So cool, so nonchalant — even his most extravagant endeavors seem like just regular work to Swizz Beatz.
"I'm working on this new Michael Jackson sh--," Swizz said in as calm a manner as he did when speaking to his new manager, Chaka Zulu, about which Los Angeles restaurant they should dine at. "I'm probably gonna be producing his tour and everything. I'm designing planes for Gulf Stream and everything. They called me. I'm around different people. I'm around billionaires. I'm around people like that."
The producer said his professional life is going so well that he didn't have time to be bothered by all the rumors about his personal life. A few months ago, he and his wife, Mashonda, announced they were splitting.
"Everybody can have their fun right now talking that dumb sh-- about my divorce and all that," he said. "I'mma give them something to talk about. People get divorced every f---in' day. They need to worry about more serious things."
The big rumor in the tabloids is that Swizz and his wife broke up over the proverbial "other woman." What made the story so sensational was that the alleged mistress in this case was Grammy winner Alicia Keys. Swizz dismissed it.
"It ain't even bad," he said, more agitated. "My divorce, it ain't nothing bad. It's just us moving on. Me and Shonda are super good. It is what it is. [The press] are nine months late on the situation. It's a headache to me. We been separated nine or 10 months already."
Swizz's ire was raised in particular by recent headlines on the front pages of Hip Hop Weekly and MediaTakeout.com.
"That sh-- just looks like drama," he said. "They got another big name involved. No, I'm not doing [any] f---ing interviews. Only thing I'm commenting on is music-related. I don't comment on my personal life. Why start now? You start commenting on that sh--, then they start twisting it out. I'm not gonna speak about nothing. They [gave Mashonda] two pages in Hip Hop Weekly. She didn't even say nothing about Alicia. They blew it up on MediaTakeout.com. They flipped that into some other sh--.
"I'm not hiding anything," he added. "I can see if I was hiding something. I'm a grown man. Nobody is living no perfect life. Mashonda has a single coming out that I funded, photo shoots that I funded. We made our statement that we're still working together. They didn't wanna believe it. I said I would be continuing to support her career. Nobody wants to look at that sh--. They wanna look at 'Alicia Keys.' That sh-- is ignorant."
Later, Swizz did admit to hooking up with Alicia Keys, albeit in the musical sense. He produced a remix of her "Teenage Love Affair."
"The Alicia Keys remix is with LL Cool J," he explained. "I used the Slick Rick 'Teenage Love' on it. Then I had your man LL do the old-school 'When I'm alone in my room, sometimes I stare at the wall.' ... He used that flow. I got a couple of joints on the new T.I. album. Couple of joints on the new Ludacris. Couple of joints with Young Jeezy. Just working, man."
One of the T.I. songs is called "Louie Rag." "All right, OK, I don't dance, no way," Swizz raps on the record. "I just take my Louie rag and wave it around in the air/ I take my Gucci rag and throw it around in the air."
When asked about Tip's description of the song as the new "Bring 'Em Out," Swizz said, "I wouldn't put it under that much pressure," with a grin. "I like it. It works."
Swizzy is also behind the new G-Unit record "Get Down" and is in the lab working on some brand-new Jay-Z songs. "I gave him the out-of-control Swizz," Beatz said of the tracks. "You'll see. Out of control! F--- — spazzin', out of control!"
Swizz's new album is called Life After the Party and should be out sometime in October. The lead cut is "Where the Cash At." He already finished a video and is working on a remix. Swizz's artist Cassidy is working on a new LP as well, and there's a strong chance he'll be leaving J Records for another recording home.
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