Swizz Beatz has extended high praise for Lil Durk, who he has in his top 10 current greatest rappers list.
The super producer recently spoke with Billboard and revealed that the OTF honcho is the youngest artist to crack his top 10.
“I’d say [Lil] Durk. You know why? Because for me, it’s not just about bars. It’s about believing those bars. When we first started coming up with Ruff Ryders and The LOX, what they was rapping about, they was really doing. It was really about that. It wasn’t for views, it wasn’t for an app, it was to express their surroundings,” he explained.
“That’s what Durk does. When you hear him rap, you know that he’s actually been through what he’s talking about — some fortunate situations, some unfortunate situations, but it’s almost like an autobiography in real time. That’s what Pac did, that’s what X did, that’s what B.I.G. did.”
Swizz continued: “The people we call the best of all time — not comparing them to him, but they used their experiences. A lot of artists do it, but I particularly like the way Durk does it.”
The Ruff Ryders legend went on to detail how he has two lists when it comes to the greatest rappers, and the current one is always changing depending on the artist’s performance.
“It changes a lot, because I don’t base my top 10 off of too much old things. It’s an all-time [list], and it’s a current [list],” he said. “That current one changes all the time, depending on the performance of what they do.”
Lil Durk will look to strengthen his case as a top 10 rapper of the current generation with the release of his anticipated The Voice 2.0 album this year.
“This album ain’t regular,” he wrote on his Instagram Stories last month next to a photo of him performing on stage.
In other Swizz Beatz news, he’s teasing the return of Verzuz later in 2023. Jermaine Dupri has confirmed he and Diddy will battle each other this year at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“We going into this Verzuz, me and Puff, I’m the underdog; a dangerous underdog too. And I say danger because people don’t really know my records. We know all Puff’s songs, he don’t have no hidden records that I’m like, oh, I didn’t know he did. I got a bunch of records that he don’t even really be thinking about,” JD told the I Am Athlete podcast last month.
[via]
