Baby
by Aitch (featuring Ashanti)

Album: Close to Home (2022)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • "Baby" is a rap love song where Aitch makes it clear he's enamored with his model-like girlfriend. Naturally, being a rapper, Aitch chucks in some boasts about his wealth along with a few explicit bars about their sex life.
  • If social media is to be believed, Aitch was dating Chicken Shop Date's Amelia Dimoldenberg when he penned his lyrics for "Baby." Rather than being inspired by his romance with Amelia, Aitch took inspiration from a lot of things. "Like other people's relationships around me," he told NME. "My past relationships."
  • Ed Sheeran producer Fred Again created the beat, which centers on a sample of Ashanti's 2003 hit, "Rock Wit U (Aww Baby)." The American R&B singer-songwriter also gets credited as a featured artist. "I've actually always loved that song. I was about four years old when it came out. It was my mom listened into it all the time. So I love that song," Aitch told BBC Radio 1's Clara Amfo.
  • It wasn't Aitch's original intention to sample "Rock Wit U," but Fred Again incorporated it into the beat, figuring the Manchester rapper would love it.
  • Zain Alexander Shammas shot the summery video in Malibu, showing the highs and lows of a relationship. The sun-tinged clip features a cameo from Amelia Dimoldenberg.
  • Aitch wanted to make a song about a relationship where there's a balance. "If you listen carefully, I'm actually telling a story," he told Apple Music. "But also you can also just jump in the car, play the song and just enjoy it."
  • Aitch released "Baby" as the first taster of his debut album Close To Home. "It's called 'Close To Home' because in one respect, it sounds very Manchester and very true to me and true to myself," the Manchurian told Apple Music. "And I've recorded some of it in Manchester, some of it in London, some of it in Toronto, some of it in LA. It was a sense of bringing Manchester with me everywhere I go."
  • Gotta chase this money baby, nuttin to be said
    I ain't having no distractions when I'm running up a cheque
    Every time I leave the crib, I got you looking at me stressed


    Aitch admits on "Baby" that his hard grinding makes it hard to maintain personal relationships. "I'm not where I want to be yet," he told the BBC. "I've still got goals to achieve. And then you get into a relationship and 50% of your time gets chopped straight away. So yeah, that song's just about trying to make it work and, unfortunately, it not ending up working."

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