(This is why contestants are only allowed to play a song up to the first chorus now.) Antics ate up most of the first hour, where Dream let loose a steady stream of solid tunes, and Garrett played songs at random, digging up Blueprint 3–era Jay-Z songs and premiering unreleased solo cuts. Garrett is best known to people who don’t read liner notes as the guest on Nicki Minaj’s “Massive Attack” but renowned to those in the know as the co-writer and/or co-producer of singles like Usher’s “Yeah!,” Ciara’s “Goodies,” and Yonce bangers like “Ring the Alarm.” That said, he showed up late mugging lasciviously at the camera and letting records rock too long. Dream - who has helped craft scores of hits, including Beyoncés “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body,” and made memorable songs of his own in “Falsetto” and “Rockin’ That Shit” - was cordial and timely in his Sunday night scrap. What’s the rundown? The outrageous showdown between Atlanta-based hitmakers The-Dream and Sean Garrett is the reason Verzuz now has ground rules. Is this thing cashed or is it just at a crossroads? While we wait to find out what happens next, let’s go over what we’ve seen so far, ranked from best to worst to absolutely doomed. The events look more and more like regular live concerts now, and we’ll soon be back to having those in person as well.
#NEYO DO YOU GENIUS SERIES#
More importantly, quarantine is ending for many of the American viewers for whom this series offered crucial weekend entertainment a year ago. And ditching Apple Music for the MMA-friendly TikTok competitor Triller - a company that has struggled to earn trust and licensing deals from record labels and a litigious entity that has sued streamers and fielded complaints about pay from titans in the boxing community it services - this March in the stated interest of securing equity for performers invites the question of whether Verzuz cuts these deals to better serve its viewing audience or itself. Over time, Verzuz addressed this problem by casting a wider net, inviting funk, soul, and R&B heavyweights to play, and giving women a seat at the table - though, still, curiously and egregiously, not featuring any women in rap.īut questionable bookings and problematic song selections are foregone conclusions now. That said, hits being repeated also highlighted a need for greater variety in the cast of contestants. You might hear the same song at three different battles: once from a producer, again from a co-producer, and then again from a songwriter who helped fine-tune melodies or flesh out lyrics. It’s also teaching fans how many heads it can take to make a hit record. In spite of these minor issues, Verzuz made drab weekends and weeknights feel fun again and has restored a spirit of friendly competition to the game.
If you’ve cultivated a relationship with an A-list artist, you’re almost guaranteed the win. You can score points with records mostly made by someone else. You can be a veteran who changed the game forever and get smoked in the court of public opinion because someone else’s music is fresher in everyone’s shared memory. You can be a legend with decades of hits and lose the crowd trailing too far away from radio.
There’s nothing wrong with a slugfest, but it’s draining hearing people trash timeless classics. Playing a deep cut almost categorically loses you the point, even if it’s one of the greatest songs of all time. Regional bias and generational schisms creep up. The audience is mostly in charge of the scoring, and there’s rarely a consensus on points. Verzuz is fun, simple, and wide open - maybe a little too wide open.
As it stands, each battle goes 20 rounds, with each contestant playing a hit and hearing a rebuttal.
#NEYO DO YOU GENIUS TRIAL#
The rules came together on the fly through trial and error. The premise is simple: Two prominent producers (or singers or songwriters) pair up live on Instagram and compete to decide who has the better catalog. Verzuz reimagines the DJ battles of hip-hop’s early days for the “one gotta go” set.
Throughout quarantine, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s Verzuz battle serie s grew from a novel event bridging hip-hop’s past and present into uplifting excitement in our indoor spring and summer, joining DJ sessions by D-Nice, Questlove, and others (as well as Tory Lanez’s unpredictable, short-lived Quarantine Radio series) as the must-see remote-but-live viewing for rap and R&B fans while live shows and festivals were sidelined by COVID-19. The show’s overlords, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, at their rematch.
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