Hit-Boy unleashes his newest single, “2 Licensed,” alongside British rapper Avelino. The observe closes out the yr for the three-time Grammy award-winning producer who’s gearing as much as launch his sixth studio album in early 2023.
“I advised Hit-Boy he must rap extra,” begins Avelino over synthy chords and rapidfire hi-hats with drill components. The 35-year-old producer takes Avelino’s recommendation, proving his rapper chops and delivering a masterful verse of his personal. “On the market with envy and on the market with jealousy / Play together with your bitch, don’t play with my legacy,” he asserts.
Directed by THIRDEYERAZ, the observe’s visible reveals the 2 multi-hyphenates interacting cooly with paparazzi and the press, in a single scene mimicking a TMZ-esque second. In one other scene, the pair are huddled round a beat pad located within the woods, as Hit-Boy presses all the fitting buttons. “My engineer David Kim, who was mixing the Nas album, was additionally mixing Avelino’s album down the corridor,” Hit-Boy tells Billboard. “So Avelino got here by means of and by the tip of the evening we had this document executed.” He added that the dynamic between the 2 artists was “easy and pure.”
The frequent Nas collaborator has saved busy this yr, engaged on the legendary rapper’s critically acclaimed fifteenth solo album, King’s Illness III. The undertaking arrived at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart with 29,000 album-equivalent models in line with Luminate, marking Nas’ sixteenth prime ten album on the chart.
Hit-Boy additionally served as Madden NFL ’23’s soundtrack curator, and labored Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, producing the observe, “THIQUE.” Watch the video beneath.
