his personal singing style while absorbing recordings by Drake, the Weeknd, and Post Malone, among others. His parents encouraged conventional academic study for their son—his older sisters earned degrees and entered accounting and bioengineering, and his father completed three master’s degrees—so he heeded that direction. Following high school he attended Florida Atlantic University for his bachelor’s degree. Outside class hours and on weekends he spent time apprenticing in South Florida studios alongside producers, composers, and engineers such as Zen, PLYBCK, Mavigz, and Exel.

Babii composed and demoed dozens of tracks, assembled samples, and contributed to beats and arrangements for other artists. He recorded his first Zen-produced single “Sway” in 2017. The song reached XXXTentacion, who included his version on the album ? issued in March of the next year, only three months before XXXTentacion’s death in June. The recording accumulated more than 300 million streams and attained platinum certification. On the strength of that success Babii secured recording and publishing agreements with Warner Chappell. He launched “Amante” as his first single for the label and began co-writing and producing for additional Warner Chappell artists including Flo Rida, Pitbull, DJ Snake, Jorge Noriega, Mariah, Ecko, Neon 16, and Greg Ferreira. In 2019 he joined Summertime Patty on the single “Telenovela,” whose video surpassed 660 thousand views inside two months. Entering the early 2020s Babii recorded prolifically, issuing the co-written singles “Dale” and “Castigo” with NFA as well as the urbano track “Tricky” in March. Produced by Exel the Future, Gio, and Mavigz, the song’s video exceeded 880,000 views within a month of release.