Born in Washington, D.C., Andy Razaf's mother was the eldest daughter of John Waller, American consul to Madagascar. After his father's death during the year he was born, Razaf and his mother moved constantly, living in Baltimore, Kansas City, Cuba, and New York City. While struggling to establish himself as a songwriter in Manhattan, he worked as a telephone operator, cleaner, butler, custodian, and semi-pro baseball player. He sold his first song, Baltimo, in 1913 and married Annabelle Miller in April 1915. During this time he was also proving himself as a talented poet, contributing politically progressive poems to various African-American publications such as the Emancipator and the Crusader.¹²¹

Razaf's eventually collaborated as lyricist with the most prominent black musicians around, including James P. Johnson, Eubie Blake, and Thomas "Fats" Waller. Razaf's most famous songs include My Special Friend (1927), My Handy Man (1928), S'posin' (1929), Ain't Misbehavin' (1929), Honeysuckle Rose (1929), Blue Turning Grey Over You (1929), and Black and Blue (1929). In 1940, with Razaf's career in decline, the film Tin Pan Alley depicted two white criminals writing "Honeysuckle Rose" in prison. Honeysuckle Rose was a Razaf-Waller composition and they had received a small payment for the use of their song. Unaware, however, that the song and its creators would be associated with criminality, Razaf wrote a strong letter of complaint to Twentieth Century-Fox. Twentieth Century-Fox published Razaf's letter along with a sarcastic, racist response in Variety's Feb. 5, 1941, issue.¹²² In 1941, Razaf wrote one of his last major musical contributions, We are Americans Too, a tribute to black patriots.