Song Exploder – Hit-Boy

Nipsey Hussle – “Racks In the Middle” (feat. Roddy Ricch and Hit-Boy)

Hit-Boy is an award-winning producer and rapper from LA. He’s one of my all-time favorite producers, from “Backseat Freestyle” by Kendrick Lamar, to “Sicko Mode” by Travis Scott, to tracks he’s made for Beyonce, Nas, and the Jay-Z & Kanye album Watch the Throne. So I was really excited to talk to him, and when I asked him which song from his incredible catalog he wanted to talk about, I was really moved by his choice. He picked “Racks in the Middle” by Nipsey Hussle, featuring Roddy Ricch. Nipsey Hussle was a rapper and community activist from LA whose career was cut short, tragically, when he was murdered in 2019. He’d released just one album, Victory Lap. “Racks in the Middle” was the last song released in Nipsey’s lifetime. It went platinum, and a year after his death, it won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance, in 2020. This episode features a few short clips from a video that Nipsey Hussle made for the website Genius, back in 2019. But here in the studio, to tell the story, I spoke to Hit-Boy about how “Racks in the Middle” came together.

You can buy or stream “Racks In the Middle” (feat. Roddy Ricch and Hit-Boy) here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Dustin James Corbett – co-writer
Greg Allen Davis – co-writer
“Die Young” – Roddy Ricch
Knowledge Smith, Future, and Chalice Recording Studio
Mailbox Money – mixtape by Nipsey Hussle
“A Hunnit a Show” (feat. Rick Ross) – Nipsey Hussle
“Alert” (feat. Hit-Boy & Nipsey Hussle) – HS87
“Thuggin” (feat. Lil Boosie & Lil Cali) – Nipsey Hussle