One of the few upsides related to the COVID-19 pandemic was the introduction of Swizz Beatz and Timbaland's Verzuz series which has since become appointment viewing on Instagram. With countless legendary battles already in the can — and Jeezy and Gucci Mane set to kick off season 2 tonight — GQ recently unveiled an oral history of season 1.
Here are the three takeaways you need to know about. Head here to read the piece in its entirety.
The Scott Storch & Mannie Fresh battle happened last minute
Scott Storch was originally set to go up against T-Pain. They replaced him with Mannie Fresh. Swizz Beatz says the platform owes both producers a rematch with artists with a better cultural fit.
The Baby Face & Teddy Riley technical glitches had a major consquence
According to the piece, Dr. Dre was going to participate until he saw how much trouble the platform was having on a technical level.
Everyone had a different strategy
Artists were willing to go out on their shields based on the songs they liked best, not necessarily what they thought would be most recognizable. For Jadakiss, that meant playing a lot of street records. For Hit-Boy, he came out slow and calculated like Floyd Mayweather. And for Storch, he simply picked the records he liked most.