THE CONTRIBUTIONS
Nicki Minaj enlisted Lil Baby to kick off 2022 with a one-two punch of collaborative singles, “Bussin” and “Do We Have a Problem?” Randisi, who grew up a huge Minaj fan, worked with Minaj’s engineer Aubry “Big Juice” Delaine to capture the rappers’ chemistry. Recorded during a four-day stint at Alicia Keys’ studio in New York, “Do We Have a Problem?” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. “I had a feeling it was going to be a huge record,” says Randisi.
Randisi’s first pop crossover came earlier this year, when Ed Sheeran asked Lil Baby to appear on the pop-rap remix of his single “2step.” With the pop star recording across the pond,
Lil Baby relied on Randisi’s ability to set up her rig and record him from anywhere. “That record, funny enough, was recorded on his kitchen counter,” she says. “The biggest thing to catch that dynamic between the two of them, even though they weren’t in the same room, was having [Lil Baby] ad-lib over Ed Sheeran’s part, so it sounds like they’re bouncing off each other.”
Randisi says that the impressive chart marks for Lil Baby’s second album, 2020’s My Turn, including five nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, “definitely set the bar high” for its follow-up. “He was really big on experimenting with his sound and trying new things with this project,” she says of the new album. One of the singles she helped record, “In a Minute,” earned the rapper his 100th entry on the Hot 100 in April, making him only one of 12 artists to accomplish the feat.