After a one-on-one musical battle between co-creators Timbaland and Swizz Beatz on Instagram Live, the Verzuz battle was launched. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Instagram users have tuned in, and dozens of producers and artists have been featured to battle. After several Verzuz battles have been riddled with technical issues by one or both parties, the co-founders are now implementing new rules for smoother showdowns.
The technical difficulties became an alerting issue during Teddy Riley’s first set against Babyface. Because of the issues, the battle had to be scheduled to a later date, which also had sound problems.
Issues continued to be a problem as Nelly faced-off against Ludacris and would occur again in the most recent battle with Jagged Edge vs. 112. The match was filled with static and erratic WiFi.
Swizz Beatz and Timbaland are now stepping in. In an Instagram post, the Verzuz founders said:
“You cannot do Verzuz unless you use the technology we send you…. New rules coming.”
Via Instagram Live, Beatz, and Timberland spoke more about the equipment they want entertainers to use when battling for Verzuz.
“Shout to Roland,” Beatz said. “Roland actually created a special system that they made for Verzuz for IG. And it works. Like, you look at Ludacris’ sound, [and] it works. You can tell who’s using the setup and who’s not using the setup. It’s only a couple plugs, and it’s going to change your life. You understand?”
Then, Timbaland said, “It’s [a] 1-2-click-click-click.” To which Beatz replied, “112 was using it,” Swizz said. “I don’t think Jagged Edge was using it.”⠀
Timbaland then mentioned, “That threw off the frequency of the whole thing. When one uses it, and one doesn’t, it’s all messed up.”
With slight frustration, Swizz added, “The technology… We’re sending it to you for a reason.”
Last week, co-founder Swizz Beatz expressed his frustrations of several Verzuz participants having experienced issues during their battles, with Variety. He mentioned that along with the Instagram team, all involved parties have tried their best to ensure that artist’s sets are properly working before their battle.
“Putting together two artists and 20 songs… that’s the easy part,” Beatz said. “Fixing your WiFi, getting on the phone with tech guys, which some don’t do when we ask… that’s the hard part.”
