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When Swizz Beatz gets on a roll, he's hard to stop. There's a decent-sized crowd around him in a luxury suite upstairs at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks are stomping the hell out of the Blazers to the delight of the sellout crowd, and Swizzy is just plowing through.
“This is the start of the major announcements that we have lined up for this year — you can’t let everything out the bag at one time. You gotta create a climax to where people are paying attention. Because people wanna follow what’s hot, you understand? So we’re gonna start there, then we’re get into bringin’ back the Shaqs, we bringin’ back the Iversons, we bringin’ back the [Dee] Browns — all that stuff that everybody wanna wear."
Reebok is already back, but this is the re-introduction. Over in the suite next door is Rick Ross — Reebok's newest endorser/partner — along with his sizable entourage (as in, large group and even larger people), waiting for his intro. But Swizz isn't done quite yet.
"What brand you know that’s gonna take an artist, pay for his video, when labels and all that stuff is not even supporting stuff like that, we givin’ people real videos. Let’s go! The other brands ain’t gonna do that. They gonna let you stick to their one-agenda script and follow what they been followin’ until you follow ‘em right off the fuckin’ cliff. You know what I’m sayin’? I’m really excited about what we’re being allowed to do as a culture in music and art, and Reebok has been an amazing brand for me to partner with.
"Reebok is my label!" —Swizz Beatz
"You take an artist like Tyga, Mike Posner, Ross, and a couple other people, and we gonna make them have the best time they ever had in they life. They’re not even gonna think about their label — they’re gonna forget they have a label. You know what I’m sayin’? I forgot I had — I ain’t even with no label, it’s over for me with that. Travel around the world with a global brand, you can promote your music, you get to promote art, you get to promote the footwear, you get to really be a part of something. I remember when the labels used to be like that — they not even… Reebok is my label!"
In the meantime, the Knicks have run out to a 20-something point lead, and it's time to bring out Rozay — and Mike Posner — and let them get a word in edgewise.
Click through for more from Swizz and Rick Ross.
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What got the whole Reebok thing started for you? Was it ‘Reebok Back’?
Most definitely ‘Reebok Back’ opened the doors. But you know me, me of course being a fan of Reebok from my childhood, but me being the executive and a boss in the business right now, this was the only iconic sneaker that I saw really reaching back out to the culture of hip-hop. Me being in the position I am now it’s not even about a dollar, it’s about the whole movement, and Reebok was the only ones I really saw opening that door. And that’s a great example, ‘Reebok Back,’ that was a great opportunity for a new artist, which was Meek Mill, and for Swizz to be able to help those pieces come together, come together so smoothly, I think it’s not only gonna help my movement, Swizz’s movement, Mike Posner’s movement, but the entire culture of hip-hop at the end of the day.
What’s your big memory of Reebok as a kid?
The Dee Brown no-look dunk! You know what I’m sayin’? The Dominiques, the Shaq Attaqs. We was right in Orlando when those dropped, and I was a young kid at the time, and those were the hardest sneakers on the block. The whole Reebok Pumps was genius! When you go back to that timeframe, you know what I’m sayin’? So just to be a part of this iconic sneaker brand now, and actually watchin’ the way it’s movin’ along with my passion that I love that is music, I just had to join the movement, I had to join the team.
What do you think about starting with the Classics before moving on to some new styles?
I think that was dope for me. Me comin’ from the South, the Reebok Classic, that was the biggest sneaker. Me thinkin’ back to before I got on in music, every day when we was eatin’ the three-dollar buffets, me and the homies patchin’ up, our uniform in the South was a $5 white t-shirt and the Soldier Reeboks. If you had on the $5 white t-shirt and the Reeboks, you was winnin’. So for me to go from there to here I am today and be able to be in a partnership with this brand, and it’s all basically at the end of the day molded around hip-hop culture, I couldn’t really ask for nothin’ else.
Do you think the next generation will identify with it as well?
Most definitely! Most definitely. To me it’s just like makin’ music at the end of the day. It’s just like startin’ with a mixtape and goin’ to an album. No one believes you’re gonna go platinum until you’re double platinum. You know what I’m sayin’? And I think that’s what makes it classic — startin’ from nothin’ and workin’ your way up to bein’ the best and considered number 1.
"Our uniform in the South was a $5 white t-shirt and the Soldier Reeboks." —Rozay
POSNER: I’ll go ahead and jump in there because I’m in the new generation and I already connected with it. So I think there’s a lot of dimension to the three guys sittin’ here. I’m sittin’ next to two dudes right now that have already made classic music and are already classic artists even though they’re still relevant and continue to do so and I’m a guy that’s wakin’ up tryin’ to do that every day. But I can answer yes to that question.
A few years ago Reebok had Jay Z and G-Unit on board, can we expect something like a Maybach Music sneaker or a Swizz Beatz signature sneaker?
SWIZZ: We not tryin to follow things that have already been done, we tryin’ to do things in a newer, fresher way. As far as the collaborations, that’s on Ross and his creativity, he got some tricks up his sleeves, but it definitely won’t be something you’ve seen before.
ROSS: To be honest, to add on that, I think that’s what really made this situation special, knowing we can have the freedom to create whatever it is we want to create. I think that’s what really made this perfect for bawses.
Is there gonna be competition…
ROSS: Of course it’s competition! Of course it’s competition! You know it’s Swizz Beatz, you know what I’m sayin’? If you follow him on Twitter or watch his Instagrams, he’s in Paris! So I think that’s the beauty about hip-hop music, man, it’s limitless what can come from this. I think that’s what dreamin’ is all about. Hip-hop music is all about dreamin’ and watching those things come to fruition. And that’s what we doin’ now — we actually at the Knicks game, Linsanity, Melo hittin’ a few threes, and we doin’ press about dope Reeboks. So it’s real cool.
How you gonna get Wale off Foams?
SWIZZ: We already got that planned.
ROSS: Ah yeah, yeah.
SWIZZ: We had a conversation with him last night.
ROSS: We got some tricks up our sleeve.
