The next chapter in the legacy of Verzuz is here.
On June 19 — Juneteenth — Swizz Beatz and Timbaland announced that their Verzuz music battle platform has a new home at X, Blavity reports.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone!” Swizz Beatz, producer and co-founder of Verzuz, wrote in a post shared on Instagram. “Verzuz is back and 100% Black owned again. Let’s give the people what’s been missing.”
In a separate statement, he called X, formerly Twitter, “the best partner for Verzuz.”
“Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world,” Swizz Beatz said. “I would like to thank Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Brett Weitz, Mitchell Smith, and the entire X team for believing in the Verzuz vision. We can’t wait to get to work.”
Launched during the height of the pandemic in 2020, Verzuz gave music lovers battles between favorites like Jeezy vs. Gucci Mane; Earth, Wind & Fire vs. The Isley Brothers; and Brandy vs. Monica, among a host of other matchups. There was even a competition between the late DMX and Snoop Dogg in 2020.
Fast-forward four years, and Verzuz has found a new home on the X platform, owned by Musk. Fans have expressed some skepticism, and even outrage, about the new deal, with some accusing Timbaland and Swizz Beatz of being sell-outs.
“The culture is fractured,” one person wrote in a comment on Swizz Beats’ Instagram post. “Grifters will grift when the right opportunity is presented to them to prosper. This is all about I and not about We. Don’t be fooled. And the audacity to announce this on today is laughable.”
Someone else on Swizz Beats’ Instagram post called the move “another example of how Black capitalism won’t save us.”
On June 21, the rapper and entrepreneur seemingly responded to the backlash in a new post of himself and longtime colleague and business partner, Timbaland, sporting matching black sweats with the X and Verzuz logos printed on them.
“We will show you better than tell you,” he wrote on the post. “Blessings to all.”
This is not the first time that a Verzuz business deal has made headlines, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. In August 2023, Swizz Beatz shot down prior claims that he was a sell-out following controversial news that the company had been acquired by the social media platform Triller.
“Me going back to school showed me how to build up and not sell out, but sell in,” Swizz Beatz said during an interview on the podcast “Assets Over Liabilities.” “We can’t sit back and watch all the non-colored entrepreneurs cash out. That’s called good business, but when we cash out, it’s all called selling out. I don’t understand that part.”
With a new deal under its belt and Verzuz back to being 100% Black-owned, Swizz Beatz appears committed to showing — rather than telling — the culture that he believes his business deals will push the needle forward.
