On a recent episode of The Shop, music producer Hit-Boy discussed how Jay-Z helping him get out of a publishing deal he was in for almost 20 years, calling the rapper’s involvement “life-changing.”
Hit-Boy, 37, was in a publishing deal with Universal Music Group at age 19. Like many artists before him, the little money offered was a lot for a poor person with ambition.
“I’m actually still in my publishing situation,” he confessed. “…The way it was set up was just ancient terminology in the contracts.”
But the deal is about to end, thanks to Jay-Z and Roc Nation executive Desiree Perez.
“I just now, y’know, thanks to Desiree and Jay-Z and people like that, that really got me to a place I’m in now, where I have an end date, but before, my whole career I was working without having an actual end date to—the way we really get our money is through publishing, y’know what I mean?’
Hit-Boy, meanwhile, looks forward to having more freedom with his business dealings.

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“That’s going to be, like, life-changing for me, y’know what I mean?” he said. “Just to even have freedom as a grown man, like, I haven’t been able to go do other deals or go get advances in different places like my counterparts have. I eat very well, but I know what it’s really supposed to be.”

Despite the onerous deal, Hit-Boy’s career has positively thrived. The producer extraordinaire has worked with everyone from Nas to Drake to Beyoncé and was nominated for Producer of the Year Grammy in 2024. And he’s rapping on his own. It’ll be interesting to see what he does after he’s officially freed from that contract.

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