Why Every Pop Star Wants a Piece of Starrah<br />Initially inspired by street literature like Sister Souljah’s “The Coldest Winter Ever”<br />and female rappers like Eve and Nicki Minaj — hence her dexterity with syncopated flows and finding unobvious rhythmic pockets in a beat — Starrah also developed the omnivorous taste of the playlist generation.<br />“Even though a lot of people say ‘blogs aren’t true,’ what’s said on the blogs still affects that person — period.”<br />She recalled Rihanna gushing over the steely breakup jam “Needed Me” — with its Instagrammable<br />one-liners like “Didn’t they tell you that I was a savage?” — which peaked at No.<br />An A-list studio presence for just two years, Starrah, 27, has tallied more than six billion streams on Spotify<br />and YouTube alone — to say nothing of her innumerable radio plays — bridging genres and genders as a songwriter on “Fake Love” by Drake, “Needed Me” by Rihanna and “Havana,” Ms. Cabello’s breakout single, which peaked at No.<br />1 hits like “Bad and Boujee” by Migos and “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” by Cardi B —<br />“The industry started to realize that she’s not one-dimensional,” Mr. Jarjour said.<br />Mr. Jarjour was impressed by her work ethic, both out of the studio<br />and in it: “From the beginning, Starrah sent more music than anyone else,” he said, and she was very organized, a rarity for prolific songwriters.<br />Somebody had to do it: With streaming now the top mode of listener consumption by far — up nearly 60 percent this year —<br />and hip-hop/R&B easily outpacing any other genre, the Katy Perrys and Maroon 5s of the world needed an emissary.
