Swizz Beatz and Timbaland Land Verzuz Deal With Elon Musk and X

Swizz Beatz and Timbaland just landed a new Verzuz deal with Elon Musk and X, formerly known as Twitter.

Verzuz Headed to X Platform After Timbaland and Swizz Beatz Strike New Deal With Elon Musk

On Wednesday (June 19), two of hip-hop's most revered producers, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz announced a new partnership regarding their massively successful joint venture, Verzuz. After reacquiring the high-profile hits battle franchise from Triller earlier in 2024, Swizzy and Timbo inked a deal with X, the social media platform currently owned and operated by Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk. While the two producers will maintain full ownership and creative control, Verzuz battles will only broadcast via X as per the newly signed distribution rights.

Swizz Beatz and Timbaland made the announcement public during the Cannes Lions conference in France, which was followed by an official statement from the dynamic duo. Swizz expressed gratitude to Elon Musk while Timbaland spoke on future plans for Verzuz now that the multimedia platform will reach a potential audience of over 550 million X users.

"Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we're excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world," Swizz Beatz said in a statement. "I would like to thank Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Brett Weitz, Mitchell Smith and the entire X team for believing in the Verzuz vision. We can't wait to get to work."

Touching on what's next for Verzuz, Timbaland doubled down on his partner's stance. "We are thrilled to partner with X, the most innovative platform globally. Our goal has always been to bring Verzuz to the world which we can now do bigger than ever," he adds.

Timbaland and Swizz Beatz's Create Legendary Moments During COVID-19 Pandemic With Verzuz

Swizz Beatz and Timbaland's brainchild is perhaps the best thing to come out of 2020's COVID-19 pandemic, especially for hip-hop. After Swizz and Timbo squared off smash hit for smash hit in the inaugural Verzuz battle while the world was on lockdown, some of the rap game's biggest icons would soon follow suit, creating undeniably memorable moments.

Less than nine months before his untimely passing in 2021, one of DMX's final public appearances found the Ruff Ryders frontman in an epic song-for-song battle with Snoop Dogg. In November of 2020, Jeezy and Gucci Mane used Verzuz as the conduit to squash their highly contentious longtime beef. Other notable Verzuz battles include The Lox vs. Dipset, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony taking on Three 6 Mafia and KRS-One vs. Big Daddy Kane.

Before coming to a screeching halt amid a lawsuit that found Timbo and Swizz suing Triller for $28 million over the sale of the platform, Verzuz also featured incredible competitive performances from musical legends including Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Brandy and Monica.