Jay-Z intervened to help Hit-Boy out of a music deal he signed when he was a 19.
During an interview on “The Shop” podcast, Hit-Boy, born Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr., reflects on an ongoing deal with Universal Music Group. When he first signed with the record label in 2007 a $50,000 check sounded like a must-have opportunity at the time, he says.
He had come from a home where his father had lived in prison for most of his life and his teen mother was not financially stable. It was Hit-Boy’s upbringing that pushed him to set higher goals for himself.
“I never really had the sh-t I wanted. I always had what I needed, you know what I mean? Something to eat, place to stay, but I wanted more for myself,” he explained on “The Shop.” “So, you know, just like, I took that opportunity and didn’t know, didn’t have the guidance, didn’t have those figures around me to tell me like, ‘Nah, they got you locked in this for a long time.’”
The deal would be “the worst publishing contract” Hit-Boy’s lawyers had seen, AFROTECH™ previously reported. At 37, Hit-Boy still isn’t keen on the deal, but after almost two decades, it seems the end is in sight, and he credits Jay-Z and Desiree Perez, CEO of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
“I signed when I was 19 years old. I’m about to be 37. So, yeah, I’ve been in the deal for a long time. Co-pub with Universal Publishing… and the way it was set up, it’s just ancient terminology in the contracts, and I just now, thanks to Desiree and Jay-Z and people like that, that really got me to the place I’m in now where I have an end date,” he mentioned.
Hit-Boy continued, “But before, my whole career, I was working without having an actual end date to the way we really get our money, which is through publishing. So, I’m like just a little bit more out. And that’s gonna be like, life-changing for me, you know what I mean? Just to even have freedom as a grown man. I haven’t been able to go do other deals or go get advances in different places like my counterparts have. And I eat very well, but it’s like, I know what it’s really supposed to be, and that’s gon be the day for me…I just want to really, just have that peace of mind and just be a grown person able to make my own decisions for the first time in the publishing world.”
