Swizz Beatz Talks Joining Jay-Z At Yankee Stadium

'Just think about it. They hit home runs in there,' Swizz says of performing in his hometown arena.By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Sway Calloway





Swizz Beatz

Photo: MTV News




Last night, Swizz Beatz celebrated his birthday in one of the best ways you could think of. The Bronx native was a surprise guest of Jay-Z onstage at Yankee Stadium for the New York kickoff of the Jay-Z/Eminem Home and Home concerts, hot off the VMA stage, where he performed with Drake on Sunday night.

"Being onstage with Jay is funny sometimes because he's so cool and laid-back. I'm like the opposite, which makes it the perfect balance," Swizz told us recently about performing with the Jiggaman. "Sometimes when I perform 'On to the Next One,' I'll look at him and be like, 'Let me calm my ass down a little bit.' The energy, I'm just attracted to the people. It's an honor when Jay introduced me and we're able to rock the same stage back from 'Jigga' and we're still able to make classics together and still able to be cool and still share the same stage. It's a blessing."
When asked about actually being able to rock Yankee Stadium, the super-producer smiled and reflected. "Yankee Stadium. Ooo weee," he beamed. "Just think about it. They hit home runs in there. It's filled up like that. That's bigger than the Garden."
Swizz is already getting prepared with tracks if Em and Jay should want to take their live collaboration into the studio. "That's like the real best of both worlds," Swizz declared. "I think [the two of the them having concerts together], that's genius. Could this become an album? You see how I been thinking about that? Laying that out real quick."
The Jay-Eminem concerts in Detroit and New York, Swizz assessed, are a sign of the times. "The industry has no choice but to get together," Beatz remarked. "It's so crucial the decision that us as producers, as artists, as friends make. As you can see, the industry is on thin ice and it's too many people standing on it. There's no support. Where's the all the support that used to be in our industry? It's not there. The dollars are cut down. The digital world has scared the majors off from doing the correct deals. Now they introduced the 360 deals, where it's totally chaos to me. Artists have to be creative like that now. Before you didn't even have to think about teaming up. You'd be, like, right on your own playing field and that person would be the competition. And your job would be to destroy that person."
Do you think Jay-Z and Eminem should record an album together? Let us know in the comments.



Related Photos


Jay-Z And Eminem Make History In New York City


Related Artists


Swizz Beatz


Jay-Z

Tila Tequila Tina Fey Tricia Helfer Tricia Vessey Trista Rehn