One of the bright spots that have emerged while we’ve all been in quarantine has been Swizz Beatz, and Timbaland’s wildly popular “VERZUZ” Instagram Live battles and fans are not the only ones noticing.
In an Instagram Live chat between the two, they talked about the Beenie Man versus Bounty Killer battle and opened up about turning down multi-million dollar offers to keep the platform organic. Swizz revealed that they have been offered millions for 50% of the company and that neither Swizz or Timbaland has made any money off the battles to date.
“We haven’t made one cent off of Verzuz yet. That don’t mean that we, not business. But, what we have is — Verzuz is a museum. It’s an educational, celebrational platform,” Swizz said.
The concept is extremely simple: two giants in the industry go head to head, playing 20 of their classic songs on Instagram Live while fans keep score in the comments. No official winner is declared, but the culture wins every time. The best part? The untold stories behind the records that get shared in between songs from the artists or producers that created them.
“You can’t just leave these icons on the side of the road. It just gave you a feeling,” Timbaland added. “And to see them celebrate together, I was jumping up outta my seat like, ‘Yo, this is amazing,’” Timbaland said.
Timbaland had previously spoken to TMZ about gaining major network attention, saying, “We don’t wanna bring that part of the element in right away. We just wanna keep it where people are entertained because we living in a world where 16 million people lost jobs. We don’t wanna get into the politics of it. We wanna keep it natural and fun.”
And fun it has been! “VERZUZ” has been a welcomed break from the stressors of quarantine and has introduced some classic hip hop and R&B to a whole new generation of listeners.
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