Grammy-Winning Artist & Producer Hit Boy Talks AI Music

**Tim Stenovec** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios.

**Carol Massar** (0:04)
Podcasts, radio, news. We really have a fun guest that we want to get to right here at Bloomberg Technology.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:10)
Yeah, we actually just really set them up. We got to look at what happened over the last few days when it comes to the music industry. Phil Ackman looking to sell his stake in Universal Music Group just days after the Amsterdam listed company rejected a takeover bid by the hedge fund Billionaire. We got with us an expert in the music industry, someone who had a very long relationship with a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. We're talking about Hit-Boy.

**Carol Massar** (0:31)
Yep, he is three time Grammy Award winning artist and a producer who's known for shaping the sounds of Jay-Z, Beyonce, Nas, Drake and so many more. Welcome, welcome Hit-Boy.

**Hit-Boy** (0:40)
Thank you for having me. Appreciate y'all.

**Carol Massar** (0:42)
So, this is all about technology. How are you thinking increasingly about technology and its impact on music?

**Hit-Boy** (0:48)
Well, I started in music like using tech. I used a program called FL Studio. It was called Fruity Hoops back in the day but it's FL Studio now and some of the biggest hits of our generation in hip-hop and just popular music have been made on FL. But when it first came out, people were like, oh, it's just like a computer program. It's not serious music making. But tech is always going to advance mankind.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:13)
Is that where we are with AI today because people could actually just create what they think of as Fruity Loops using AI.

**Hit-Boy** (1:23)
Yeah.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:23)
Is that music?

**Hit-Boy** (1:25)
It is music for sure. You still have a person having to prompt it. It can't just press a button and prompt itself. So just imagination, I feel like is at an all-time high. If you have a great imagination, and you use that in your work, you're going to succeed.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:38)
But here's the thing, isn't it all trained on music that's already out there? So.

**Hit-Boy** (1:42)
Well, not all of it. There's some people that train it on certain different ways, but however it's done, I feel like when MIDI came out, the person that studied the keyboard or piano for 20 years and learned grooves and melodies was like, what is this MIDI thing? You could just import notes and then make it sound like me.

**Tim Stenovec** (2:02)
So you're not worried about a loss of creativity in this era?

**Hit-Boy** (2:04)
No.

**Carol Massar** (2:04)
Not at all?

**Hit-Boy** (2:05)
It's a boom.

**Carol Massar** (2:06)
Isn't all music even created without technology, just trained on all the music that we've got in our brain?

**Hit-Boy** (2:12)
One million percent. One million percent. Yeah, for sure.

**Carol Massar** (2:15)
Hey, talk to us about, we want to go back to Universal. 18 years, right?

**Hit-Boy** (2:18)
18 years, yeah.

**Carol Massar** (2:20)
But you decided to go off on your own. How did that change what you can do?

**Hit-Boy** (2:26)
Man, I feel like I've been just empowered to the maximum capability. Like, you know, just like being in that deal for 18 years, I always kind of felt like I had a black cloud over me. And as many hits as I did make, I still feel like I wasn't in my complete right mind because that was always lingering. But now I'm completely free and I got all these tools and all this knowledge I've gained over the years. I feel unstoppable.

**Tim Stenovec** (2:50)
So what did that relationship prevent you from doing?

**Hit-Boy** (2:53)
From making the amount of money I should have been making and just progressing through my deal for the amount of work I put in.

**Tim Stenovec** (3:01)
But was it the right thing for you early in your career?

**Hit-Boy** (3:04)
I guess so, because I'm here right now on Bloomberg, you know what I mean? So, you know, the hustle, the struggle, the grief, it just led me to this place where I'm just like, I feel powered up, you know?

**Carol Massar** (3:16)
Tell us about this solo album that you've got coming out, Software Update.

**Hit-Boy** (3:19)
Software Update.

**Carol Massar** (3:20)
I love the name.

**Hit-Boy** (3:21)
Thank you.

**Carol Massar** (3:21)
Tell us though, what this means to you.

**Hit-Boy** (3:24)
It's beyond just the music, you know, it's like updating yourself as a person, just moving better, dressing better, living better, whatever it is to update yourself on a daily basis. Do that, working out, whatever it is, eating right, like just, you know, that you got to update the software just like a computer.