Chapter 1: How did Hit-Boy achieve independence in the music industry?
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Chapter 2: What were Hit-Boy's thoughts on his Verzuz battle against Boi-1da?
You know what I mean? For sure. He definitely, he chose a side with Stardisza. Once I saw the video, I was like, all right, now I know where Hit Boy is. I mean, you West Coast. I'm just a West Coast nigga. I ain't choosing a side, but I think I got love for Kendrick. You know what I mean? For sure. Yeah. Yeah.
um is this next project going to be more in that vein the the the joint with spank yeah it's called yeast talking like we got you know we got az tyke baby tron on there we got big sad 1900 we got the shit we did with don q last night that's going on there we just gotta reorder young og like that's the type of shit i'll be listening to just like really on a daily just hood shit peasy um them type of niggas and um
But then, Alchemist's album is just straight fucking soulful like hip hop like chops and niggas just talking shit through the whole album. I'm coming with different vibes, bro. Speaking of AZ, we were out at the BET Awards and did like the media room shit where you interview a bunch of people.
And we sat down with Berg, our guy, hit maker, and we discussed how I guess I instigated the entire beef between y'all. Have y'all pieced it up yet?
Yeah.
I ain't ran into him, nah. But I mean, you know, that was just a little moment, man. It was just a little splash. Like, I ain't tripping off that shit. Yeah, and when he sat with us, he wasn't on any type of time like it was an issue. But I'm just not sure if y'all had ever spoken since that entire thing. He do what he do, I do what I do, you know? Everybody in they own pocket. Yeah.
So, in the vein of producers, who do you think won the verses with you in Wonder? Like, personally. Like, looking back, because I started to watch that.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Hit-Boy face during his long-term contract?
He was killing me with all the Drake records, like, for a minute. I was, like, I was feeding into it. That's where I fucked up. But I feel like once I started coming with the new Nip and new Nas and all that shit, it was like, you know, it started to even out. But, yeah, I see why niggas was like, oh, man, you got to play more hits. And this nigga was just stinging me with Drake.
I'm like, God, damn. You played trophies, and then it was an hour after of just classic boy one to Drake records.
i spoke to him he was like yo man he's like yeah ask him who you think won the verse but he said he got nice that's my god no for sure i got respect and love for one yeah so yeah but that was that's one of those verses that i wish we got in a different setting because that's when it was like really just that was the raw that was the first that was the first one after they was just around on the ground yeah but that's why we needed that with those type of records that y'all have respectively we need that like on a stage we need
Except I set up like a nigga on a video game after that shit live started turning up after that.
Yeah. Yeah.
It would have been better too. Cause I mean, obviously both y'all are real producers. So like playing that shit live would have just made it a wig, a cool experience in that. But I mean, speaking of, of, you know, Drake Kendrick, not on the beef side, but, I feel like you started with the quote-unquote big three around the same time, Cole, Kendrick, Drake.
Who do you think is the next superstars, or do we have superstars? I can't call it, bro. I don't think this game is what it used to be. The world ain't what it used to be. How we consume the respect on the music, none of this shit is the same, bro, so I can't really call it. You know, it's like, it's space for it to open up.
It's space for an undeniable motherfucker to come through and be like, yo, this is it type shit. So, you know, I'm excited about that. I just don't, I don't know what the shit is no more, bro. That's like, I look at, I'm not even looking at myself as like in the music industry. I'm just like making art, whether it's my music. Me and Al got a film that we working on, high level shit.
We really invested time and money and put real effort and got high level actors in this shit. Like, Like, you know, I just feel like that's about to make people look at us in a whole different light. And it's like, I'm just on some straight art shit at this point. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, do you feel like because you do it consistently as far as working again with big artists or just artists you like?
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Chapter 4: What advice does Hit-Boy have for emerging producers?
It's lovely. I just, you know what it is. Only somebody from LA, I feel like, would say that about New York strip clubs.
Because we don't think they're that great.
Even in LA, I like Crazy Girls and Sam's and all the hood shit.
That's what I fuck with.
Sam's is fun, but... I fuck with the hood shit, period. But New York and LA... just once you start striving, you realize we don't do strip clubs like that. I lived in Atlanta when I was 19. I fuck with Paulo to Don.
Don Cannon. They had me in there.
I wasn't even supposed to be in Platinum 21. And they had me going crazy. I was seeing the thickest joints I ever seen in my life. Like, what is this? You know what I mean? So it's like, I got programmed on that shit early, man. But it'll just be a good time, a good little quick, you know what I mean? So what's up, man? When you moving to New York, man?
Man, shit, I'm finna look at some real estate.
Yeah, because I see it.
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Chapter 5: How has working with Nas influenced Hit-Boy's music style?
I actually, I thought it was. I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick, Dick, and Paul show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
uh we were talking we had jd on i forgot a couple months ago maybe yeah um and we did like this this or that segment with him with some of his records on what he had to choose yeah out of the two um so i want to do with you start out the gate paris well if you want to say the full title or click
i might have to go with paris man yeah i think that's just seeing him just recently performing that a few weeks ago in paris felt like i mean at the vegas show the last uh oh yeah okay went to that the whole stadium was just like rumbling bro i'm like it sound like that just dropped the night before yeah it just came out i'm like you can't beat that bro yeah yeah what was that click session like though
Man, I think we was in London when we started that. And that original beat, it's this song, if you look it up, called CDC by Dom Kennedy, KC Veggies, and this other nigga named Carter. And they did a song on that same beat. And then Ye ended up picking that beat out of a bunch of beats I had. Once they did the hook, I had to tell Ye, like, look, the homie Dom already used this beat.
So then we ended up just muting some of the sounds I had, adding more shit, adding them choirs and snares and stuff. Turned it up into what it became. The first time I heard it, I was in the Hamptons working on the Beyonce album, the shit that came out in 2013. And Ye came in and just playing that joint over and over. Everybody was going crazy. That was the first time I heard Hov's verse on it.
Okay. So Ye was on it first, then Hov was Sean last? Yeah, Sean did his part, and then Ye, and then the last verse I heard was Hov's shit. I would love to ask Big Sean what that was like. Hov and Kanye, like, all right, we got this record together. We want you to close this shit. Like, that must have been a feeling. All right. A$AP Rocky, Goldie, or Drake trophies?
I'm going with, damn, they both are. I fuck with Goldie, though, you know what I mean? That was a Rocky, like, first single on a major label, I believe, you know what I mean? So, like, that helped. One of my favorite videos. You know, crack his shit off, you know what I mean? It just helps, you know, solidify what I was doing a little bit more. Okay. Backseat freestyle or racks in the middle?
Damn, that's fucked up. Damn. Yeah. I don't know if I can pick out of those two, either. I mean, I feel like I'm closer to Rax in the Middle because I was there for the whole process. And that was originally my song, you know what I mean? I gave that to Lip because he asked for it. And he felt like the fact that we won a Grammy and shit off that shit, he felt like that was a Grammy level song.
So it was like a proud moment when we actually won a Grammy. We really felt like this was high quality, like the new wave of the West. How did Roddy get involved with it? Man, he was across the hall from my old studio when I used to work at Challenge, bro. He was working with Future and my homeboy that was A&R in the Atlantic. I don't know if he still is. My nigga, Knowledge.
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Chapter 6: What unique recording processes has Hit-Boy encountered with various artists?
He had recorded on a couple other beats I did and just started little ideas and shit. And then whenever we came back to L.A., he was like, man, I fuck with them ideas, but you got any more beats? Let me hear some beats. So him and Day Free came to this old studio crib I had, and I played the shit. And they was like, yo, we're going to take this, go crazy on it.
And then he texted me and was like, bro, we got one. He was like, I guess he was in Dallas or something like that on tour doing shows and shit. He was like, we got one. Send me the song. And I'm like, damn, that shit was tough. Like, he just really gave you that feeling. Like, he was really freestyling. Yeah, no. That record is a classic. Travis Scott's Sicko Mode or Rihanna Woo? Man.
Just listen to the songs. The songs you throwing out is crazy. No, for real. I mean, shit, bro. I can't say woo because I'm going to tell you why. I fucking... That album, I did Pose and I did Woo on the entire album. I used to trade samples with a lot of people, you know what I mean? I traded some samples with Don Cannon. He gave me a pack that said Royalty Free on it.
Literally said Royalty Free. It wasn't even a loop. It was just a bunch of guitar stabs, if you hear it. I made that arrangement and chose the stabs and then built on that. Basically, once the pre-sale thing came out, The dude that gave him the sample pack went the lawyer route and was like, oh, Hit-Boy stole my sounds and da-da-da. So I had got paid $45K per track for Pose.
I got $45K for Pose and $45K for Woo. I had to get this dude the whole 45 bands for the beat. You know what I mean? It's just crazy, homie. I sat there. I chopped that beat in front of The Weeknd. Travis was there. Ty Dolla $ign was there. It was a gang of motherfuckers in there. I was chopping, making the beat right there on the spot, bro.
And Dio Travis was like, damn, bro, like that shit weird. I watched you make the beat type shit. You know what I mean? And yeah, dude just was like, nah, like you stole my sounds. And I'm like, bro, I'm not even in Canon. Like, what's up? And it's like, I don't know if that nigga reached out or not, but it just was, it was ugly. I had to give him the money back and it was fucked up. But yeah.
I mean, I understand giving some money, but the whole, if you arranging the whole shit. Crazy, bro. And I was like, bro, like, let's work, my nigga. Like, send me some more loops.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He like, nah. We'll be better as friends.
I'm good. Like, all right, for sure. Gave him the bread. So, yeah, sicko mode.
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Chapter 7: How does Hit-Boy feel about the current state of the music industry?
magic magic three is my favorite on the magic side i think katie two is my favorite most people say magic one really yeah three is three is that shit to me yeah some shit on there um i know we're getting the wrap-up thing but we we did do this with jd briefly of the rather produce on an album that you didn't produce on reasonable doubt or illmatic That's crazy. I'm going to say Reasonable Doubt.
Why you say that? Shit. Man. He was just on that braggadocious, just dope boy talk. That shit was, we would have made some shit. And I feel like Dead Presidents kind of sound like a hit boy. Yeah, that's funny. That sound is very hit boy. Yeah, I feel it. The Infamous or Low End Theory? The Infamous, Dark, Gangsta, Gutter, Grime, yeah.
I only put those two together because you do have that sound, but you do do like more R&B, slow. Not to say Tribe is that, but some of the softer stuff. I was curious which you would prefer out of that entire thing. Chronic or Doggystyle? Chronic. The first Chronic? Yeah. Doggy style. They elevated on that one. You know what I mean? They took the sound up.
They, like, lasered in even more on that shit. Doggy style made niggas from New York feel like we was in L.A. Yeah. Like, that's how that music was so... Like, detailed and LA and California culture that everybody on the East Coast, definitely New York, listening to it, we definitely felt like we knew what LA was about. Like, we'd been there before. That's crazy. Ready to Die or All Eyes On Me?
Take your West Coast by its way. Even though Ready to Die is production-wise a West Coast album. Damn, I want to say All Eyes On Me. I damn near got to say that, but then producing for Big would have been perfect. We got the same birthday, me and Big, May 21st, so I'm like...
we'll make some crazy shit miseducation or aaliyah one in a million oh miseducation i ain't gonna lie you answered that too fast no but you got rapping and singing on that i feel like it gives you more space to to try but i mean yeah come on i ain't no disrespect to none of the since you name it i'm trying to choose yeah uh last one d'angelo brown sugar or uh shotty love deluxe oh damn
I feel like Hit-Boy is the only producer we could even ask these type of questions to. I would have wanted to produce on, I know you didn't say Lovers Rock, but that album is one of my favorite albums. That joint got blaps after blaps. That album in particular, I would have loved to produce on that. Is there any album that you thought you had a record on and it ended up not making it? Man, what?
motherfucking everything is love. That was the Jay-Z and Beyonce. We had so much shit in the tuck. I was like, what? This nigga literally told me. He emailed me and was like, you got two on here. Send me some more beats so you can get some more. Then the album come out and I ain't had nothing. I was like, god damn. I was distraught. You started making plans on how to shit. It just be like that.
I was at the park with my family when I found out. I had to go to the car like, yeah, fuck all this shit. Maybe they changed the title of the song and it's something else. I'm like, oh shit. But I mean, a lot of times with albums like those where Jay-Z and Beyonce were on tour and they just dropped it. Nah, nah, for sure. It's a process, bro. I ain't tripping at all.
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