THE HITMAKER RETURNS

As my parents boasted about the music that defined their generation— melodic syncopations, deep voices that pushed back on the bass, and lyricism that forced you to stop the track and rewind— I thought about songs that echoed in the memory of my own youth. Remembering my teen years, I wondered which songs were the ones that penetrated me on a cellular level— what were the songs that have become part of the DNA of myself, and of my peers, so much so that we will one day turn up the volume on the stereo and say to our kids, “what do you know about this?”.

The answer came quite quickly as I thumbed through dusty Spotify playlists from high school and middle school. "Ni**as in Paris" by Jay-Z and Kanye West, “Trophies” by Drake, and “Sicko Mode” by Travis Scott. So vividly, I can remember, the first time I heard these songs, the first time I heard them at a party, and then the first time I played them in my Mini Cooper as I whipped out of my suburban high school and felt like I owned the world. Along with being the songs that helped me feel much too big for my britches, they are just a few of the countless gems produced by Hit-Boy, one of the industry’s most prolific producers, who has fashioned the soundtrack for a generation. 

The Lucid Monday team met up with Hit-Boy, otherwise known as Tony Montana, or Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr., at his new home studio tucked away in the unassuming streets of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. The space was quiet, speckled with muffled giggles from his five year old son, called C3 — Chauncey the third— and the welcoming conversation from his day to day manager Sam, from Iowa. As C3 warmed up to the LM team, inviting us play basketball with an imaginary hoop made from our arms, giving us descriptions of his pancake breakfast, and guessing our favorite colors, Hit-Boy, quietly magnanimous, snuck up on us, like the puckering bubbles of the sparkling water always stocked in his studio. He sat down with us on the heels of completing his first independent project, and it was clear, he has arrived. His quiet confidence, and reserved humility are a testament to the fact that he has found the footsteps he’s been carving since he entered the music industry over 18 years ago.

Raised by his community, primarily, his mother, grandmother, and uncles, in Fontana, CA, his younger years were set to the tune of the Motown greats and West coast legends like NWA, Ice Cube, Snoop, and King Tee. Music was always around him, but there is one album that began to churn something in him. He recalls his “RnB goat” of an uncle, somehow getting his hands on an unreleased record from King Tee, one of the first artists out of Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment.

“[My uncle] had a cassette, and he used to play that album all the time and I was blown away by the beats— it was super gangster, west coast, hiphop—and I was just like, I gotta start doing this! I don’t know how I’m gonna do it, but I gotta figure this out. How do I make stuff like that?”

Inspired by this introduction to Battlecat and Dr. Dre.— G-funk sound, a mix of fat synth basslines, soulful keys, live instrumentation, layered melodies, and crisp mixing — Hollis began tinkering away on FL Studio or Fruity Loops. He’s been loyal to the platform since ‘03 under the name “Tony Fontana”, paying homage to his San Bernardino roots. Despite the moderate fun people have poked at him for his commitment to Fruity Loops, often calling it juvenile or pedestrian, it is the launchpad for several of his hits, most notably, Ni**as in Paris. It is also the home to many of his great contemporaries, like Metro Boomin’, Boi-1da, and Southside Wheezy.

“I’m not… a technical… motherf***er. I make what I feel in the moment…I go off straight feeling…I didn’t want people to know it was me — I just [wanted to] make shit that is customized to the artist with my DNA…when I’m making beats I’m truly expressing myself.”

Hollis’ productional expression taps into something quite raw, something pure. He has an unparalleled chameleonic ability to adapt to the DNA of so many. His first major production credit appears on Lil Wayne’s “Drop the World”, quickly followed by "Ni**as in Paris" in 2011, then Beyonce’s "Sorry", and Travis Scott’s "Sicko Mode". Not to mention the entire production of six of Nas’ albums (King's Disease (2020), King's Disease II (2021), Magic, King's Disease III (2022), Magic 2 and Magic 3 (2023)), and countless more. But, due to an incredibly restrictive 50k perpetuity deal he signed as a teenager, he has spent the better half of his 18-year long career feeling far removed from the artistry he is constructing, despite his massive contributions to this millennium’s musical legends.

“I was in a mental prison. I’m making big records but I'm not seeing what I'm supposed to be seeing as far as the fruits of my labor…I really feel like I've been depressed for 14 years straight.”

Now, free from the deal with the help of Jay-Z and Roc Nation, he is relishing in the independence. He’s closing the year with the highly anticipated release of his first independent project, “SFTWRE UPDTE”, diving deep into his creative endeavors with the recently released, “GOLDFISH", a collaborative album with Alchemist, and spending time with his family. But, little can compare to the feeling of standing on his own, he feels like he has already won.

“I feel like a new man…It's a step above where I've been as an artist. It's about my own personal progress…”

“Now that I'm at this point I understand that I’ve always wanted to be an artist, a true artist… but I didn't have the knowledge, I was so far removed from understanding the world fully. I'm glad that the production sh*t took off because I was surrounded by so many good artists…[I learned] it’s not just about making a beat, it’s not just making the song—how are you gonna connect to the people?”

And, we felt this connection— this community, this world he’s building for us to find each other and find ourselves in.