Verzuz’s impact continues to remain supreme!
According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), during a celebration of the culture’s most innovative creators, Swizz Beatz, co-founder of the virtual battle series that continues to be a smash hit, received the Icon Award.
“I always knew that when creatives celebrated each other it would work, when two creatives get together instead of being in competition and pitted against each other — although it is called Verzuz, it’s still a celebration,” said the “Party Up” producer during his acceptance speech.
Following the ceremony, the legendary producer gave insight on why he and his Verzuz partner, Timbaland, made the decision to sell the platform to TrillerNet, the parent company of the global AI-powered short-video app Triller.
He explained that the two will become TrillerNet shareholders as a part of the deal and will split part of their stake in the company among the 43 artists who have performed on Verzuz thus far.
Swizz Beatz also addressed the people who accused them of selling out in the platform’s latest move.
“We turned down hundreds of millions of dollars of money that wasn’t in our favor. We went with the company that allowed us to bring our friends, allowed us to bring our family, and still run the company and have ownership in that company,” said Swizz Beatz. “When people heard that me and Timb sold Verzuz, they didn’t really understand the concept of why we did that. You can own 100 percent of nothing and I don’t like that when it comes to our culture we can’t sell anything. They can sell everything but we can’t sell anything or we sold out. Nah, we sold in,” Swizz continues, “all 43 artists are going public with us. It’s going to be the biggest creative IPO in history.”
Not only does the Verzuz platform continue to celebrate Black artists from the late DMX to most recently Bow Wow and Soulja Boy, but it is also putting money in the pockets of those who’ve paved the way for the culture and we truly love to see it!
