Believe it or not, Frank Ocean is almost an honorary part of Hit-Boy and Nas’ recent Grammy Award-Winning album run.
Thanks to Hip-Hop Twitter, we have been reminded that one of the most elusive vocalists of this generation is partially responsible for Hit-Boy and Nas’ collaborative relationship. In the recent Rap Radar podcast interview the California-bred producer appeared in, he revealed he originally met Nas 10 years ago as a result of a studio session he had with Ocean.
“We met originally in like 2013, I did a demo with Frank Ocean and Frank Ocean played it for Nas,” Hit-Boy recalled. “Me and Frank had a session of our own, we were just working on music and he did a hook he was like ‘yo I’m about to go work with Nas. I wanna play this hook for him.’ He played it and Nas was rocking with it.”
Legend has it that Ocean’s vocals did appear, in part, on a Nas record released during that era, but the original demo is gone for certain—and that’s not even the end of the saga. Hit-Boy went on to reveal that when he and Nas linked again in 2019, it was almost as if they had discovered the importance of locking in with each other.
“‘Imma keep pulling up and rocking with you,’ and he was true to his word,” Hit-Boy said of Nas comments to him after their first session in over six years.
Check out the full details of the thread below.
Today I learned that Hit-Boy actually got connected to Nas through Frank Ocean 😳
Hit-Boy via Rap Radar: “We met originally in like 2013. I did a demo with Frank Ocean and Frank Ocean played it for Nas. Me and Frank had a session of our own, we were just working on music and he… pic.twitter.com/r7ruLtE9kQ
— Joey (@gothamhiphop) October 5, 2023