In 2014, Pasadena rapper Big Hit was ready to capitalize on his newfound freedom and pursue music alongside his son Hit-Boy , the Grammy-winning producer who’s laced Kanye West, Jay-Z, and others with chart-topping hits. Big Hit had been incarcerated since Hit-Boy was three years old, including a 15-year federal sentence which included a five-year period where the two had no contact due to prison restrictions. They had some jail visits throughout his incarceration, but Big Hit’s freedom represented a chance for a more holistic relationship.
But right when he was set to begin working on his debut album, he was re-incarcerated for crimes related to a hit-and-run accident and sentenced to twelve more years in prison. With the help of Hit-Boy and Chloe Cheyenne, the founder of the digital activism platform COMMUNITYx, Big Hit got his sentence reduced, allowing him to come home last May. Already, he’s making up for lost time, dropping four new projects including his most recent, Black & White s, which Big Hit made with his son alongside The Alchemist .
The album title could be reduced to a reference to the viral story that Big Hit didn’t know that The Alchemist was white until he met him. But during our 40+ minute Zoom session, Big Hit explains that in his 30 cumulative years spent in state and federal prison, the tone of one’s prison time heavily depended on what their court paperwork, or “black and whites,” revealed they were incarcerated for. As their accompanying.
