One of the most productive partnerships in recent hip-hop history appears to be over.
Hit-Boy, the West Coast producer behind some of the most acclaimed rap albums of the past several years, confirmed publicly that he and Nas have had a falling-out and are no longer on speaking terms. "I ain't spoke to Nas in three years," Hit-Boy said in a recent interview with DJ Vlad and Elliott Wilson. "We did six albums, 80 songs in three years. I produced almost every single song on his album that won a Grammy, King's Disease."
He left little room for optimism about a reunion. "We did a lot of great work, but I don't see us working again," he said.
When Wilson pressed him on the specific cause of the split, Hit-Boy declined to go into detail. "It's a lot of reasons, you know what I mean?" he said. "But it's something I don't really wanna dig too deep in 'cause the sh– is pretty deep. Respect to what we did get accomplished in three years."
According to Billboard, the two worked together from 2020 to 2023, producing King's Disease, King's Disease II, Magic, King's Disease III, Magic 2, and Magic 3. Their King's Disease series earned three Grammy nominations. King's Disease won best rap album in 2021.
Billboard noted it reached out to Nas's team for comment but had not received a response.
The split, if permanent, would close out one of the more consistent creative runs between a rapper and producer in recent memory. Six albums in three years is a pace few collaborators have matched, and the commercial and critical returns were real. Whether the rift can eventually be repaired remains unknown. Hit-Boy did not signal any path back.
