EMPIRE CATCHES THE HIT-BOY WAVE

EMPIRE's publishing arm, EMPIRE Publishing, has partnered with Hit-Boy's Surf Club collective.

The partnership will allow the Grammy-winning producer and Surf Club to build a publishing roster utilizing its catalog’s analytics, financials and royalties. EMPIRE Publishing is led by Al Mclean and Vinny Kumar. EMPIRE Publishing A&R, Brett Sweeney, secured the deal, while EMPIRE’s Directors of Business Affairs, Benedict Paz and Sarah Beth Gerlecz, negotiated and finalized it.

The deal includes new signees G Dav, Dr. Blum and Bandz whose production credits include tracks for Nas, Roddy Rich, the late Nipsey Hussle, Kehlani and Twenty One Pilots.

"We want to build Surf Club up to be great, create outstanding pieces of work and music,” Hit-Boy said. “I’ve been looking for a publishing situation for years, and EMPIRE really made it happen.”

Surf Club is helmed by Hit-Boy with Nima Nasseri serving as managing partner, Jameel “Double” James in the role of president and James Bentley acting as Head of A&R.

Hit-Boy is currently nominated for Album of the Year for his work on Beyonce’s latest album, Renaissance.

In other Hit-Boy news, the producer connected with Offset to create a custom song and video, "2 Live," for PATRON's new prestige tequila line, El Alto. Released via Mass Appeal, the track has already generated nearly 3m plays.

Matt Ferrigno's MTW Agency facilitated the tequila campaign for the hip-hop stars. We are facilitating our own tequila campaign next week at Grammy parties—we apologize in advance. Watch the visual below.