Swizz Beatz Wants Artists to Pay 'Taxes' to Hip-Hop's Pioneers
Swizz Beatz wants today’s rappers to pay their dues.
While speaking with Joe Budden on Swizz Zone Radio on Instagram Live, Swizz said he wants to collect “taxes” to give back to the founding fathers of hip-hop, including DJ Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash, and Sugarhill Gang.
“I want to raise a million dollars for each icon that started hip-hop, Kool Herc on down,” he said, according to Complex. “The fact that we’re not paying taxes on who started hip-hop shows that we don’t fucking really love hip-hop. The fact that we don’t pay taxes as artists to those icons that paved the way, took the lower cut for the music that allow us to feed our families.”
https://youtu.be/ZfZSiyfmFQU?t=599
The super-producer said he’s passionate about his cause. “We need to be paying taxes to the creatives of hip-hop that gave us our freedom of speech to move forward,” added Swizz. “I’m going to go so hard with that.”
Swizz wants to raise a “minimum a million a piece” for hip-hop’s elder statesmen, while Budden agreed. “Every new deal that gets signed, one percent or half a percent should go toward rapper reparations,” he said.
During their conversation, Swizz also revealed potential Verzuz battles between Rakim and Big Daddy Kane as well as Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes (“That’s done already”). A piano battle between his wife Alicia Keys and John Legend is also in the works.
But first, Nelly and Ludacris will face off in the next Verzuz challenge, which is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. EST.
Who you got!?? @Nelly_Mo vs @Ludacris
Saturday, 5/16 7PM EST #VERZUZ pic.twitter.com/3vIkjvbklF
— Verzuz (@verzuzonline) May 12, 2020