“Hitmaka” Challenges Azar, Speaks On Never Getting Married, & How Ray J Changed His Life. (Part 1)

**Paul Pierce** (0:17)
This is to taking over the game.
All right, everybody. Welcome to Truth After Dark.

**Azar Farideh** (0:29)
Do you think that men or women are more toxic? Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to another episode of The Truth After Dark. I am your host, Azar Farideh.

**Paul Pierce** (0:45)
Paul Peasy in the house.

**Azar Farideh** (0:47)
And today we have a guest that I'm super excited about. He went from surviving some of life's toughest challenges to becoming one of the most influential Hitmakers in music. He's created chart-topping records, helped shape the sound of hip-hop and R&B, and built a legacy both in front and behind the scenes.
Please welcome Hitmaka.

**Paul Pierce** (1:07)
Hitmaka in the house! What's up? Man, I know this has been a long time coming.
I've been telling them we need to get them on, get them on. I'm like, damn, but we was like in the middle of moving studios in the last few months and rearranging stuff. So man, we finally glad to have you, you're a legend out here in the game. You done some legendary stuff in the game. Very influential and we appreciate having you man.

**Hitmaka** (1:31)
For real. Thank you brother.

**Azar Farideh** (1:32)
For real, I'm super excited. And in the midst of researching you, I found out some stuff.
No, no, no, no, no. But this is, this is blowing me, right? Because we have some stuff in common that's actually really crazy.

**Hitmaka** (1:45)
Oh, right.

**Azar Farideh** (1:46)
I never met anybody that's been through something similar to me.

**Hitmaka** (1:49)
What's that?

**Azar Farideh** (1:50)
So you talked about, obviously, coming from a wealthy family. You know you ain't ate hot dogs, peanut butter, nuggets. We know that. Right. But you also spoke about being sent away to a program that's similar to the Netflix documentaries. I did, too.
I never, ever met nobody who mentioned that. I came through a wealthy family. I got sent away. My mom sent me away to one of these.

**Paul Pierce** (2:16)
No, for real. No, for real.

**Azar Farideh** (2:17)
When I read that about you and I heard that you say that, I was like, oh my God, never in my life have I met another person in the wild that has went through something like that.

**Hitmaka** (2:26)
Oh, well, shit, this meant to be. I think we're going to learn a lot from each other in this whole conversation. I've never met nobody outside of that program when I was there that had been through that type of shit. That was like the most devastating thing. Cause you know, like, did they come kidnap you like they did me?

**Azar Farideh** (2:41)
Handcuffs. They made me put on an outfit. I didn't know where I was going.

**Hitmaka** (2:44)
That shit was insane.

**Azar Farideh** (2:45)
It was the most insane shit. And when I heard your story, I was like, there's no way he went through this like me.

**Hitmaka** (2:52)
Just like you.

**Azar Farideh** (2:53)
And I was so, I'm so curious to know, like, what was your experience and how do you feel like it shaped you as a man today?

**Hitmaka** (3:01)
Man, I don't know. So it was different for me because like, I was bad, of course, and like I was a bad kid, but I had a record deal at the time. So I was signed to DMX label and I was living in New Jersey.
And I went back to Chicago to kind of like, reunite with the person that was my producer at the time, because I wasn't a producer. I was just an artist that was kind of being told what to do, you know, and like writing my own raps, but still like needing someone else's influence on like me to make great records. So I went back home and when I was with back home, it was with the niggas that was like the biggest drug dealers in Chicago in the game at that time. So my mom was pretty much afraid and then before that, like it was some gun shit that happened at my house, like a gun went off at my house in New Jersey. And I was like a literally like, at that time, I think I was probably like five foot. I was like, but I was bad, I was smoking, drinking. I was just wilding out like on some different shit, demon time off the rip. And I went to the mall and I was, my mom was getting all these mysterious phone calls and I'm not really close with my mom. And I wasn't really close because I live with my dad. I got the boys in the hood lifestyle. My dad raised me like he raised Dre.