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 reveals to The Times a moment in the film that currently feels poignant. 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 reveals that a music critic once said he’d “be a great writer one day when he suffers more.” He continues saying he now knows what he meant, as his suffering has elevated his craft. “I feel like I had my suffering moments,” Hit says, in alignment with Townsend’s Matthews. “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 Townsend’s speech as Matthews, he 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 based on his sheer talent and potential. He found out four years later, in 2011, after the success of his production on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s single “…In Paris,” that the money he assumed would come in from his work simply wasn’t coming due to the deal’s constraints. Maybe even more importantly, after digging into the details, Hit realized that his contract had no end date and existed perpetually for the rest of his life. It then took him 10 years of continued success before he could renegotiate. In 2021, with the help of Jay-Z and Desiree Perez at Roc Nation, who were managing Hit at the time, he was finally able to set a release date from the deal in 2025. Hit-Boy is now, finally, free. An independent artist for the first time since he was 19 years old.
Yet, nearly coinciding with his release from a predatory contract, Hit-Boy’s father, Chauncey Hollis Sr., a.k.a. Big Hit, was reincarcerated in October of 2024. Big Hit’s history with the criminal justice system before this included serving 15 years in prison for possession of 10 kilos of cocaine, 10 guns and $300,000 in cash. Then, after six years of release, he served another 12 years for a hit-and-run incident. In 2023, Big Hit came home and went on a musical run as a rapper with his now hyper-successful son. The duo made a collaborative album with legacy L.A. producer the Alchemist in “Black & Whites,” an album with L.A. rapper the Game in “Paisley Dreams” and a project with just the two of them, “Surf or Drown, Vol. 2,” in a single year. But, the whole time, Hit-Boy was hyperaware of the potential impending doom to come. “He is literally that guy that he portrays himself as,” Hit says about his father’s actions. “So he could go back at any given moment. If I didn’t hear from him for hours, the first thing in my head was, ‘This is the moment he gets locked back up.’ It was real paranoia.” Thus, Hit-Boy went on a tunnel-visioned music release whirlwind with his father until that fear turned into a full reality. While the details of Big Hit’s most recent arrest aren’t public, Hit-Boy does mention his father “could have been outside on probation right now but said he’d rather be in prison.”
Hit-Boy’s first musical body of work to arrive on the heels of this extended vexatious period is his forthcoming album, naturally titled “Software Update.” On the project, he channels a Duck Matthews-esque energy and history into a reloaded version of himself. A reverberating “Boondocks”-referencing lyric jumps out of the speakers on the opening title track — “Free-man just like Huey and Riley” — over a pulsating, 808-riddled instrumental that eventually transitions mid-song into sleek, piano-driven boom-bap. The new album is his first solo work where he’s the sole rapper and producer at the helm since right before his father’s release. Hit-Boy feels the beats, in particular, are the sharpest they’ve ever been because of how much he leaned into his craft amid his persistent turmoil. “It was definitely always my therapy. No matter what was going on, happy times, sad times, upset or angry, I could just sit down and make a beat that felt like I did.” Hit explains. “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. I was throwing s— in the pot and hoping it would stick. Now I can make my 808s do whatever I want them to do, and can make my melodies transform.”
Hit Boy
(Louis “U-Jeen” Lee)
However, Hit-Boy’s perseverance and focus are not the only things that’ve helped him feel revived. He also credits a recent foray into therapy for his newfound artistic clarity. “Therapy has opened me up and made me a lot more vocal,” he says. “It made me understand certain s— I had to confront from my past so I could make peace.” Hit adds, “Your mind is like a computer system, for real. You gotta update it every day pretty much if you want to be great, if you want to push yourself.” Thus, his new album title.
Therapy’s healing impact on Hit-Boy has extended beyond just art. He’s become aware of his lack of ability to set boundaries, which he attributes to some of his early-career difficulties. But also, perhaps most importantly, he’s realized the type of father he wants to be to his son, who during our interview repeatedly poked his head in to see what his star producer dad was doing but also to ask for ice cream. Hit-Boy intentionally keeps his son around him and his work to create an everlasting bond and example he never quite had. The impact of this choice recently manifested in an expression that feels like a direct result of the work Hit-Boy has done on himself.
“My son wrote a Father’s Day card at school for me,” Hit recalls. “The first thing that came to his mind, they put it on there. They asked him, ‘How old is your dad?’ He said, ‘My dad is 89 years old.’ It’s funny. I was like, ‘No, I’m 38.’ He was like, ‘Well, I was close. The 8 and the 38.’ But then he also wrote, ‘My dad always says, I love you.’ I don’t have that memory. My dad probably told me a lot on the phone from prison, but I could only talk to him every so often. He told me he loved me, but I get to tell my son that every day, and for that to be implanted in him … I’m doing something right, you know?”
Hit-Boy, now with a heightened sense of purpose, prowess and freedom, feels an increased sense of urgency to share as much of his craft with the world as he can. “I feel like Sonic the Hedgehog,” he proclaims. There are murmurings among his team about a few potential follow-ups to “Software Update.” But a project that is all but confirmed for the near future is Hit’s second full-length project with the Alchemist, this time sans Big Hit as an added main artist. This album has an extended 40-minute short film attached to it. We viewed it on a projector screen in one of the studio’s rooms. It’s the most fervent representation of what feels like Hit-Boy enacting a cinematic rebirth.
He’s also starting a foundation called the Next Hits, which will be based out of a new massive studio space he’s just secured, also in North Hollywood, where displaced kids will be able to learn about the music business and how to produce or engineer if they wish. “I’m just thinking about it all from a true rounded artist perspective with the way I’m presenting myself,” Hit-Boy says. “I’m trying to get my full self to cut through.” You could call this his Robert Townsend era — as he’s both the director and star of his craft and life.
