When Bebe Rexha decided to leave Warner Records and release her fourth studio album independently, she made a decision that resets the terms of a decade-long major label career. “Dirty Blonde,” released June 12th through Empire Distribution, is her first record as a fully independent artist – and she did not walk into that moment alone. Six of the album’s thirteen tracks were co-written by Lil Eddie. He vocal produced the songs and sang background vocals across the board.
Whatever Bebe was building here, she was building it with a Grammy winner. Those six tracks – Hysteria, S.H.I.T., The Way I Want You, Time, Nobody’s There, and Night Falls – cover a significant portion of what “Dirty Blonde” actually is. And the album goes further than most: Bebe shot a music video for every single song on the record, making this one of the most complete visual statements of her career. She spoke to Collider about how it transformed during creation, starting as a dance record and going somewhere deeper and more honest. “I started going deeper,” she said. “I was able to write songs like ‘The Way I Want You.'” That emotional turn – from euphoria to vulnerability – is exactly the territory Lil Eddie has been navigating across an entire career built at the top of the industry.
Lil Eddie’s songwriting catalog runs through JLo, Jessie J, Kylie Minogue, Maluma, Daddy Yankee, Charlie Wilson, Prince Royce, Robbie Williams, and Janet Jackson. His own record “Statue” has crossed 100 million streams across platforms and still circulates virally on TikTok years after release – an almost unheard of shelf life in a format built around whatever is happening right now. In Japan, he has landed five number one albums. The scope of what this man has accomplished, across how many genres and how many countries, is the kind of thing that does not fit inside a standard artist bio.
How he and Bebe ended up building “Dirty Blonde” together is the kind of story that does not happen by design. Both are from New York, and they met through the Empire label umbrella during a songwriting session that quickly became a real working partnership. The chemistry was immediate – what Eddie himself has described as kismet. When two New York writers who have both spent years in rooms with the biggest names in music finally end up in the same session, the result is not a coincidence. It is convergence.
Eddie’s reach extends well past the coasts. “Statue” became a genuine phenomenon in the Philippines, one of the biggest songs to hit that market, and its momentum there is still very much alive. He recently extended that connection with a collaboration alongside Jay R – the king of R&B from the Philippines – deepening a lane in Southeast Asia that very few American songwriters have managed to build with any real authenticity.
The artist development thread in Eddie’s career is its own story entirely. He was instrumental in developing Fifth Harmony, shaping what became one of the defining girl groups of a generation. He played a key role in building One Direction and CNCO – groups that went on to reshape what pop music looked like for millions of listeners. Beyond those names, the number of artists he has developed from the ground up is in the thousands. More recently, that approach has shifted – he now works with a much smaller, carefully chosen group of artists he truly believes in, taking each of them to top 10 charting positions.
Bebe Rexha called “Dirty Blonde” her rebirth. “My purpose right now, as an artist and as a human being, is to make myself happy instead of looking for that approval outwards and looking for it inwards and musically,” she told Collider. Going independent with a full visual album is a statement. Bringing in a collaborator who has operated at Lil Eddie’s level across every stage of that album means the statement was backed up with real craft.
The album is out now. Stream Lil Eddie on Spotify and follow him on Instagram. Stream “Dirty Blonde” on Spotify.
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