Swizz Beatz had a special surprise for his son on his 18th birthday – the news that he’s gotten accepted into NYU for college.
Kaseem Jr. turned 18 on Sunday (December 22), and in a video shared by his dad on Instagram, walked into a room of his family holding NYU gear and welcoming him to the esteemed university.
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“Welcome to NYU!” everyone exclaimed, a group that included Kaseem’s mother Mashonda and Swizz’s wife, Alicia Keys.
On another slide in the carousel post, Mashonda tells her son: “So NYU reached out a couple days ago and they said that they saw your progress and how you finished out this year and they want you to join them this year.”
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In his caption, Swizz added: “This is what we all do it for in real life [prayer emojis] Today we celebrate the 18th Bday of Kasseem JR. We also celebrated him going to NYU! The amazing part was he didn’t know he was accepted we saved the news for his Bday. Blessings to all the parents going hard for the future aka the Kids [prayer emojis]”
Swizz Beatz has had a longstanding relationship with NYU: in 2010 he was named as the first-ever Producer in Residence at The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
“Swizz Beatz’ amazing track record as an artist and producer, coupled with his commitment to education, makes him the ideal role model for our students,” Department of Recorded Music Chair, Jeffrey Rabhan, said at the time. “We consider it a great honor to have him involved with this unique program.”
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In other news, Swizz Beatz has hinted at Verzuz’ imminent return after striking a controversial deal with Elon Musk’s X over the summer.
Last month Swizz to his Instagram Story with a photo of what appears to be new merch for the beloved battle series he launched with Timbaland in the 2020 pandemic.
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Over the pic, he added: “2025 Loading.”
Timbaland and Swizz Beatz made their original announcement in a joint social media post in June.
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“We are beyond thrilled to have found the best partner for Verzuz,” the Ruff Ryders beatmaker said. “Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we’re excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world. I would like to thank Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Brett Weitz, Mitchell Smith and the entire X team for believing in the Verzuz vision. We can’t wait to get to work.”
Timbo added: “We are thrilled to partner with X, the most innovative platform globally. Our goal has always been to bring Verzuz to the world which we can now do bigger than ever.”
The duo also stated that they plan on building new “Entertainment Businesses” on the platform.
Many took to the comments to call the pair out for “selling out;” while others suggested they should have partnered with any other social media platform.
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“It’s cool to ‘show us’ but don’t play in our faces and act like folks don’t have a valid reason to question this partnership,” wrote one commenter.
To which Swizzy replied: “But nobody said anything before we been on that platform since Verzuz started.”
