Hit-Boy hits refresh with new LP, outlook

The rapper says 'Software Update' is more than just his musical reinvention.

- BY MIKI HELLERBACH

THE ARTIST has a forthcoming album.

In his childhood home, Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr., a.k.a. multi-Grammy-winning producer Hit-Boy, loved watching the 1991 film “The Five Heartbeats,” based loosely on the legacy of Motown R&B groups.

At his North Hollywood studio, Hit-Boy reveals a moment in the film that feels poignant to him. During one scene, actor Robert Townsend (who also directed and co-wrote the film) as Donald “Duck” Matthews accepts an award on behalf of the group the film is named after. In his speech, Duck confides that a music critic once said he’d “be a great writer one day when he suffers more.” He then says he now knows what he meant, as his suffering has elevated his craft.

“I feel like I had my suffering moments,” Hit-Boy says. “The [publishing] deal, dealing with my dad and all types of wild s—. I went through real pain and grief to get out on this side.”

In his speech Matthews also notes two sources of pain that have made him a better artist: his adulterous fiancée and selfish brother. Hit-Boy also has a dual source for his suffering: his exploitative label deal and his father’s roller-coaster ride through the criminal justice system.

Let's start with the record contract. In 2007, Hit-Boy signed a co-publishing deal with Universal Music Group and the producer Polow Da Don. He found out four years later, after the success of his production on Jay-Z and Kanye West's single “... In Paris,” that the money he assumed he'd make from his work wasn’t coming due to the deal’s constraints.

Photographs by LOUIS "U-JEEN" LEE "I PRODUCE with a lot more clarity now. I got a lot more control over my beats. I felt like I was guessing for most of my career," says rapper and producer Hit-Boy.