Singer/Songwriter/Producer, Makeba Riddick-Woods hails from West Baltimore City. As an alumna of The Baltimore School for the Arts and graduate of Berklee College of Music, she set her sights on big dreams long ago. At the tender age of 20 years old, Makeba was signed to her first worldwide publishing deal by Sean Puffy Combs. She signed to his joint venture publishing company with EMI Music Publishing in 2003, now known as Sony/ATV Publishing. After creating a seventeen-song demo CD, compiled of various styles and genres of songs that she wrote and recorded, the demo fell into the hands of veteran Bad Boy Records writer, Jack Knight. J. Knight passed the demo along to the then Head of Publishing Executive, Francesca Spero, who played it for Sean “Puffy” Combs.
Since then, Makeba has gone on to write some of the biggest pop records of the last decade. 13 Billboard Hot 100 #1 records and countless Top 5's and Top 10's for the biggest artists in the music industry. Her illustrious career has spanned almost 20 years of success. Because of her vocal abilities, record labels would not only request for her to write songs for their artists, but they would often hire her to produce the perfect vocal on many of your favorite records today. She has written and vocal produced over 12 songs for Roc Nation recording artist Rihanna, including writing hits like "Rude Boy" (#1 for 6 weeks at Billboard), "Live Your Life" featuring T.I. (#1 for 9 weeks at Billboard), "If It's Lovin’ That You Want" (#3 on Billboard Hot 100 charts), and vocal producing countless songs for Rihanna including the Grammy nominated "Love the Way You Lie" featuring Eminem and the Worldwide smash hit, “Run This Town.”
