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Learning How to Be Self-Sufficient From the Most Important Producer of 2020
Sometimes the best lessons come from the bumps and bruises along the way
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
In a year that has seen musicians scrambling to adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic — which disrupted both touring and recording, not to mention wreaking havoc on release schedules — Hit-Boy has had one of the best stretches of his career.
The 33-year-old Fontana, California, producer/rapper executive-produced three of 2020’s most acclaimed rap albums, each with high stakes of their own: Nas’ King’s Disease; Big Sean’s Detroit 2; and Benny the Butcher’s sophomore album, Burden of Proof. It was all light work for the man born Chauncey Hollis, who’d previously been mostly known for being a hired gun for singles and stand-out album cuts.
In 2011, Hit-Boy signed a production deal with Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint, subsequently producing “Clique” for the label’s Cruel Summer compilation and the inescapable “Niggas in Paris” for Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne album. He’s since grown his resumé to include heaters from A-listers like Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Ariana Grande, Lil Wayne, and Travis…
