Artists Swizz Beats Should Collaborate With

Who knew that when the multi-talented Swizz Beats launched his contest "Share the Studio" in 2006, following the release of his debut album, that he’d someday be sharing a studio with the most successful Britart representative of the ‘90s, Damien Hirst? That’s exactly what he revealed—somewhat ineptly by his own account—on his Instagram last week. The pair was in the process of creating one of Hirst’s spin paintings. When we interviewed him on teaming up with Hirst, Swizz said he was happy just to be learning. Not to diminish Hirst’s surely vast knowledge on throwing paint on rotating canvas, but we thought you could learn how to do spinart at the county fair? Whatever. Whether or not this storied alliance goes boom and bust, we decided Swizz’s collaborations with artists should not end in London. Here are 10 more Artists Swizz Beats Should Work With.

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RELATED: Interview: Swizz Beatz Talks Damien Hirst Collaboration and Plans to Open an Art Gallery

Artists Swizz Beats Should Collaborate With

Medium: Installation

Both these dudes have huge philanthropic streaks. In 2011, Swizz was named Chair of the Bronx Charter School for the Arts. He even appeared alongside the Dali Lama once to discuss "healing through art and philanthropy work." Gates, one of the art world's rising stars, has redirected his creativities into urban planning to reinvigorate communities. And get this—Swizz has produced songs for Beyonce; this last winter at Art Basel, she was caught Instagramming in front of a Theaster Gates piece. Sometimes, you just can't make these things up—it's the way things are or were meant to be.

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Mediums: Conceptual Art, Installation

Swizz's early work is marked by not sampling anything whatsoever. By comparison, many of Fischer's works are so stirring that they are singular only to themselves. I don't know if it's fair to compare "Ruff Ryder's Anthem" with "Untitled (Bear Lamp)," but let's be honest—these dudes have undeniably unique visions. The fact that they are two of the highest paid artists in their fields of art and music draws them closer together. Related: "Ruff Ryder's Anthem" is basically the same as "Untitled (Bear Lamp)."

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Mediums: Conceptual Art, Internet Art, Performance

If Swizz is going to use Instagram to document his art-making, we think he should learn to use the Internet as an artform itself. No one has accomplished this quite like Ryder Ripps, whose practices of virality, transparency, and idea generation often take place in or around the Internet. Swizz is no stranger to the digital himself, consistently oversharing on his Instagram, not to mention his Monster Monday web singles series. And hell, Ripps has ties to the hip-hop community as well—he's purportedly the new model for Sean John (purportedly by his Twitter feed, so we can't be 100% sure). Can you imagine Ryder, Swizz, and Diddy at the club? All Internet all the time (and also Ciroc and Red Bull).

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Mediums: Photography

Swizz is purportedly a photographer, but his photography has yet to come into the public consciousness. That's why we think he should work with Nan Goldin. Her work in New York in the '70s and '80s—just about the same time and place Swizz was growing up—is about as gritty as it gets. So when Swizz told us he was happy to be around new, smart people to learn from, we decided that Nan Goldin would be the best to show him how to flick. And hell, she's said to have glamourized drug use in a way that maybe only hip-hop can match.

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Mediums: Performance, Visual Art, Installation, Music

"Nah, man. Art is everything," Swizz told us in his recent interview regarding the Hirst collaboration. Who embodies that philosophy more than Yoko Ono? Her work spans everything from visual art to performance and installation. That's not to mention her prolific work in music. It's almost too good to be true! They've got too much in common! (Is Yoko tight with DMX?) And as far as power couples go, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys are pretty high up there in the pop culture pantheon, somewhere near John Lennon and Yoko. Are there rumors that Swizz is holding Alicia back, like there were about Yoko to John? You decide.

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Mediums: Painting, Conceptual Art

Swizz won a Grammy for his production on the Jay-Z-helmed "On To The Next One." In that song, he sampled Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." so deftly it became something new and nearly unrecognizable (it just so happens that in the video for "On To The Next One" there was an homage to Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God"). Sampling is definitely in Swizz's wheelhouse, as it is in Baldessari's. He's been incorporating and appropriating images in his artwork since the 1960s—we can call that sampling, right? The only other artist, and musician no less, who's borrowed imagery as much is Bob Dylan.

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Mediums: Visual Art, Sculpture

Nothing says POP like Jeff Koons' beautifully smug face...or Swizz Beats' production credits. And look, they've both dedicated art pieces to Michael Jackson! We think in this case, though, Swizz needs to direct his influence onto old moneybags Koons. Swizz has consistently donated any proceeds he's made from his visual art to charity.

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Mediums: Conceptual Art, Installation

If it's the oddity of some of Hirst's work that attracted Swizz to him in the first place, then Swizz should really take a look at what Darren Bader is up to. Frankly, shooting heroin into a piece of lasagna—as Bader did in his 2012 show "More Buildings about Songs and Food"—somehow seems edgier than preserving a shark in formaldehyde. But to be frank, that's about the sanest thing Bader's got going for his conceptual work. His piece Sandwiches has baguettes nailed to the sides of a foosball table that's filled with cooked prawns. That's the kind of outside thinking that will take Swizz into a new realm of creativity.

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Mediums: Visual Art, Design

For god's sake, one of Swizz's first singles was "Money in the Bank." Do we really need to spell this out for you? Both these dudes have taken basically every opportunity they can to merchandise themselves—Swizz for Hennessy, Murakami for Louis Vuitton, as two examples. Between Murakami's flashy little creatures and Swizz's Monster Mondays, the two could band together to create some seriously badass, and probably branded, beasties. This goes without saying that Murakami designed the cover of the album Graduation by Kanye West, who called Swizz Beatz the greatest producer of "all time."

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Mediums: Painting, Film

When Jeffrey Deitch, one of the most successful art dealers of this generation, compared Swizz Beatz to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Swizz was vocally humbled. And with good reason—Basquiat was one of the most heralded painters of the last century. We already know from some of Swizz's canvases that he was a fan of Basquiat; he's painted at least one portrait of young Jean-Michel. The only other person we can think of that's capitalized on proximity to Basquiat even remotely is Julian Schnabel. Actually, in Schnabel's case, it's a little more than remote.

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