During Swizz Beatz and Timbaland‘s of Verzuz rematch over the weekend, Swizz was ready to settle some business with Justin Timberlake.
Sunday’s rematch not only celebrated both megawatt producers’ catalogs, but also the last year of Verzuz battles they spawned at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. But when Timbo started pulling songs from JT’s discography, Swizz was ready to hit pause.
“Until you can get Justin Timberlake on Verzuz, I don’t really wanna hear those vocals,” he said with a laugh after his competitor played Jay-Z’s 2013 Grammy-winning song “Holy Grail,” which Timberlake is featured on.
Timbo previously teased a Verzuz battle between Timberlake and Usher on ESPN’s Jalen & Jacoby earlier this year, which Drake pitched as his dream battle via Instagram DM. “Drake hit me up about it too. He said, ‘We gotta make that happen, we gotta make that happen,'” he recalled of their conversation. “Soon to come, soon to come.”
But Swizz was adamant about JT coming through sooner rather than later, considering his relationship with Black culture and how the former *NSYNC member’s career has long been influenced by the hip-hop, R&B and soul genres and aesthetics as well as benefited from a number of Black artists and producers, most notably Timbaland. After Timbo played “Cry Me a River” and “SexyBack” during the bonus round, both Verzuz competitors lightly sparred about whether the pop star would one day hit the stage. “Until Justin let the world know that he –” Swizz started before Timbaland cut him off to assure him, “Justin gotta come out, he’s coming out.”
“He gotta admit that he love the Black culture and he gotta be on this stage,” Swizz continued before formally inviting him to participate in the long-awaited Verzuz battle. “You took from the Black culture, you give to the Black culture! Come to Verzuz and be a part of the Black culture!”
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