Avelino

Hit-Boy unleashes his latest single, “2 Certified,” alongside British rapper Avelino. The track closes out the year for the three-time Grammy award-winning producer who is gearing up to release his sixth studio album in early 2023.

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“I told Hit-Boy he needs to rap more,” begins Avelino over synthy chords and rapidfire hi-hats with drill elements. The 35-year-old producer takes Avelino’s advice, proving his rapper chops and delivering a masterful verse of his own. “Out there with envy and out there with jealousy / Play with your bitch, don’t play with my legacy,” he asserts.

Directed by THIRDEYERAZ, the track’s visual shows the two multi-hyphenates interacting cooly with paparazzi and the press, in one scene mimicking a TMZ-esque moment. In another scene, the pair are huddled around a beat pad situated in the woods, as Hit-Boy presses all the right buttons. “My engineer David Kim, who was mixing the Nas album, was also mixing Avelino’s album down the hall,” Hit-Boy tells Billboard. “So Avelino came through and by the end of the night we had this record done.” He added that the dynamic between the two artists was “effortless and natural.”

The frequent Nas collaborator has kept busy this year, working on the legendary rapper’s critically acclaimed 15th solo album, King’s Disease III. The project arrived at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart with 29,000 album-equivalent units according to Luminate, marking Nas’ 16th top ten album on the chart.

Hit-Boy also served as Madden NFL ’23’s soundtrack curator, and worked Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, producing the track, “THIQUE.” Watch the video below.