Hit-Boy is no stranger to the top of the charts. As a producer and songwriter, he has helped craft anthems for hip-hop titans like Drake, Nas and Lil Wayne, as well as pop icons including Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande. It's a testament to both his ear and his personable style.

"We've made some of our best songs in just one night off straight vibe," said the rapper Big Sean, a frequent collaborator. "It's never forced, always natural."

At only 38, Hit-Boy is already a veteran of nearly two decades in the music industry. That time has seen rapid changes in how songs are composed, performed, released and consumed, giving him a unique viewpoint on the evolution of the music industry.

As an artist, he is working on an upcoming solo album, "Sftwre Updte," after exiting a publishing deal he had been tethered to since he was a teenager. He recently talked to The Times about several of his songs and projects that illustrate how he has worked within a constantly changing musical landscape and soundscape.

'Drop the World'

Hit-Boy, born Chauncey Hollis Jr., was inundated with diverse music at a young age. His uncle, Rodney Benford, was a member of the R&B group Troop. His mother often played Mary J. Blige, while his grandmother kept Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin on frequent rotation. Another uncle favored N.W.A, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg.

"All that music was just downloading into my soul," he said.

He got his start releasing remixes on MySpace and selling burned CDs outside a mall for $5. In 2007, he said, he signed a $50,000 copublishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group and Polow da Don, a producer who mentored him after uncovering his MySpace beats.

Hit-Boy was 19. The deal, he said, had no end date. (Polow da Don did not respond to a request for comment; Universal Music Publishing Group declined to comment but addressed his contact status in 2020.)

"I didn't understand the terms," he said. "I'm just trusting the lawyer."

Two years later, when Hit-Boy was living in Atlanta, his ears perked when he heard a Lil Wayne interview revealing the artist he'd most like to work with was Eminem.

He went to work with Chase N. Cashe, a producer and musician, creating the main synth sound that carries "Drop the World."

"When we made the beat, I swear to God, I was like, 'This could be the beat for Wayne and Eminem,'" Hit-Boy said. They emailed the track to Wayne's engineer. "We was emailing heavy back then," Hit-Boy said. "We was just sending beats out to whoever we could."

When the song blew up, "I was watching that on the iTunes charts and I was going crazy," Hit-Boy said. "Wayne was on super fire at that time. That put me and Chase in a space where hip-hop Twitter was talking about us -- that hip-hop sphere of the blog era."

'Niggas in Paris'

Jay-Z and Ye, formerly Kanye West, cleverly trade lines bouncing off an up-tempo beat on one of the catchiest tracks from their 2011 collaboration, "Watch the Throne."

Hit-Boy, who had joined Ye's G.O.O.D. Music, had worked on other beats he thought would land on the album. He had forwarded the "Niggas in Paris" track, featuring icy synthesizers and bleeps, to Ye eight months earlier. When it didn't elicit a response, he agreed to let the artist Chilly Chill use it for a mixtape. But Don C, then Ye's manager, reached out, asking him to resend the file: Hit-Boy 1663.

Ye followed up. "When this song drops your life about to change," he wrote.

Ye tinkered with the beat, including adding the opening sample -- dialogue spoken by Will Ferrell in "Blades of Glory: "We're going to skate to one song and one song only."

The song captured best rap performance and best rap song at the 2013 Grammy Awards, and the duo was known to perform it over and over again at live shows.

As triumphant as the moment was, it became bittersweet. Hit-Boy had expected more money from such a hit song, he noted, but it never arrived.

"That was the time I realized it was going to be an uphill battle," he said of his copublishing deal.

'King's Disease' and 'Magic' trilogies

Several years ago, Hit-Boy was scrolling through social media and saw that a friend had been in the studio with Nas. Hit-Boy sent a message, asking him to bring the "Illmatic" rapper by his place.

"He actually pulled up the next day," Hit-Boy said. "We did three ideas he recorded on the spot."

Nas said he'd come by again the following day. "He didn't leave for three years," Hit-Boy said. "He kept pulling up. It just was working at that time."

The partnership lasted from 2020 to 2023, resulting in critically acclaimed albums that include the "King's Disease" and "Magic" trilogies, with Hit-Boy serving as the projects' sole producer. In 2021, "King's Disease" finally landed Nas his first Grammy after 14 nominations.

"That was just confirmation that I'm doing it the right way, sticking to my guns and doing what sounds real to me," Hit-Boy said.

'Grindin' My Whole Life, Pt. 2'

Hit-Boy navigated most of his life without his father, Chauncey Hollis Sr., the artist known as Big Hit, who has been in and out of prison the bulk of the past three decades.

Big Hit received a nine-year prison sentence in 2023 related to a hit-and-run incident. While incarcerated, he pursued his music career, and when he was released, father and son began actively pursuing their passions together.

They woke up early the day after his father returned home and penned "Grindin' My Whole Life, Pt. 2," detailing their divergent paths while maintaining a father-son bond.

In December 2024, Big Hit released his debut solo album, "The Truth Is in My Eyes." Hit-Boy served as executive producer and helped wrangle Snoop Dogg, Benny the Butcher and the Alchemist for appearances.

"When he gets an idea, he goes into a mode where he has laser precision with the execution and urgency of it," the Alchemist, one of rap's most prolific producers, said of Hit-Boy. "He thinks in capital letters."

The project provided the bond that Hit-Boy wanted with this father. They recorded more than 700 songs. But Big Hit landed back in jail, a setback that caused Hit-Boy to reflect on the commitment he offered.

"I gave my pops everything I could financially," Hit-Boy said. "I've lost so much bread, opportunities, connections and put my name on the line. It still wasn't enough to keep him out of the system. That's what has led me to be like, I'm not holding no more hands. If I got to say that about my pops, I can say that about anybody."

The next chapter: A.I. and beyond

In early September, Hit-Boy threw a lavish party to celebrate the end of the publishing contract that he said has restricted him nearly half of his life.

He credits a phone call to Jay-Z and Desiree Perez, the chief executive of Roc Nation, for helping him negotiate an agreement to end the deal.

"I feel like I'm about to get out of prison right now," he said. "I'm free for the first time in my adult life."

Freshly inspired, Hit-Boy is working on a number of projects, including a solo album that will feature Dom Kennedy, Peezy and Orion Sun; a joint album and accompanying short film with the Alchemist called "Goldfish" that arrives on Oct. 25; and a podcast called "Let Em Cook," which will bring together chefs and cultural figures.

He is also experimenting with music's latest frontier: artificial intelligence. Recently, he used it to turn his voice into a female one to hear how it would sound in a specific spot.

"I can get a 30-piece orchestra with the click of a button," he said.

Hit-Boy also used artificial intelligence to test out lyrics over one of his beats. He enjoyed the gist of what he heard, then invited Orion Sun to take the concepts and write something of her own. "And then she killed it," he said.

"This is only going to get easier," he said. "But then if you know what you're doing and you actually got soul and you really locked in, you can basically get out any idea you have. It's going to get to the point where it is impossible to have a creative block."

The Music Biz Has Changed. These 5 Songs Show How Hit-Boy Changed With It.