Timbaland and Swizz Beatz’s masterpiece creation Verzuz is a quintessential example of beauty arising from the national wreckage wrought by the catastrophe known as the pandemic.
As the two iconic superproducers celebrate their 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety Show (Series or Special), the pair of music mavens talked about another rarity in the business: sharing the spoils of a big deal with the artists.
“Us partnering with Triller is amazing. At first we watched Verzuz on Intagram,” said Swizz. “Now, partnering with Triller and we now have 23 Black creative shareholders, which is major for us.”
“We’re really just changing the way media is distributed,” Timbaland added. “Just changing the format, you know, being disruptive.”
Later during the NAACP Image Awards pre-show press conference, Timbaland elaborated on how he and Swizz formulated the idea to make the 23 people who have performed on Verzuz part of the ownership crew of the company.
“It’s just that me and Swizz always wanted to change the narrative of how business is done and things are created,” Timbs, aka Timothy Zachery Mosley, explained. “Think that the idea came along the way once we got into Verzuz, and we said, ‘you know what? Everybody got to take the ride, not just us, but everybody who build this platform in real-time.’
“Everybody gotta take the ride,” Timbs reiterated. “That’s the best thing for us — I’m speaking for Swizz as well — that was the best was bringing our people with us for the ride. That was major for us.”
Everyone knows that the universal quarantine during the pandemic forced Swizz and Timbs to pivot and create the culture-shifting Verzuz phenomenon that has taken the country by storm. The founders have been interviewed by the likes of CNN, “Entertainment Tonight” and most of the late-night talk shows.
The question now is: as the country continues to open back up to pre-pandemic levels, can Verzuz be sustained in its current incarnation or will it metamorphose into something different or on another platform?
“Of course,” Swizz said, which Timbs repeated and then added: “It’s a brand now and people want to see the action and acts outside now. So, we’re definitely going to take it outside” and on the road.
Well, there it is. After months of watching Verzuz from the comforts of our phones and computers at home, Verzuz will now be coming to a city near you.
