HipHopDX’s 2020 Producer of the Year Hit-Boy and Kanye West have a complicated history. Despite working on the Watch The Throne cut “N-ggas In Paris” in 2011, they haven’t been on good terms for years.
On Thursday (August 5), Kanye held a second listening party for the still unreleased Donda at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The theatrics were at an all-time high, with Ye dressed in a spiked Balenciaga jacket and full face mask inside a blacked-out arena and dozens of people shrouded in black walking circles around him.
As the event came to a close, Kanye then “levitated” out of the arena. The album was supposed to follow but once the clock struck midnight ET, it was nowhere to be found.
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Meanwhile, Nas’ new album King’s Disease II did drop and Hit-Boy was in a celebratory mood throughout the evening. During a private after party, Hit-Boy hopped on the mic and seemed to take a few subliminal shots at Kanye.
“It’s not a hundred n-ggas producing the beat,” he said. “It’s not a hundred n-ggas writing the rhymes, n-gga. It’s two n-ggas in the studio. I hear this shit right now, homie. It’s going down. King’s Disease II. Stream that shit, buy that shit.”
Hit-boy has a point as much as we all love Kanye, he makes everything a spectacle.
— Ant (@cristongray) August 7, 2021
Hit-Boy continued his rant, pointing out he and Nas always deliver straight-up Hip Hop — no gimmicks. He also seemed to take a jab at Kanye’s tendencies to word vomit all over Twitter.
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“It’s just me and Nas in the studio,” he added. “There be n-ggas in the studio. It’s just me and bro, bro. Do y’all hear this shit? It’s just me and this n-gga in the studio. He’s barred up, I’m making beats. No hooplah.
“We not on fuckin’ Twitter botherin’ y’all. We not on IG Live putting a weird-ass stream up, n-gga. We doin’ this shit for real though, n-gga! Stop playin’!”
During a 2020 interview with GQ, Hit-Boy explained why he decided to pull the plug on their friendship.
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“He on Twitter preaching, ‘I love all my brothers and we need to stick together and all this shit,” he said at the time. “But I feel like [Kanye] put me in a position where I was battling the ‘system’ and I was battling with my brothers.
“Because it would be different if Kanye was like, ‘Your shit wack now, I’m not using you.’ But n-gga, you telling me because you saw me working with somebody else that you’re not going to pick my beats?”
Hit-Boy Calls Out Kanye West For Severing Ties Over Beyoncé — But Agrees With Label Rant
Hit-Boy believed Kanye was upset he was working with Beyoncé, the wife of his former foe JAY-Z. (The two have apparently since made peace. JAY-Z is one of several guests on Donda.)
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“I worked with so many artists and I never heard anything until I locked in with her,” he continued. “So that just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. And I had to bury those emotions for years.
“The way he was speaking just sparked me to tell my side. This is how I feel. Like I’m fighting, to me, two oppressors: Corporations and somebody that is supposed to be a true mentor to somebody like me.”
