New World
Hit-Boy has a new outlook on life and a fresh album to showcase after navigating some challenging aspects of the music industry. With independence on his side, he is focused on letting his lyrics speak for themselves.
Interview: Kyle Eustice
Editor’s Note: This story appears in the Fall 2025 issue of XXL Magazine, on newsstands now and available for sale on the XXL website.
Hit-Boy admits he’s been depressed for most of his career. It’s a shocking revelation when considering his résumé. As the sonic architect behind Jay-Z and Kanye West’s diamond-certified hit, “Ni**as in Paris,” Lil Wayne’s “Drop the World” featuring Eminem, Travis Scott’s 15-times platinum “Sicko Mode” and Nas’ Grammy award-winning album, King’s Disease, 38 year-old Hit-Boy has established himself among the pantheon of decorated producers.
On the other hand, his work as a rapper showcases his vast range and prodigious talent on the mic. Hit-Boy’s time in the game dates back almost 20 years, with solo mixtapes and albums like HITstory in 2012, The Chauncey Hollis Project in 2019, and Surf or Drown in 2023, plus collab projects alongside Dom Kennedy (Courtesy of Half-a-Mil) and the Hits Since 87 crew (We The Plug), to name a few.
Back in 2007, Hit-Boy was just a teenager, eager to break into the music industry when he signed a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group and Polow Da Don. The partnership would go on to last 18 years. At the time, Hit didn’t realize the long-term impact of the contract he was entering. What seemed like a breakthrough opportunity eventually became, in his words, a “dark cloud” that hung over his career. Even as the hits piled up, the deal left him without ownership of his publishing and with only a fraction of the profits, while most of the profits flowed back to the company.
No matter how big he got or how many Billboard placements he landed, Hit, born Chauncey Hollis Jr., couldn’t fully enjoy the fruits of his labor under the enormous weight of the contract. The stress of it all sent him to therapy; in fact, he still attends. It wasn’t until this past July that Hit was finally liberated from the contract’s shackles and able to take the wheel as a newly independent artist, thanks to the help of Jay-Z. Hit holds how exactly Hov helped close to the chest.
Now that ugly cloud has disappeared to make room for Hit-Boy’s new album, Sftwre Updte, releasing in the coming months. The effort finds the Fontana, Calif. native both rapping and producing with a renewed sense of freedom and purpose on songs like “Eat Couch” and “What’s the Deal?” He dropped the joint project Goldfish with The Alchemist recently, too.
In August, speaking with XXL over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, Hit-Boy opened up about life and music with the candor of someone who’s seen both sides of the industry. Now a father to his 5-year-old son, Chauncey Hollis III, also known as C3, he reflected on his journey back to rapping, why ownership matters more than ever, and the growing trend of artists leaning on ChatGPT to craft lyrics. He also spoke openly about his father, Chauncey Hollis Sr. a.k.a. Big Hit and his return to prison and, in contrast, the sense of freedom he’s finally found for himself.
XXL: Sftwre Updte is your first new solo album in a few years. How does it feel to get back on the mic?
Hit-Boy: It’s good to put it on display, but I’m always on the mic. I’m always helping people write and producing for people, but I’m always recording my own music in the midst of that. It might not be coming out because you got to line so much other stuff up as an artist. Thank God for [my manager] Nima [Nasseri], [my day-to-day manager] Sam [Katz] and the squad just putting that side together and keeping track of everything we need to be doing outside of the music to make the music work.
You’ve been releasing a lot of new music this year where your lyricism is at the forefront, from “What’s the Deal?” to “Wheel of Fortune.”
I’ve been releasing every week [for much of July and August], so I feel good, man. I’m trying to keep it up. I didn’t drop all year up until [July], so I’m just about to put pressure on from here. I’m pretty much dropping for the rest of the year. The music, the quality, the content, the music, the lyrics, everything is just elevated. So, I’m excited for people to really, really start digging into this stuff.
Did your new studio give you a little extra inspiration?
I got a new studio and made two albums within two weeks. I was so hype on Sftwre Updte and then when I got in there, I just realized how I’ve really been thugging it out for years. I mashed out and won multiple Grammys out of that room at Chalice [Recording Studio] I was in. I got platinum plaques and everything but being out of there and being in my own space now, it’s just way more spacious. I can breathe. My music is just flowing like water right now.
How do you balance being a producer and a rapper, and what do you think you excel in more?
To be honest, it’s all one world. I don’t look at it no different. If I’m writing a verse, if I’m rapping, if I’m making a beat, I’m excited to make a piece of music. It’s not about, “I enjoy this one thing more.” To me, it’s all art. You just kind of put them all together. Even the visual aspect, my sh*t is just elevated.
I always wanted to be a good visual artist and didn’t understand aesthetics and understand how I needed to present myself or put myself on display. Now I do. So, it’s that time to really dig in and take advantage. I love when I feel my own growth. That’s when I wanna go harder. I wanna apply the new knowledge. I wanna apply the new information that I have and just make better stuff.
You got out of an 18-year publishing deal this year, and Jay-Z helped secure that freedom. Can you talk a little bit about that and how he got you out of that situation?
It was a situation I had been in since ’07. I signed one year out of high school. I was 19 and basically didn’t know that the game was shifting the way that it did. Some of the language in my contract made it impossible for me to get through it. I didn’t even know I was in a bad deal until 2011, once I made my first hit. I was going to look for that check, the real money. And they were like, “No, you in this contract. So, you gotta thug it out.”
As time went on, it just started being like a dark black cloud over me, kind of made me depressed, frustrated and just kind of antsy about trying to see what it was going to take. Like, Man, did I need to make a bigger hit than “Ni**as in Paris?” But how the f**k you going to do that? That’s a lot of pressure for a [then]-24-year-old to be like, F**k, now I got to outdo this, versus just letting the music flow.
Now I’m in a place where it can flow, and I’m not worried about trying to make it or whatever the case is. I know who I am and what I’ve contributed. If I did all of this under that much pressure, now that I’m free and clear, what the f**k I’m about to make now?
You’re in therapy because you realized that you were depressed most of your career, and a lot of it had to do with this deal. When did the fog start to lift?
[This past] July, when I got out the deal. My end date was in 2021, so I had to wait another four years and just work my ass off in those four years and get to this place. And July 2025, my deal was over, and now I’m free.
How has your approach to producing evolved with the changing landscape of hip-hop and technology?
It’s certain stuff that’s out right now that I’m like, Damn, if I had this 10 years ago, I would’ve went crazy. It’s just a lot of tools that you can use to fuel your creativity and not ever really run out of ideas. I’ve been listening to BabyChiefDoit from Chicago, a little 17-year-old kid. He’s super dope. He just went on the interview and say he be using ChatGPT to write his lyrics. I would have never thought.
What do you think about that?
It’s a new day. He’s a kid. They doing it, man. So, it is what it is.
You’ve got to meet them in 2025, right?
It’s 2025. Man, you better get with it.
With so many hits under your belt, how do you avoid creative burnout and keep your sound fresh?
Study, love music. I listen and try to watch as many videos as possible. I might wake up and put YouTube on and watch the most high-quality video to the most low quality, just seeing what’s out there and trying to get inspired. I feel like, especially now with so many tools, even with the AI stuff, it’s like you can never really get creative block no more unless you just want to pigeonhole yourself and don’t want to at least experiment with what’s out there.
What’s going on with your record label Surf Club?
We mashin’, man. I’m investing my time and energy into just building this thing up to what it needs to be.
What artists are currently signed to the label?
Nobody right now, just me. But I am working with the homie Spank Nitti [James]. He’s from the Inland Empire [in California] and he’s super dope. We just put out a song called “Eat Couch.” It’s a whole different movie when you see it in action, though. We got an album coming after my album.
What moment are you most proud of this year? It’s got to be getting out of your deal.
Definitely.
Was there a major hip-hop cultural movement that you loved?
The Pop-Out with Kendrick Lamar. My son and my dad was onstage with Kendrick at the end of the show when he was performing “Not Like Us.” I thought that was ill.
Where did you get your passion for prison reform and supporting the underrepresented communities?
I got a passion for telling my story. I’m not gonna say I’m super heavy into prison reform. I know the squad is taking classes and we learning about just having a foundation and stuff like that. This is more so telling my story and just how I was able to make something of myself, even having a pops [Big Hit] who was in prison my whole life. I had flown down to attend my dad’s court case. He had a court date, and I ended up going on the stand and talking to the judge. I was telling my story.
Wow, that’s a lot.
I started crying, bawling f**king tears. I could barely breathe over that muthaf**ka. I was really telling my real story, and the judge was just compelled, like, “Damn, how was you able to get this much done with even having a father that’s on this type of sh*t?” It made me really realize, “Damn, I really did do something special.”
How old were you when he got out?
He got locked up when I was 3. Then he didn’t get out for the first time until I was 17. He went back less than a year later. Ever since then, he hasn’t been out for even a year. He’ll make it like nine, 10 months most times, and he’ll go right back.
He’s back in now?
Yeah, he’s back in right now. They just gave him three more years. That was a lot of pressure. He went back last July, so this whole last year. I actually just did a verse, and I mentioned it. I talked about the last 12 months from July ’24 to July ’25, all the shit I went through. There’s a snippet on my Instagram. You should go check it out. You’ll really kind of see.
What advice do you have to the producers who are coming up?
Take advantage of the resources you have. You can just start a ’Gram or a Twitter or something and just upload. That’s essentially what I did when Myspace first came out. That’s how I got my publishing deal was through MySpace.
Listen to Hit-Boy and The Alchemist’s Goldfish Album
The fall 2025 issue of XXL magazine featuring Hit-Boy‘s interview is available to purchase here. The issue also includes Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D’s cover story interviews, conversations with Chance The Rapper, Curren$y, Rob49, KenTheMan, Bay Swag, Wallo267, Hurricane Wisdom, Hanumankind, Babyfxce E, Ghostface Killah, Conway The Machine, Pluto, TiaCorine, Isaiah Falls, comedian Josh Joshson, Vice President of Music at SiriusXM and Pandora Joshua “J1” Raiford, a look at the change in album rollouts over the years highlighted by Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out album and more.
See Photos From Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D’s XXL Magazine Fall 2025 Cover Shoot
