Hip hop connoisseur and super-producer Swizz Beatz has carefully crafted many of hip hop’s best beats over the years. From Busta Rhymes’ rap anthem ‘Touch It’ to Beyoncé’s R’n’B smash ‘Upgrade U’ featuring Jay-Z, the New York producer has undoubtedly created hits. However, wouldn’t it be interesting to know what kind of music the beatmaker listened to as a child? Well, in an interview with the magazine NME, he revealed the first song he fell in love with.
Speaking about the music he listened to growing up, he disclosed that the first album he bought was Livin’ Proof by the hip hop duo Group Home. Talking about his DJ days, Swizz explained, “Because I was a DJ, I wasn’t really buying a lot of albums early on. I was buying 12-inch singles more than anything else. But I do remember getting this album because DJ Premier used to do these little loops in between the segments, and that’s the reason I wanted it, so I could snatch those loops up and create instrumentals for the beginning of my mixtapes. That was my early strategy.”
Reminiscing about his youth, Swizz spoke to NME about the first live show he ever saw as well, which was a Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Daz and Lady Of Rage show in New York. Fondly remembering the event, the producer (real name Kasseem Dean) divulged, “I think it might have been Snoop’s first ever show in New York. I was there with DMX, who was performing too – and me and Snoop joke about that show a lot because I snuck in his dressing room and stole some weed out of his pocket. I don’t even smoke weed, but I was like, ‘yo! I got Snoop’s weed’, and I bagged it. It was in an envelope for years. I have no idea where it is now.”
However, with all this information, there was still one crucial piece missing, so when finally asked, the hit-maker told the interviewer that the first song he fell in love with was ‘Ego Trippin’ by the Ultramagnetic MCs. Emphasising just how much he loved the track, Dean revealed, “This was actually the first cassette I ever got. I got it in this boom box for my birthday and I used to play it until the batteries died. Then I’d get more batteries and keep playing it again until those batteries died. Man, what an incredible record.”
So the first song Swizz Beatz fell in love with is ‘Ego Trippin’, and you can fall in love with it below.
