After one of the most noteworthy Verzuz battles between Ludacris and Nelly went down, Swizz Beatz hopped on Instagram Live to talk it out with co-founder Timbaland, who deemed the night an “epic celebration… battle… but celebration.”
After they covered the the battle that went down earlier that night, the two moved on to who could be up next. Swizz mentioned Snoop Dogg calling out JAY-Z. With Timbaland adding, “a little birdie told me Busta wants some of that smoke,” suggesting a potential battle between Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes.
Swizz seemed a little unsure of the match-up with The Dogg being so chilled and layed back and Busta having such high energy. “How does that make sense. What makes that great?” Posing the question to Timbaland who let him know, “You’re looking at two pioneers that you wouldn’t expect.”
Snoop was tuned in and had to have a say in the matter. Timbaland hopped off so he could join in.
Swizz was adamant letting Snoop know, “We need some west coast in Verzuz, its not just an east coast thing or a down south thing…. It's a global thing… and celebrating music is a global thing.” Asking him who would it be it it wasn’t JAY-Z? Snoop let Swizz know that their is one other artist that could “stand the heat because he’s been making heat for many years,” and that would be east cost artist Busta Rhymes.
Swizz’s eyes opened up real wide after that name drop, adding “That’s an iconic event.” Letting Snoop know that Busta “wants that smoke too.” And that he and Timbaland would be making some phone calls immediately.
Snoop signed off by saying, “whoever you put on the other side of the ring, I’m already standing.” And shouted out LL Cool J and Ice Cube as battles that needs to go down, claiming he’s willing to press pause on his to see that historical battle go down.
Busta Rhymes was up next to say his piece. Swizz let him know that Snoop shouted him out and asked if he had the time for the battle. The Busta of Rhymes quickly let him know, “when it comes to this Hip Hop s***, I ain’t never too busy”
Busta also showed Snoop some love stating, “I don’t think people really realize how hard Snoop works.” Adding, “ain’t too many people [that] could, you know, light the dynamite stick and explode the whole… universe and create a climate shift other than a me and Snoop,” letting Swizz know that his “paperwork is in” on the battle between the two.
Well that settles that, or maybe not. A few other names that came up as potential matches for Busta included Missy Elliott and Fat Joe. So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Swizz noticed that Usher jumped in the comments section, prompting him to ask Busta who he sees the R&B artist “celebrating” with. Busta answered “Usher and Chris gotta be it.” Busta made it clear that Chris Brown was his opponent of choice for a Verzuz battle. Swizz brought up Justin Timberlake as a possible contender, to which Busta saluted after initially turning down.
Usher jumped on the Live to give his opinion. He started off by congratulating “his brothers” Nelly and Luda on their battle. He then quickly moved on to give his opinion on the options presented for Busta Rhymes to battle. Agreeing with the Snoop match up, but felt that for him LL Cool J was the move.
Swizz made sure to take the opportunity to bring up suggestions made of who the ATL artist should battle himself, giving him the option between JT and CB. Usher weighed out the two, saying he sees Chris as his brother but that “JT has done so much… when I think about who he is with *NSYNC and then who he became as a solo artist. To me that feels like it’s worthy of attention in that way.”
Swizz agreed, that while a battle with Chris a no brainer, the dynamic between Justin and Usher would be unpredictable and undeniable.
The two also discussed a few other team ups they would like to see go down. Monica and Brandy as the next female battle, Jermaine Dupri and Diddy, 112 vs Jagged Edge, just to name a few. Swizz made sure to let Usher know he was trending on Twitter, calling it the Verzuz effect. Usher laughed it off adding, “if we trending, its because its something that people do want… for me it’s a celebration no matter who we get on.”
Damn straight Usher, so give the people what they want.
Usher signed off and Swizz let the viewers know “we have some matches to do.” And before we knew it LL Cool J hopped in on that split screen.
Swizz let LL speak his mind on the matter at hand. He started off by saying that he appreciated all the love and recognition.The two went down memory lane and briefly talked about some of LL’s accomplishments.
But then Swizz got straight to the point asking what he thought about a team up with Ice Cube. Not giving away to much, L let him know that it was “something to think about.” So Swizz asked if he could pull one name out the hat, who would he choose. L was so quick to divulge telling Swizzy “I ain’t gonna tell you, cause then I’ll have to do it.”
Swizz brought up some match up suggestions from the comments section to maybe persuade the hip-hop connoisseur to offer up his answer. Some of the names listed bedsides Cube included JAY-Z and Drake. LL went off with his response.
“You wanna know why that is… because I touch a lot of different areas with my music. Some people on here only know me for my R&B singles, some people on hear like me for 'Ill Bomb,' or for 'Eat Em Up,' or for '4,3,2,1.' But then you got people who like me for 'Around the Way Girl' and 'Doin It.' And then you got people who like me for 'Mama Said Knock You Out' and people that like me with J.Lo. I could go on and on…”
Proving that a match up with him is not as simple as people think. It’s not just about parts of his catalogue. Swizz let LL know that he’s a “dangerous weapon” and LL let him know that if someone really wanted the battle, they should just call him and and that he’d consider it. Not the answer we were looking for, but we’ll take it.
Who would have guessed that a simple IG Live would have turned into the procession of Hip Hop heavy hitters showing up and showing out to speak on Verzuz.
So, now that we heard what they all have to say, we have just one question. Who’s up next?
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Brian Ach / Stringer &
Cindy Ord / Stringer