Hit-Boy has opened up about what he feels is the source between the synergy and success he and Nas have created with their King’s Disease album series. The producer recently sat down with the hosts of ProducerGrind and spoke on how the lack of distractions from an entourage or associates allows them to reach the peaks of their creative process.
“When I work with Nas, it’ll literally just be me and him in there; I’m doing the beats, he’s doing the rhymes,” the Cali native said. “And then a lot of times when you work with younger artists, they gon’ pull up with five, six, seven, maybe 10 ni**as with ’em, and it’s like, I’m really here to do my job.”
While he says he’s been guilty of fostering similar environments in the past, he’s since evolved in his approach and prefers to create from a more secluded space these days. “Some people flourish in that, and plenty of times I’ve had my own sessions with a bunch of people in there. But when you’re really trying to cultivate something special, you gotta protect that space and that energy. That’s why I feel like me and Nas can flow like this because most of the time, it’s just us in the studio.”
He continues, adding “It ain’t no bunch of outside opinions and people throwing off the zone we in, throwing off the vibe. It’s just like, bro, we gon’ do what we feel, what’s really inspiring us. If we not looking at each other and having that face like, ‘Oh, this sh*t hard!’ then we gotta go back to the drawing board — and we keep that as the base of everything.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the Grammy Award-winning boardsman touched on the various roles he plays in the creation of Nas’ King’s Disease albums. He points out that he not only handles the production, but the engineering and overall sonics of the music they make together, thus improving his own artistry in the process. “People don’t even know, out of the 54 songs that Nas dropped, I probably engineered 50 of them muthaf**kas,” he said. “Like, really sat there and recorded him, punching him in. It’s beyond just the beat-making sh*t. And that makes me a better artist, that makes me a better producer, really being in the trenches with him.”
Nas and Hit-Boy’s King’s Disease trilogy has yielded the pair an overwhelming amount of success, including Nas’ first Grammy Award after the duo won Best Rap Album for the first King’s Disease album in 2021. The following year, King’s Disease II received a Best Rap Album nomination, but lost to Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost. Released in November 2022, King’s Disease III has continued to build upon those accolades, notching Nas’ 16th Top 10 debut on the Billboard 200, tying him with Jay-Z for the most Top 10 debuts of all-time by a rap artist.