Hit-Boy‘s Surf Club collective has announced its latest signees after inking a massive deal with EMPIRE publishing.
According to Billboard, EMPIRE and Surf Club have announced that Gary “G Dav” Davis, Jesse “Dr. Blum” Blum, and Randy “Bandz” Holmes have joined the ranks of the Hit-Boy-founded venture.
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G Dav has racked up numerous contributor credits on some major rap records over the past few years, including Nas’ King’s Disease, which snagged him a Grammy for Best Rap Album. The multi-instrumentalist Dr. Blum has also worked with numerous acts including Big Sean and Rage Against The Machine, and Bandz has been enlisted for his writing talents over the years, contributing to tracks for Kamaiyah, OhGheesy, YG and others.
While Hit-Boy himself is not signed with EMPIRE for publishing administration and remains in his previous deal, he said in a statement that Surf Club’s partnership with the label was the right call to help grow the group.
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“We want to build Surf Club up to be great, create outstanding pieces of work and music. I’ve been looking for a publishing situation for years, and Empire really made it happen,” Hit-Boy said.
“EMPIRE has long been in the business of pushing the culture forward on a global scale, enabling recording artists to excel independently with its distribution and label services,” added EMPIRE’s Director of Business affairs Benedict Paz. “This partnership with a talent like Hit-Boy and the passionate individuals of the Surf Club team mirror that same ethos at EMPIRE Publishing and we are excited for what this is set to accomplish in the music publishing space.”
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The exciting announcement comes amidst an unstoppable hot streak for the famed producer. Hit-Boy already confirmed earlier in January that he’d soon be dropping a collaborative double album with R&B legend Musiq Soulchild titled Victims & Villains. While Souldchild first spoke about the project in an interview with Bill Bellamy’s Top Billin’ podcast, Hit-Boy confirmed the news to HipHopDX on January 6.
Hit-Boy also shared a screenshot of his tweet on Instagram while tagging Soulchild, who replied with a series of water wave emojis.
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“The title is designed to address the topic of the challenges we all deal with in relationships, but I’m approaching it from a slightly different angle than I used to,” Soulchild said of the title to Bill Bellamy. “It’s more abstract, at the same time direct.”
He added: “A lot of people don’t realize which one they are; they think they’re one when they’re the other.”
The Grammy-nominated crooner also revealed the album has only been months in the making and is in the “beginning stages of mixing,” while describing Hit-Boy as a “G.O.A.T. of our time.”
Hit-Boy had an eventful 2022, so much so it earned him HipHopDX’s Best Producer of 2022 title. He collaborated on joint projects with Dreezy and Pacman Da Gunman while contributing to Beyoncé’s Renaissance, The Game’s Drillmatic, Ab-Soul’s Herbert, Conway The Machine’s God Don’t Make Mistakes and YG’s I Got Issues, among other albums.
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Hit-Boy then ended the year strong with King’s Disease III, his fourth collaboration with Nas in three years and the latest installment in their Grammy-winning series.
