Behind the boards, Swizz Beatz (a.k.a. Kasseem Dean) is a certified hitmaker. From working with Jay-Z and Beyonce to Kanye and Drake, Swizzy’s production resume parallels to Hip-Hop and R&B royalty. Yeezy even went on to call the hitmaker the best Hip-Hop producer of all time.
In 2007, Kasseem Dean released his first studio album, One Man Band Man. The album produced two popular singles, “It’s Me B*****s” and “Money In the Bank.” Both songs peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 charts at number 83 and 84 respectively. After over a decade, he is back to release his second full-length album. Dean recently sat down with Pitchfork to discuss his upcoming album entitled, Poison.
“Everything is poison,” said Swizz as he explained the album title. “You look at the times we live in, you look at everything, and in order to get past that, you have to address that. You can’t just skip over it.”
He apparently recorded a total of 70 songs, but ultimately chopped it down to 10. The other 60 will not go unused but will be in place for follow up albums.
“All different concepts, all different messages, all different sounds, he said. “I’m trying to put this out and then before you know it, you’re seeing the intro to something else.”
Poison will be one of the many albums we will bump in our whips this summer. The album will feature Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Pusha T, Nas, Young Thug, The Lox, 2 Chainz and more. As you can see, Swizzy has called on hitmakers of both the past and present, to make the One Man Band Man follow up a summer banger.
One song that didn’t make the album’s cut featured Kanye West and U2’s Bono, but may end up on a follow-up album. We’ll have to wait and see if the song receives an official release.
Although it will not be on Poison, listen to Swizz Beatz’ latest release, “It’s Okayyy.”
