Makeba Riddick

Makeba Ronnie Riddick-Woods, also known as Girl Wonder, Wonderkid or simply Makeba, is a singer-songwriter born in West Baltimore, Maryland in 1982. Currently living in LA, she attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Music Management, Makeba moved to Brooklyn, New York, securing a publishing deal with Bad Boy Entertainment / EMI in 2002.

She had her first major placements at the end of 2002 with artists such as 3LW, B2K, Jaheim and most importantly, Jennifer Lopez, whose song “All I Have” gave Makeba not only her first single, but her first #1 hit at just 20 years old. This quickly boosted her status and the following years saw her working with A-List producers, writing songs for artists like Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, JoJo, Mýa & Whitney Houston.

In 2005, a song Makeba wrote with producer duo StarGate, “Let Me”, was released on Rihanna’s debut album Music Of The Sun. Although it was never released as a single, it marked a turning point in their careers. It was StarGate’s first released placement in the US and started a long-lasting professional relationship between the 4 artists. Makeba & StarGate would prove to be instrumental in the development of Rihanna’s early career, with StarGate producing the majority of her biggest hits and Makeba extensively writing songs and producing vocals for her throughout the late 00’s.

“Déja Vù”, a song she’d written with producer Rodney Jerkins that was pitched to Beyoncé, earned Riddick an invite to the April 2006 writing camp that produced her second solo album B'Day. “Déja Vù” was selected as the album’s lead single and Makeba would end up co-writing the majority of the album.

Throughout the mid/late 00s Riddick continued to work with the people she’d previously achieved success with, as well as many new artists, co-writers & producers. Often writing hooks for rappers, Riddick is reponsible for many famous hooks, such as Flo Rida & T-Pain’s “Low”, T.I. & Rihanna’s “Live Your Life”, Wale & Lady Gaga’s “Chillin'” and Nicki Minaj’s “Muny”.

It was also during this time that Makeba introduced Rob Knox to production duo The Underdogs and writer James Fauntleroy. Rob went on to work with them for several years before forming production team The Y’s with James & Justin Timberlake.

In 2008 rapper & entrepeneur Jay-Z founded his new entertainment company Roc Nation and Riddick was among the first acts to sign a publishing deal. She spent the late 00’s & early 10’s working with much of Roc Nation’s roster as well as continuing to work with outside artists.

Initially part of No ID & James Fauntleroy’s collective Cocaine 80s, Makeba was also involved in the production of Common’s 9th studio album The Dreamer/The Believer. She co-wrote two of its singles, “Blue Sky” & “Raw”, also contributing vocals to “Blue Sky”, as well as “Celebrate” & “Congratulations”, an unreleased track from the album sessions that producer No ID shared in 2013.

The mid 10’s saw Makeba releasing her first solo work, the 2016 Dance/EDM-heavy EP “Make-A-Wish”, as well as working with artists like Tamar Braxton, Lion Babe, Selena Gomez, Prince Royce & Jessica Sanchez.

The late 10’s saw Makeba fulfilling another longtime dream: writing songs for TV show and movie soundtracks. She contributed numerous tracks to both Empire & Star throughout the years, and in 2017 Riddick wrote “Won’t He Do It” for the second season of the Oprah Winfrey-produced Greenleaf. The song broke records as longest position held by a female artist when it topped the Hot Gospel Songs for 26 consecutive weeks in September 2018.