Swizz Beatz is anything but “Banned from TV.”
The hip-hop super producer has run a successful side hustle as an executive music producer on series like Godfather of Harlem (Epix/MGM+) and the short-lived ABC drama Queens, which should be best-remembered for the incredible beat Beatz made for lead single, “Nasty Girl.”
As The Hollywood Reporter previous reported, Swizz Beatz (real name Kasseem Daoud Dean) and Godfather of Harlem showrunner Chris Brancato have formalized their creative partnership. The duo also collaborated on Hotel Cocaine (MGM+) and are working together on upcoming MGM+ gang drama The Westies.
Right now, the standout track for Godfather of Harlem season four is “Danger, Danger,” which was not only produced by Swizz Beatz, but also features him as a rapper alongside Pusha T and the legendary Jadakiss. It’s pretty good company to be in — for all involved. The MGM+ series stars Forest Whitaker as the notorious Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson.
Now THR has jumped on the track — OK, really, the phone — with Swizz Beatz to talk everything from the ‘90s to now.
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How did you end up on “Danger, Danger” (as a rapper)?
I wrote the whole thing like if it was my song, then just so Jada and Pusha can have a framework so they don’t have to start all the way from the beginning. I set the tone with the energy. And then they take out my verse where they want theirs to be at, right? So Pusha decided to do his verse in the last slot; Jada decided to do his verse after mine. I wouldn’t have minded if they would put me last or took me off.
A lot of the fans are like, “[Swizz] can’t compare to Jadakiss and Pusha T.” (Laughs) But Jada and Pusha chose to leave that verse on, just because of the energy, I guess. When you have Jadakiss and Pusha T, you’re thinking super, super lyrical. Many lyrical artists have kept a lot of things that I wrote, but I know I’m not as lyrical as Jada and Pusha T. I appreciate that they kept that love in there like that.
So if they don’t keep you, those verses of yours just never come out?
Yeah, they’re just templates. When you’re working on songs for the show… like “Danger, Danger” is coming from the mind of what’s going on in those [Godfather of Harlem] scenes, giving it that tone. [Pusha T and Jadakiss] probably hadn’t seen that scene yet, so I had to paint the picture of the energy, so they can stay in pocket. It’s not just a song to put out on radio and streaming, it’s in the show. When you see “Danger, Danger,” it’s going down, so my reference point is to paint the energy of what’s going on in the show at that particular time.
Do you do templates for artists you produce that have nothing to do with TV?
Yeah. For me to write my best music, I have to write it in the moment. Then I play for a certain artist. A lot of artists — even from when I started way, way, way back in the 1990s, early 2000s — most of my songs came with choruses on them already. That was the big selling factor with me as a producer. It’s like Noriega said, “I like a Swizz beat/it already comes with a hook.” So the artists just had to fill in the blanks. I wasn’t using samples, so you can come out with the song the next day if you wanted. That was a whole new marketing that nobody was really doing when I came out.
Not using samples made you stand out back in the day — is it harder to work without samples?
Oh, no. It was a lot of fun. It wasn’t even work. I mean, it was work with the samples, because then you got to clear it, and you got to do this and that. Imagine having no samples, and you’re just able to just freestyle what you wanted? “OK, this is what I’m going with. Let’s go.”
You mentioned Noriega shouting you out in a verse, but a lot of artists shout you out at random, open spots on your tracks. At some point in the ‘90s it became the thing to do to honor top producers — but did you ever ask for it in the early days?
No, man. I’m not gonna ask for no shoutouts. I don’t know how to.
You produced hundreds of tracks and a ton of them are hits — does one beat stand out for you?
Out of hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of tracks, my favorite one is definitely “Stop, Drop.” (Officially, it’s “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem.”) Because like “Just in Case” (from Godfather of Harlem season one), “Stop, Drop” set the tone for me as a producer, for DMX as an artist [at a] bigger scale. You went from performing only at the Apollo to performing at Woodstock when we did “Stop, Drop.”
And something that people might not have known I did was the Angie Stone song, “Missing you.” That’s one of my favorites. I love with “Uproar” with Lil Wayne. I also love “Ring the Alarm” with Beyoncé. “Get Me Bodied” by Beyoncé. So many, so many I like… we could go on for two weeks.
Give me one for Drag-on.
“Down Bottom.”
How did you decide what tracks to keep for yourself and what to sell to other artists?
Well, like I said, I’m a producer first. So “On to the Next One” (Jay-Z ft. Swizz Beatz) was my song, that was my record. Then Jay called me and was like, “Yo, I got one more slot on the album — I need something crazy.” I was like, “I got one song I’m gonna send you. And if this song don’t do it, I don’t have it.” And that was “On to the Next One.”
“On to the Next One” was originally about going to the next level in my life, moving forward and doing better things. But Jay sent me back that song in 15 minutes; it was nothing I could say about that (laughs). The song was super-personal to me, so I was just more so wanting to stay on the chorus. And we won a Grammy off of it, so it was amazing.
Which song made you the most money?
Um, well — because a lot of them have been that — one of them was “Party Up.” You can look at even the games, even all of the games now, you see “Party Up” as the song. Just the energy. It fits every form: on television, action films, sports — you name it. But I was making anthem music at the time anyway, so it makes sense of why why and how it happened like that.
And “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” was great for the Deadpool (2015) red band trailer.
Super perfect.
What song should have been a hit that wasn’t?
I think [Godfather of Harlem season one main title track] “Just in Case” should have been a No. 1 hip-hop record. Just the energy, with the dog [DMX] and Ross — I think it should at least been top 10 because everyone who hears that song, they stuck. They love it. It’s something that they like, “Oh, man, this is it!”
From a music standpoint, where do you want to see the music of Godfather of Harlem go from here?
I want the music to lead the template for other shows and other artists and producers to just have fun and push the envelope as much as they can, and not just worry about making a hit record. I didn’t think about making a hit record on Godfather — on any season — I just thought about making the viewers excited to to see greatness.
Other than Godfather of Harlem, what other TV shows — if any — are doing original music on the same level?
The key thing that you said was “original.” I love the music from Euphoria and several other shows, but a lot of those songs are not original. A lot of those songs, we love them because the way they use the song you know from something else and [it’s about] the juxtaposition of it. I think that was moreso the case [across other series]. Godfather of Harlem is definitely original. We definitely had the freedom to do whatever we wanted.
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Godfather of Harlem releases new season four episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. on MGM+. Read THR’s interview with showrunner Chris Brancato.