Hit-Boy

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Deliver An Elegant Performance Of ‘What A Life’ On ‘Fallon’

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Big Sean and Hit-Boy brought their What You Expect EP single “What A Life” to the Tonight Show stage on Thursday with a thrilling, elegant performance. Decked out in matching tailored suits and enjoying a luxurious meal in a stately lounge, the dynamic duo is presented with a mic for Sean and a beat machine atop a grand piano for Hit-Boy. While the performance begins while they’re still seated, they smoothly slide from their well-appointed booth to a makeshift stage in the center of the room, where Sean goes for broke and Hit shows off his finger drumming skills.

The new project, which finds the two frequent collaborators paired up for a full five tracks that demonstrate the breadth and depth of their chemistry, is also the first of Big Sean’s new label venture independent of his past association with Kanye West’s GOOD Music. The timing of its release turned out to be opportune as well, as Ye’s appearance on the Drink Champs podcast just days later found Sean’s onetime mentor throwing him under the bus by saying that signing Sean to GOOD was the “worst thing” he ever did. Sean laughed off his old boss’ digs, although he did point out that Ye still owes him millions from their initial deal.

Instead, Sean and Hit focused on the positive, following up with more videos from the EP, including “The One” and “Chaos,” showing that they’ll both be just fine without help from the mercurial Mr. West.

Watch Big Sean and Hit-Boy’s late-night performance of “What A Life” above.

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Live Amongst ‘Chaos’ In Their Hectic New Video

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Just a year after Big Sean released his fifth album Detroit 2, which is executive produced by Hit-Boy, the duo reconnected once more. The pair dropped their EP What You Expect at the end of last month, and they’ve been promoting it heavily. Their run continues with a new video for “Chaos,” which finds them in the midst of chaos as people run hectically around them and in and out of buildings. The chaos continues throughout the video as fights break out and a number of items get destroyed.

What You Expect, which features Bryson Tiller, 42 Dugg, Babyface Ray, and Lil Durk, is Sean’s first project on his newly-launched label FF To Def Entertainment. He recently tweeted about the new imprint and his departure from Ye’s GOOD Music. “By the way this the first project where I’m on my own label as well,” he wrote. “No more lil dawg sh*t!!!! I bossed up!” After a fan asked if he was still signed to GOOD Music, he replied, “That’s a forever brotherhood, but business-wise, I had to start getting a bigger cut! I worked my way out that deal.”

Ye later threw that relationship into the wind by saying the worst thing he ever did was sign Sean to GOOD Music.

You can watch the video for “Chaos” above.

What You Expect is out now via FF To Def Entertainment/Def Jam. Get it here.

42 Dugg is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Get Back To Basics In The Picturesque ‘The One’ Video

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At the rate that Big Sean and Hit-Boy are dropping videos for their new EP, What You Expect, they’ll have one for every one of the project’s five tracks by this time next week. The dynamic duo kicked off the rollout for the EP with the eyebrow-raising video for “What A Life” in which Sean allowed himself to be covered in bees. Then, they dropped the “Loyal To A Fault” video featuring Bryson Tiller and Lil Durk, taking over a bowling alley for a private party.

Now, they have followed up with the short-and-simple video for “The One,” which finds the two collaborators working on tracks in a bedroom studio with a view of the hills through a floor-to-ceiling window — honestly, that’s way more inspiring than the usual, dungeon-like setup. Shot in black and white to highlight its simplicity, the video gets straight to the heart of what makes their connection work so well: A shared love for the process of making music, pushing themselves by doing what each does best.

The EP arrived in the midst of a career resurgence for both artists. While Big Sean is no longer on GOOD Music (a good thing, considering how Kanye supposedly feels about the signing) but dropping revitalized music (much of it produced by Hit-Boy), Hit-Boy is also recovering from his negative associations with Ye, once again becoming an in-demand producer for the likes of Nas, Benny The Butcher, and a resurgent Dom Kennedy.

Watch Big Sean and Hit-Boy’s “The One” video above.

What You Expect is out now via Def Jam. Listen to it here.

Hit-Boy Claims Ye Tried To Blackball Him From The Music Industry After They Had A Fallout

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Hit-Boy Grammy Museum 2021
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It’s been years since Ye and producer Hit-Boy have worked together, and it’s all because the two had a falling out some years back. Hit-Boy previously spoke about the separation, saying it occurred after Ye found out he was working with Beyonce. During a recent interview on the Rory & Mal podcast, Hit-Boy further discussed the incident and how it almost affected his career. “I thugged through a lot of f*cked up sh*t, falling out with Kanye f*cked me up for a minute bro,” Hit-Boy said. “I was damn n****, am I still gonna be able to do this sh*t?”

He continued, “Just being a thousand, it’s n****s that done came to me that was like Ye said to this n****, ‘Don’t use Hit-Boy on your album.’ Like I really lived through that, n****. How many motherf*ckers could get through Kanye tryna derail their sh*t bro? So now you see why I’m at the Nas party like, “N**** I did a harder album than for Nas than you did, that’s just real.”

The Nas party that Hit-Boy is referring to is the album release celebration the two artists had for King’s Disease II, the Nas album that Hit-Boy executive produced. It was there that Hit-Boy said to the audience, “It’s not a hundred n****s producing the beat. It’s not a hundred n****s writing the rhymes, n****. It’s two n****s in the studio. I hear this shit right now, homie. It’s going down. King’s Disease II. Stream that sh*t, buy that sh*t.”

He added, “There don’t be n****s in the studio. It’s just me and bro. Do y’all hear this sh*t? It’s just me and this n**** in the studio. He’s barred up, I’m making beats. No hoopla. We not on f*ckin’ Twitter botherin’ y’all. We not on IG Live putting a weird-ass stream up, n****. We doin’ this sh*t for real though, n****! Stop playin’!”

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Connect For The Fiery ‘What You Expect’ EP

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Though Hit-Boy has always been one of the most respected producers in the game, he’s really been on a streak lately. After producing not one but two projects with Nas that helped catapult the veteran New York rapper back into the realm of modern hip-hop heroes, now he’s connected with Detroit’s Big Sean for a new EP. You’d think with King’s Disease II coming out just a few short months ago the producer might rest on his laurels for a moment, but no.

Rolling out the collaboration slowly with a new single called “What A Life” a few days ago, today the duo announced that song was the lead-off for a whole EP, and now that project is here, too. Sharing another video for the stacked collaboration, “Loyal To A Fault,” with cameos from Bryson Tiller and Lil Durk, the new EP’s tracklist also includes performances from Babyface Ray and 42 Dugg, but no one else. Clearly, it will be primarily focused on how Sean and Hit-Boy vibe together. Of course, some of the best songs off Sean’s latest album Detroit 2 were when Hit-Boy was involved, but this new song collection emphasizes that more than ever.

Check out the video for “Loyal To A Fault” up above and stream the entire tape below.

Big Sean & Hit-Boy Team Up

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Big Sean & Hit-Boy

Grammy-nominated artist Big Sean and longtime collaborator Hit-Boy have announced their next EP. “What You Expect” is coming this Friday. Hit-Boy and Big Sean To Drop An EP This Friday Sean and Hit Boy’s long list of collaborations go back to their 2012 smash hit “Clique”. The two also joined forces on three songs from […]

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Announce Their Collaborative ‘What You Expect’ EP

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Big Sean/Hit-Boy

So far, the creative partnership between Big Sean and Hit-Boy has been massively fruitful. Beginning with their work on GOOD Music’s 2012 posse cut “Clique,” the duo has put out almost a decade’s worth of hits and fan-favorite bangers, right up to last year’s Detroit 2 and its fiery singles “Deep Reverence,” “Lithuania,” and “Lucky Me.” They kept that momentum this year with “What A Life,” which turned out to be the first single from a collaborative EP the two announced today, What You Expect.

As revealed by Big Sean, the EP will include five new songs, a number he increased from just one new song after a month of chatting up how much he’s enjoying himself just rapping lately. “I had fun doing that LA Leakers freestyle n droppin the What A Life song/video,” he wrote on Twitter today. “it feel good to be active, n just doin whatever the f*ck I wanna do.” Last week, Sean drew attention for delivering a nearly nine-minute freestyle over four different beats, tackling Kanye West’s “Hurricane,” Drake and Jay-Z’s “Love All,” Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek’s “Dear Summer,” and Nardo Wick’s “Who Want Smoke??”

Meanwhile, Hit-Boy is riding high after his pair of successful King’s Disease releases with Nas, which prompted the Queens legend to call the California producer his Quincy Jones.

What You Expect is due 10/29 via Def Jam.

Big Sean And Hit-Boy Celebrate Their Best Moments On The Reflective ‘What A Life’

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Big Sean returned to the music world with a chip on his shoulder and his spike in activity continues with his latest single, “What A Life.” The track is produced by Hit-Boy and it finds the Detroit rapper reflecting on his best moments and the hardships he got through over a quick-paced beat supplied by Hit-Boy. It marks the latest collaboration between the two as they last connected on the rapper’s fifth album, Detroit 2, which was released towards the end of last year and was executive produced by Hit-Boy himself.

The track also seems to be a sequel to the rapper’s 2015 track, “What A Year” which features appearances from Pharrell and Detail with the latter responsible for the song’s production. Big Sean released the song two days after stopping by Power 106’s LA Leakers to deliver a sharp freestyle over five songs that include Kanye West’s “Hurricane,” which he originally had a verse on, Drake and Jay-Z’s “Love All,” Nardo Wick’s “Who Wants Smoke??” and more. A day after it was released, Big Sean took to Twitter to explain his intention behind the freestyle.

“I’ll do a hype song, a conscious song, a love song or strip club song and will hop on a song with anybody and hold my own,” he wrote. “That’s why I rapped on 4 different styles of beats on the LA Leakers cause I embrace being versatile, love to everybody who listened as well and sharing.”

Listen to “What A Life” above.

50 of the Greatest Producer Tags in Hip-Hop

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Pi’erre Bourne, Tay Keith, Southside and more have some of the coolest producer tags in hip-hop. Continue reading…