Music Rescued Rapper ZoeBaby101

ZoeBaby101 tries not to live life with regrets.

Instead, he’s more relaxed but outgoing with a goofy side he hides from everyone but his closest friends.

It does, however, turn up in his music, much of it freestyle once he catches a beat.

“Florida Baby,” for example, is a joyful song about warm weather, fast cars, loud music and hot girls, and is accompanied by an equally joyful video. It also just came together on the fly in the studio.

That ability is the kind that makes listeners stop in their tracks to take notice of ZoeBaby101’s quicksilver skills.

With almost 12,000 hits on Spotify, “Florida Baby” is one of the rappers most popular songs.

First football, then music

It’s a positive position for the Florida-born rapper who spent some of his formative years living a more primitive life in Haiti, carrying water from a source to home, washing clothes by hand, using one pot to cook meals.

After returning to Florida, he moved around quite a bit as a child, so there was a sense of instability in his life.

To establish a sense of family, it had been football, but with no one to support him when he excelled on the field – his mother was working to support her family – his despondence led him to find a street family to get what he wasn’t getting at home.

It ended his football career, or any potential he may have had to have one.

He didn’t want the streets to consume his music, as well.

“I gave up football for the streets, and sometimes I think about that and think, I could have been somewhere. I don’t want to have the same regret with this rap, with music. And this thing I love, too, so I’m here for it,” he said during an online interview.

His rap is traditional with a hip-hop groove

Bringing with him a contemporary, tropical-infused blend of traditional rap with a hip-hop musical edge, ZoeyBaby101 is an innovative artist who is able to both freestyle – an art form that forces artists to be as lithe on their feet as a football player – as well as write music, which proves his discipline runs parallel to his lightning-bolt ability to craft lyrics on the spot.

“If I’m at the house and I get the beat, I’m going to write, but if I’m at the studio and I get the beat, I’m going to go off, do whatever, it don’t matter,” he told the video podcast Off the Porch.

But the work is tough, and his dedication doesn’t come without a degree of struggle.

“Behind the scenes of my hard work,” that’s when it gets tough and he forces himself to dig deep to maintain a certain façadewith his crew. “The everyday life things that I go through mentally and physically, I don’t really speak on or let anyone know.”

Instead, that struggle, the dichotomy between the streets and music, has given him the strong will required to find success in the studio as an indy artist, and comes out through his art.

For more on ZoeBaby101 and to connect with some of his music, visit his Instagram for links and more here.

SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER

About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.