“I feel like I only just started making beats”: Hit-Boy is free and pushing himself to the limitIt’s 10:08 am in Los Angeles, and Hit-Boy is late to our interview — but for good reason. He’s been in the studio for three hours putting the finishing touches on his 2026 solo album, Software Update, which has already been in several years of development. “After today, it’ll be done, for sure,” he promises over video call.
Hit-Boy’s enthusiasm is palpable as he recounts his morning so far and explains the premise of Software Update: levelling up and creating on his own terms.
Hit-Boy on the MusicTech Cover. Image: Bradley Meinz for MusicTech
“Working with a free mind is completely different from working from a place of like, ‘Fuck, have I really made it yet? Am I going back to poverty? Am I gonna go back to standing in welfare lines trying to get free fucking milk and cheese?’” he explains. “Now, I’m excited to be able to work on straight art.”
It might seem strange to hear the three-time Grammy-winning artist talk about being in poverty. He is, after all, the producer behind Diamond-selling records such as Ni**as In Paris by Jay-Z and Kanye West and Sicko Mode by Travis Scott. But the past 18 years of his career were blighted by a brutal publishing deal he signed with Universal Music Group as an emerging producer.
Hit-Boy inked his deal in 2007, accepting a cash advance of $50,000, which, he says, was a lot of money to 19-year-old Chauncey Hollis Jr.. The terms of the deal, however, were archaic in a fast-moving age of music listening technology. His royalties, for example, were collected only from CD sales, not digital streams. It was only in 2011, when Ni**as in Paris became an explosive hit in the new online era, that Hit-Boy realised just how stifling the agreement was. He’s since described the agreement as a “prison deal”, and reveals that it pressured him to try and produce hits even bigger than Ni**as in Paris — not such an easy feat, given its immense cultural impact.
“I’m always thinking about how to make shit better… I’m not just settling”
Last year, the Californian producer was officially freed from the contract, with Jay-Z, his entertainment company Roc Nation, and Desiree Perez all playing a crucial role in helping him out of it. “It is kind of crazy that I gave Jay-Z his first diamond record, and he helped get me out of my slave deal. That’s a beautiful exchange,” Hit-Boy told Stereogum.
But Hit-Boy still has some mental barriers to overcome. “I’ve been doing therapy every week,” he shares, adding that music-making serves as an antidote to any pessimism in his career. “[When] I make music and feel myself getting better [at it], that shit feels better than money; a new idea, new creativity — that’s better than a million dollars in my account. I’m just taking advantage of this energy.”
Software Update is just one result of Hit-Boy’s renewed motivation from leaving the publishing deal and setting up his new home studio in Beverly Hills. “This shit has become a way of life,” he says. “Every day, I’m going into my studio as soon as I wake up, and just digging in. ‘How can I dig deeper and just make my shit better?’ That’s all I’m on. And that trickles down to every other part of my life; I’m back working out again, trying to eat better, cutting out certain shit, cutting out certain people. I gotta move right.”
Image: Bradley Meinz for MusicTech
And how else has Hit-Boy celebrated his freedom? “I threw a crazy party,” he says. But even that in service of his art. While the party was unfolding, he recorded a music video for Start Dissin’ with Spank Nitti James, BabyTron and AZ Chike. “I always make shit make sense,” Hit-Boy continues. “It’s all one thing to me. It’s just music. It’s art.”
Besides Software Update, Hit-Boy has been focusing on two other albums: Yeast Talkin’ with Californian rapper Spank Nitti James, and Goldfish with fellow producer legend The Alchemist. Both records, out now, see him move seamlessly between beatmaker and rapper, with candid lyricism and production that flows from classic boom-bap into heavier, trappier sounds. Both collaborators, though from different sides of hip-hop, share one thing with Hit-Boy: “They never been on no industry shit with me. They never been thirsty to be seen. None of that. They both always deliver,” he says.
Software Update was scheduled to arrive before the two collab albums, but working with The Alchemist and Spank Nitti galvanised Hit-Boy. Goldfish arrived with an entire movie, starring Hit-Boy and The Alchemist alongside Rory Culkin, Blake Anderson, Sarah McDaniel and a slew of other actors and friends. Yeast Talkin’, meanwhile, was a seamless flow of consciousness from Hit-Boy and Spank Nitti with no pressurising deadlines in sight. “That’s just where I was at in life,” Hit-Boy says. “Feeling my freedom, feeling myself, just getting it off. The energy just called for us to just drop the joints. I just go off the organic energy, what’s happening in my real life and how I really feel.”
Image: Bradley Meinz for MusicTech
That largely captures Hit-Boy’s workflow: He avoids putting any pressure on studio sessions, forcing creativity on specific days, or imposing any kind of routine. He’ll share ideas and progress online with his collaborators, and pull up to the studio when the feeling is right for both of them. “There’s no best way, it’s all whatever makes sense. Whenever we get time to make something happen, we just figure it out.”
The producer has worked with icons such as Beyoncé, Drake and Nas, but the creative relationships that matter most to Hit-Boy right now are more down-to-earth. When asked what makes his connection with his recent collaborators so special, Hit-Boy’s answer is straightforward: “Just being a real homie.”
“The Alchemist has always been solid with me, giving me advice, giving me techniques I could use, all type of shit…He’s just a cool dude. I’ve been thinking — it’s crazy — I got Diamond records with certain artists, got Grammys with people that won’t even text me back. If we got a Diamond record and Grammys and shit, why the fuck we not working more? Why can’t I reach you? That shit is weird. I just feel like I got real ones, and Alch has always been solid with me. I don’t want to work with nobody who I can’t get in touch with.”
“Everything in my real life, I just use it as fuel”
Though he’s revered for his collaborative work, Hit-Boy aims to make a statement of independence and self-reliance with Software Update. “You’re not gonna see 10 producers on every beat on my album,” he says. “I’m really doing the music; I’m writing my lyrics, making all the beats.”
The dedication to perfecting this album runs deep. Hit-Boy’s not just churning out hundreds of beats and picking 12 that work together, but is locking down an idea and refining it relentlessly until it meets his standard. This meticulous habit was inspired by a Kanye West documentary that he saw, in which West says that he’ll work on tracks until they’re perfect. For Hit-Boy, that can mean playing back tracks endlessly, to the frustration of others who are in the studio with him — but that continues until he no longer feels his “critical ear” is in the studio, too.
“I’ll be up at 1 am sometimes playing mixes and being like, ‘Okay, I can fix this. I can make this better,’” Hit-Boy says. “I’m always thinking about how to make shit better, especially with this Software Update mindset. I’m not just settling. I’m pushing myself to the fucking limits.”
Image: Bradley Meinz for MusicTech
Part of his new ‘levelling up’ mindset has involved a shift in his studio setup. Hit-Boy splits his creative time between his Beverly Hills home setup and his studio in North Hollywood; neither is jam-packed with gear, the producer preferring a minimal setup with his essential tools. “As long as I have Pro Tools and FL Studio, everything else will get figured out,” he says, adding that a trusty pair of KRK monitors are crucial to his home setup.
Producers reading this may remember Hit-Boy’s appearance in a ubiquitous 2019 commercial for Output’s Arcade plugin in which he famously claimed: “If I had this when I was maybe 20, I’d probably be a billionaire by now.” He laughs when we mention it today, but doubles down on the power of plugins and programming. Recently, he’s started experimenting with AI–powered plugins, too, including a voice changer, which can be heard on the album.
“I’m literally dialling in my exact melodies, my exact words, and just changing the voice,” he says. “That’s been fun. I changed my voice to a female voice a couple of times on the album, and people have been like, ‘Yo, who is that girl singing?’ That’s me! I just utilise it as an instrument.”
Image: Bradley Meinz for MusicTech
The laptop-driven Beverly Hills setup also lets Hit-Boy balance production with fatherhood: he can drop his five-year-old son off at school and be back making beats by 8:30 am. The school run is rarely soundtracked by Hit-Boy music, however — it’s mostly K-Pop Demon Hunters and Henry Danger.
“What do I gotta do to make him want to get in the car and play my music?!” says Hit-Boy, laughing in mock exasperation. “But he’s everything. He’s pushing me every day. I played the whole album, and it got to a song I hadn’t played in a while, but he remembered. He was like, ‘Oh, you haven’t played this song in a while; I still like it.’”
One thing that comes up frequently in our conversation is just how much inspiration Hit-Boy finds in everyday life. Despite an upbringing marked by struggle, with his father, Big Hit, serving multiple sentences in prison as Hit-Boy grew up, and with the 18-year publishing deal always looming, Hit-Boy has still kept optimistic.
“I get inspired by every single thing in life, bro. My crib in Beverly Hills is surrounded by greenery and palm trees, and crazy scenery in the middle of the mountains. So even being in my studio, it’s just a different perspective. I’m enjoying just listening back to my verses in the headphones, looking at the trees — that shit is inspiring. My son is inspiring to me. Everything in my real life, I just use it as fuel.”
“I just go off the organic energy, what’s happening in my real life and how I really feel”
With Software Update dropping in early 2026, Hit-Boy’s sights are set firmly on “greatness”, he says. What does that look like in practice? “The whole Billboard Top 10 produced by Hit-Boy… One day I feel like that shit could happen, man.”
He looks to the late Quincy Jones as an icon for greatness in music production, citing his untiring commitment to the craft up until his death at age 90.
“I’m just going til I can’t think of shit anymore. I don’t know how that’s gonna happen; I get inspired every day. I feel like I only just started making beats.”
And at 38 years old, Hit-Boy isn’t late at all. He has all the time in the world — and he plans to use it well.
Hit-Boy’s Software Update is on the way
Words: Sam Willings
Photography: Bradley Meinz
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