Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-12-07)

Bloomberg Businessweek December 7, 2020

● More than 20 million people have

watched Verzuz performances on

InstagramLivesincetheystarted

inMarch.

Music producer Timbaland was at

home drinking wine when he decided

to entice (perhaps taunt) his producer

friend Swizz Beatz. He posted three

videos of himself making music—or

playing it while talking about how great

it made him feel—to his Instagram

feed and tagged his buddy.

Before the coronavirus pandemic,

the two had discussed going on tour,

playing hits from their catalogs and

bringing on collaborators at each stop.

Now that Covid-19 had stranded them

at home, Timbaland wanted to revive

the idea as a virtual concert: “I said, ‘I

think we should just do it now.’ ”

An hour later, the two were live on

Instagram, taking turns playing clips

of songs they’d produced for big-

name artists such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé,

andMissyElliott.Atthepeakoftheir

performance,about20,000people

watched Timbaland prance around his

studio while Swizz played tunes on his

car stereo. “No promo, no nothing. We

justpoppeduponLiveandwentfor

aboutfivehours,”Swizzsays.

Within days, the stream had

morphed into something they called

Verzuz—part performance, part com-

petition, part history lesson, with each

one- to three-hour-long episode fea-

turing two legends playing their hits

and telling stories. (There’s no offi-

cial winner, but Instagram Live lets

viewers comment in real time.) At

first, Swizz and Timbaland recruited

fellow producers before expand-

ingtorecordingartistssuchasneo-

soulsinger-songwriters Erykah Badu

and Jill Scott. There have been hic-

cups: R&B producers Teddy Riley and

Babyface had some technical issues,

so the stream was cut short and

delayed a day. “The numbers tripled”

when people tuned in for the second

try, Swizz says. “People seeing us fight

and keep it moving and not fold under

pressure—that was a very important

Verzuz for us.”

Swizz Beatz

in Los Angeles

BPhotograph

by TracyNguyen

BEATZ

SWIZZ

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