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‘Verzuz’ will return after Swizz Beatz, Timbaland lock in new distribution partnership with X

Copyright Source: Yueke Wed, Jun 26, 2024

PHOTO: Yueke


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Swizz Beatz and Timbaland are bringing the “Verzuz” series back with a new major platform for viewers to watch musicians face off in a song-against-song battle.
The legendary producers announced Wednesday that Verzuz cemented an exclusive partnership for independent distribution with the social media site X.
Swizz Beatz said he’s looking forward to the new chapter for Verzuz, which became popular during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world,” he said in a statement before he thanked several X executives, including owner Elon Musk, for believing in their vision. “We can’t wait to get back to work.”
Both companies agreed on a “mutually beneficial alliance” where Swizz Beatz and Timbaland maintain full ownership and creative control, while X receives exclusive distribution rights.
Timbaland said he’s thrilled to expand their viewership through X, which has more than 300 million monthly active users. Viewers will be able to watch “Verzuz” for free.
“Our goal has always been to bring Verzuz to the world, which we can now do bigger than ever,” he said.
“Verzuz” came to life in 2020 after a friendly competition between Swizz Beatz and Timbaland on social media started off to entertain homebound fans during the pandemic. But their platform eventually evolved into a place where some of music’s biggest stars competed against each other in the same fashion.
The series had grown from a novel event to bridging music’s past and present. It began on Instagram Live and evolved to having in-person battles in front of an audience.
Some of the most epic battles have included John Legend vs. Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott, Gladys Knight vs. Patti LaBelle, Gucci Mane vs. Jeezy, Brandy vs. Monica, and Snoop Dogg vs. DMX. An April battle between Babyface and Teddy Riley was postponed due to audio issues but was completed another night.
The series was acquired by Triller in 2021, but Swizz Beatz and Timbaland sued the social video platform company for breach of contract. The producers settled with Triller in 2022.
“Our platform stands at the forefront of innovation, and Verzuz defines the essence of an innovative content experience,” said X CEO Linda Yaccarino. “As we continue to work with the most exciting voices to bring premium content to X, there is no better fit than this series.”

NEXT: Japan’s ‘beat poet’ Kazuko Shiraishi, pioneer of modern performance poetry, dies at 93
Japan’s ‘beat poet’ Kazuko Shiraishi, pioneer of modern performance poetry, dies at 93 TOKYO (AP) — Kazuko Shiraishi, a leading name in modern Japanese “beat” poetry, known for her dramatic readings, often accompanied by jazz music, has died. She was 93. Shiraishi, whom American poet and translator Kenneth Rexroth dubbed “the Allen Ginsberg of Japan,” died of heart failure on June 14, Shichosha, a Tokyo publisher of her works, said Wednesday. Shiraishi shot to fame when she was just 20, freshly graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo, with her “Tamago no Furu Machi,” translated as “The Town that Rains Eggs” — a surrealist portrayal of Japan’s wartime destruction. With her trademark long black hair and theatrical delivery, she defied historical stereotypes of the silent, non-assertive Japanese woman. “I have never been anything like pink,” Shiraishi wrote in her poem. It ends: “The road / where the child became a girl / and finally heads for dawn / is broken.” Shiraishi counted Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and John Coltrane among her influences. She was a pioneer in performance poetry, featured at poetry festivals around the world. She read her works with jazz musicians like Sam Rivers and Buster Williams, and even composed a free-verse homage to the spirit of Coltrane. Born in Vancouver, Canada, she moved back to Japan as a child. While a teen, she joined an avant-garde poetry group. Shiraishi’s personality and poems, which were sometimes bizarre or erotic, defied Japan’s historical rule-bound forms of literature like haiku and tanka, instead taking a modern, unexplored path. Rexroth was instrumental in getting Shiraishi’s works translated into English, including collections such as “My Floating Mother, City” in 2009 and “Seasons of Sacred Lust” in 1978. Over the years, her work has been widely translated into dozens of languages. She was also a translator of literature, including works by Ginsberg. In 1973, Paul Engle invited her to spend a year as a guest writer at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, an experience that broadened her artistic scope and helped her gain her poetic voice. “In the poems of Kazuko Shiraishi, East and West connect and unite fortuitously,” wrote German writer Gunter Kunert. “It refutes Kipling’s dictum that East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. In Kazuko Shiraishi’s poems this meeting has already happened.” A private funeral among family has been held while a memorial service is being planned. She is survived by her husband Nobuhiko Hishinuma and a daughter. ___ Yuri Kageyama is on X: @yurikageyama

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